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"We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts."-John Dewy, US educator, pragmatist philosopher, and psychologist (1859–1952)

The possession of information is often considered a critical part of corporate competitiveness. But few realize that information itself is not so valuable. What is valuable is the tools to aggregate the information, manipulate it, synthesize it, so that it helps in decision making. At VOICE&DATA, we have been doing exactly that. We have been instrumental in collecting information, analyzing it and packaging it in a ready-to-use format for the industry.

Actually we have been doing a little more than that. We have provided a platform for the industry to voice its opinions and concerns. Often, we have proactively organized discussion forums which has been instrumental in developing an agenda on many issues.

VOICE&DATA was launched a month after the New Telecom Policy (NTP) was announced in 1994. The timing couldn't have been better. The telecom sector was getting liberalized and there was a lot of excitement in the industry. New players were entering the scene and foreign companies were setting up office in India. A nascent industry growing rapidly required organized information, unfortunately there was none. VOICE&DATA was launched to fill this information gap. The name was crucial to our positioning. While it was intended to represent the convergence of voice and data networks, it also had another interpretation. It was intended to become the voice of the industry and the magazine took on the responsibility to provide data for the industry's consumption.

The annual survey of VOICE&DATA has become legendary. It was the first comprehensive survey of the industry and still continues to be so. The editorial in the first issue in October 1995, speaks of the skepticism of people when the survey was planned.

The demands of the survey was huge. The industry was growing very fast, but it was also quite a fragmented industry. The survey had to be inclusive, it had to be sized and different segments analysed, in short a daunting task. But the team swam uncharted waters and emerged victorious. At the V&D100 2004 award function Dr Shakeel Ahmad, minister of state for communications said, "The annual issues of VOICE&DATA that track the annual achievements of the telecom industry, are a great effort. It looks even more appreciable because there is no other single source of information for this industry's growth and achievements. I urge my friends at VOICE&DATA, to bring success stories to light and share the learning with all so that we do not repeat the same mistakes in trying to re-invent the wheel."

“Datacraft has been associated with VOICE&DATA since 1995. I find VOICE&DATA to be an absolute authority on the Indian telecom market. They have played a significant role in shaping its future. Heartiest congratulations to the Voice&Data team” Nagendra Venkaswamy president, India and  Sub-continent, Datacraft VOICE&DATA has been instrumental in giving the requisite awareness and supporting hand to the telecom and IT sector in india. TEMA is especially thankful to VOICE&DATA for being our partners for development of telecom manufacturing”  NK Goyal, president, TEMA “One thing that separates VOICE&DATA from other telecom magazines is the quality of articles, which are well researched. The publication is also very upright in bringing out issues, which gives us valuable insights on serving our customers better” Sudipta Sen, MD, Comsat Max “I have been a voracious reader of VOICE&DATA over the last 10 years, and am always looking out for the latest issue” Manoj Chugh, president, EMC India & SAARC Region

Despite the sheer volume of the work, the survey was completed and the results have come to be treasured as the most comprehensive account of the Indian communications industry, a true collector's copy. In fact, the responses amount to just that. "I have just read the special number of V&D 100 and wish to compliment you on a wonderful compilation. This is most certainly a collector's issue!" said a mail from Bala K Chandran, then a GM, marketing and sales at Krone Communications and currently the CEO of Krone.

It is to the industry's credit that it participated wholeheartedly in the survey making it a huge success. Although cellular or basic services came to be much analysed sectors later, the V&D 100 still continues to be the only complete account of all telecom service segments like VSAT and radio trunking. It is still the only detailed survey about the telecom equipment industry.

VOICE&DATA has consistently played by the side of the industry and have guided it through all its endeavors. Our V&D Goldbook is an attempt to help vendors address their buyers to make informed buying decisions. This annual issue has become an extremely popular initiative because it helped to bind the communications community of both buyers and sellers into a closer bond.

“It is a very informative magazine with rich content, lots of market research, and trends. It is the only telecom magazine that put industry issues in perspective” CS Rao, CEO and president, Lucent “I think VOICE&DATA is one of the most credible sources of information on the telecom and BPO industries today”  Anshuman Magazine, MD, CB Richard Ellis (South Asia) “The magazine has been able to bring the latest in technology and has helped build a forum on issues”  Anil Nayyar, director-corporate, chairman's office, Bharti, Tele-Ventures “VOICE&DATA is a pioneer in providing indepth coverage on a wide spectrum of topics in telecom and the networking industry. V&D100 has gained acceptance as a benchmark of market performance” Sanjeev Nikore, COO, HCL Comnet VOICE&DATA has carved a niche for itself in the Indian telecommunication and networking space. I congratulate CyberMedia for the sustained effort and for being a part of the telecom revolution” Rakesh Bharti Mittal, MD, Bharti Teletech

Editorially, the magazine has been ahead of times. As early as June 1999, we talked of the huge opportunity that call centers could offer India. The story spoke about the huge advantage India has in terms of manpower. Those were the days when GE was the first to set up its call centers followed by Deluxe.

There are two very significant contributions of the magazine that need to be highlighted. The birth of COAI has its genesis during the first leadership meeting of cellular service providers organized by VOICE&DATA in April 1996. During this panel discussion, members mooted the idea of forming an industry association.

Our special report on the discussion reported that "While there was no second opinion about the need to have a forum that will raise the issues concerning the industry, there was no consensus about its structure.... The two models suggested were a body representing the entire telecom industry as a member of a larger industry body like FICCI and an association of only cellular service providers. It must be mentioned here that an association of eight metro cellular operators does exist today....

Finally a formal recommendation was made to work towards forming an association."

And the rest as they say is history. We are all aware of the crucial role which COAI has played in shaping the face of the cellular industry in India.

The second significant issue raised by VOICE&DATA was the shortage of bandwidth in the country. While the government focus had been on tele-density, village telephony and quality of service, it did not focus on the availability of bandwidth. This was the most critical component in the realization of the $50 billion IT dream without which the dream would have fallen flat on its face. If India were to emerge as the services hub of the world, readily available bandwidth was a basic necessity.

In view of this criticality, VOICE&DATA undertook a number of initiatives to sensitize the government. The first initiative was to organize a panel discussion to look at the issue thoroughly and find the direction for the next step. That discussion proved to be historic in more ways than one. It was after this discussion that Nasscom was sensitized to the criticality of this commodity and Dewang Mehta coined "roti, kapda, makan and bandwidth" which caught the nation's imagination.

Experts for the first time acknowledged the need to address that issue collectively. The discussion concluded that the issue needed to be taken on a war footing by involving industry bodies like Nasscom and FICCI.

Today bandwidth is taken for granted and is not an issue at all for the industry, thanks to the initiative taken by the magazine as early as 2000. The availability of bandwidth has since then not only facilitated the growth of the industry, but was also instrumental in spawning the BPO industry.

Over the years the magazine has always espoused the cause of the industry. Various discussion forums have been organized under the banner Top View which has been instrumental in kick-starting healthy introspection in a number of issues. Discussions on mobile applications, spectrum management, on OSS/BSS have proved very beneficial to the industry.

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal