We carry over 40 bn minutes of global wholesale traffic

Where do you stand in terms of global data services?

Our global data business has grown over $1 bn in revenues and more than 50% of these revenues come from geographies outside India. More than 20% of it comes from managed infrastructure services and the rest, from network services.

The company is betting a lot on cloud computing, how do you plan to leverage it?

Tata Communications has a strong play in cloud computing as it is backed by a global transmission network and a tier-1 IP backbone. We have signed an agreement with Google to offer Google Apps under InstaOffice brand. Tata Communications also offers other cloud services such as InstaCC, InstaCRM, and InstaECM. We have targeted revenue of more than $200 mn from cloud services over the next 2 to 3 years.

What are the key strengths which make Tata Communications the world's largest wholesale international voice carrier?

We carry over 40 bn minutes of global wholesale traffic annually and enjoy 16% global market share. The diversity of the geographies catered to by Tata Communications also gives us a cushion against fluctuating market demand. In FY11 for instance, about 85% of our revenues came from our international voice business while only 15% came from India. We have recently signed an agreement with Videotron of Canada for a long-term voice sourcing deal.

What is the capex investment planned for FY12?

We have invested around $298 mn in capex in FY11 and plans to invest between $400-450 mn in FY12. In the last few years we have been investing in strategic infrastructure such as submarine cables and data centers, expanding our IP, MPLS, and Ethernet networks as well as investing in new services such as managed and cloud services. This year, we will continue to build on our strong presence in India through investments in MAN and local access fiber connectivity.

How have you performed in Saarc and South Africa?

We have had a presence in Sri Lanka for the past 7 years and have inaugurated our second international gateway there. We continue to focus on growth in South Africa and are also looking to become EBIT positive in the next 4 to 8 quarters.

How will you reduce costs to make the company profitable in FY12?

We will look to drive down network costs-where our growing scale is likely to contribute to making this possible, and focus on productivity gains from our business.