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Telecom Services V&D 100

Top 10: 8 - TTSL: Making Waves

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Voice&Data Bureau
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With restructuring across the board, Tata Teleservices (TTSL)
saw substantial growth across the domain. Not only that its subscriber base
crossed the 10 mn mark last year, revenues reached a new high. The company
generated revenue of Rs 2,575 crore this year as against Rs 1,347 crore in FY
2004-05, a growth of 91%.

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There was a major change of guard at TTSL last year. Soon
after Firdose Vandrewala stepped down as chairman of TTSL, Ratan Tata took over
to give a fillip to the telecom business, and Darryl Green was appointed the CEO
of the company.

TTSL


Area of operation: Fixed
and Cellular Services, Data Services

Address: Tata Teleservices Limited, Rational House, Appa Saheb
Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai-400018

Phone: +91-22-56671414

Fax: +91-22-56605335

Website: www.tataindicom.com  

Recently, TTSL offloaded a 7% stake to the Chennai-based
entrepreneur C Sivasankaran. This deal came on the heels of TTSL's 9.9% stake
sale to Singapore's Temasek Holdings. In all, TTSL offloaded around 17% of its
equity for Rs 2,650-2,800 crore in these two transactions. The company will use
this money to expand its network across the country.

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TTSL has 3.5 mn (3,053,429) fixed wireline and fixed
wireless phone subscribers, while mobile subscribers stand at 4.15 mn
(4,158,971).

TTSL invested Rs 15,000 crore in various telecom
initiatives last year and would invest around Rs 4,000 crore in FY 2006-07.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Ratan Tata took over as chairman of
    TTSL and Darryl Green as CEO
  • Marked entry into prepaid segment
  • Launched operations in 12 new circles
  • Sold stake to Temasek and Sivasankaran

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The company launched operations in 12 new circles last year
and became a pan India operator by offering telecom services in 20 circles.
Besides, it also launched services in semi-urban areas, rural and major highways
across India. Under the USO agreement, the company rolled out fixed wireless
terminals (FWTs) in rural areas, thus becoming the first private operator in the
country to install residential lines (FWTs) in villages with population of less
than 5,000. The company offers telecom services in more than 2,500 towns and
would cover an additional 1,500 towns by the end of this year.

Last year, TTSL marked its entry into the prepaid segment
by launching Tata Indicom True Paid, across all its existing 20 circles. It
launched the pre-paid services with Non Stop Mobile (NSM) feature wherein
incoming calls are free for two years. It received a huge response and the
company added over one million subscribers in a record period of 45 days.

TTSL got international recognition when its 'Walky'
received the 'Best Service in Emerging Markets Award' at the World
Communication Awards in London.  This
year, the company will target entry-level users mainly in non-metros, and
penetration in semi—urban and rural areas.

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'It's our endeavor to provide connection to rural
India'

TTSL now has a pan India presence but still lags
behind other operators...your comments?

In December 2003, immediately after the announcement
of UASL, Tata Teleservices started implementing the telecom blueprint as
the company was looking for the most opportune time for its
implementation. Within few days, we migrated to UASL in our existing
circles and applied for licenses in 12 new circles. We have been
successful in achieving a pan India presence within the time frame, we
envisaged earlier.

CEO

Darryl Green

The Tata Group's commitment towards the entire
telecom value chain is in itself a great strength. This, coupled with the
brand name, generates a tremendous amount of trust and confidence in the
minds of consumers. Even though we entered a little late, we are reaping
the benefits of lower capex per subscriber, which indeed is a great
strategic advantage.

As telecom industry is booming, we do expect that the
year 2006-07 will be a fruitful year for TTSL. The potential of
application driven value added services would be an opportunity to add
significant revenues. It will also be a key differentiator for the brand
in the coming year.

After outsourcing your IT infrastructure to TCS, what
are your plans for managed services on network side?

The partnership with TCS will provide a comprehensive
IT roadmap for TTSL. With a state-of-the-art infrastructure to support
existing and new business initiatives TTSL would deliver a high quality
service. The scope of the engagement includes management of all IT related
activities including implementation, application development, maintenance,
and change management across the enterprise. In addition, management of
data centers, information security management, training end-users on new
applications, disaster recovery, and business continuity will also be the
responsibility of TCS.

What has TTSL done in the service delivery area?

Tata Indicom's telecom services are available at
exclusive 2,700 True Value outlets and several retail selling points that
are set up all across the country. This is the largest retail network in
India.

What network expansion did you do last year?

We started rolling out our services in 12 new
circles. This made us a pan India operator. We did this by offering
telecom services in 20 circles, besides launching those in 2,500 towns
covering semi-urban, rural and major highways across India. We would be
covering additional 1,500 towns this year.

What initiatives have you taken in rural areas?

To increase rural penetration, TTSL has rolled out
Fixed Wireless Terminals (FWT), in such areas. In this fiscal, Tata
Teleservices will invest about Rs 1,000 crore for its rural thrust that
will include setting up of specialized 3,000 base stations in difficult
terrains in rural parts of the country. The company believes that a large
part of the country still does not have network coverage. It is our
endeavor to provide connection to remote parts of the country.

The company has chalked out aggressive plans to cater to
the customer needs, which involve increase in capacities, introducing cutting
edge technologies and a host of value added services.

In this fiscal, Tata Teleservices will invest about Rs
1,000 crore for setting up of specialized 3,000 base stations in difficult
terrains in rural parts of the country. TTSL has doubled its target for the
current fiscal. The focus will be on the entry—level customers in the
semi-urban and rural areas. The company has already given orders to ZTE to
deploy CDMA 2000 solutions across the country.

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