NEWS & VIEWS: "Our plan is to go global and be more competitive"

Vinod Kumar, executive director, VSNL International, is responsible for
expanding VSNL's operations in markets outside India. In an interview with
VOICE&DATA, he talked about VSNL's international operations.

What is the objective behind VSNL forming a separate international
company?

The idea was to move VSNL from being an India-centric player to a global
player and offer services that do not necessarily touch India. It could be
between the US and the UK or between Japan and the US.

The first objective behind forming VSNL international was to be there in the
market, close to the customers and be responsive. The second objective was to
deliver services through end-to-end networks. Under the international mandate,
we are building out end-to-end fully owned network so that we can guarantee the
service quality. We are going out to the MNCs outside India and those who
operate in India.

Vinod Kumar

Our plan is to go global and be more competitive. In this context, the Tata
Indicom cable is a crucial link between India and Singapore. We also have
capacity from Asia Netcom between Singapore and Japan and we have capacities on
other systems between Japan and the US.

Which countries is VSNL international targeting?

VSNL international plans to expand its operations across US, Europe, and Asia.
We have setup our offices in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and
Dallas in the US. We also have a team in the UK and will soon have office in
Hong Kong. We have licenses in these countries, which allows us to own networks
and provide services. We are not building the last mile and we want to enter
into partnership with other operators in these countries. Plenty of fiber is
available and the quality of local loop is quite high. We may have network
presence in countries like France, Belgium, and Netherlands. The Tyco
acquisition makes us a truly global network as far as connectivity in and out of
India is concerned.

You talk about end-to-end, but last mile is still a big problem.

There is a massive effort both in terms of resource deployment and the
number of people who are working on this, both through VSNL and through Dishnet,
and building out the last mile. We are wiring up buildings where there is a
concentration of enterprise users. This will take some time. We have about 2,000
building wired. We are building metropolitan area network in 30 cities. We are
also in the process of building a broadband network for the home customers.

What areas you are looking at for generating revenues?

The four sources of VSNL's revenue would be voice, international data,
broadband, and domestic data.By our senior correspondent

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