Till about only a few years ago, Gurgaon was just a synonym for Maruti. It was just another of those many dusty little towns that, though touching the national capital, was a strict 'No-No' for real estate dealers and entrepreneurs. It was a classic case of so-near-yet-so-far from Delhi. The basic infrastructure was at best non-existent.

Then, something happened somewhere. All of a sudden many big names of the corporate world—Coke, Pepsi, Alcatel, Motorola, Siemens, GE, Hughes Software, TCI, Aksh Cables, etc.—rushed to grab land and established their offices there. Private builders, giants in their own world, planned sprawling residential and commercial complexes, especially along the National Highway 8 (NH8) that connects Delhi and Jaipur. The result: Gurgaon was put on a fast-track path as an emerging commercial hub. This sleepy little town has emerged as the
undisputed call centre capital of
the country. The futuristic corporate offices and the high-rise residential buildings are testimony to the changed perception.

The Lifeline

One of the most basic requirements for businesses to flourish in any area is the telecom infrastructure—not only in terms of availability, but also reliability. This is where Gurgaon Telecom assumes its role. It provides telecom services through two urban main exchanges (E10B & EWSD), four Remote Line Units (RLU) and nine Remote Switching Units (RSU) functioning at 10 locations. Its rural areas are served by 25 rural exchanges. The tele-density for the urban area is 18 percent and 5 percent for the rural areas, which is far above the national tele-density of 2.6.

One of the most significant indicators of the sound telecom infrastructure in the city is the ISDN connectivity. The DoT Gurgaon has an ISDN capacity of 424 as against the present demand of 379. And according to the sources in the DoT, 283 lines had been provided by 26 June 2000. Considering that there were only 73 ISDN lines on 31 March 1999, this is a commendable achievement by any standards. A close look at the statistics available reveals that the ISDN capacity with the DoT exceeds the present demand. It is also clear that the installed capacity has been growing rapidly, especially in the last couple of years. From a mere two in 1998, it went to 73 in 1999 and then shot up to 283 by June 2000.

By the end of June 2000, 120 leased-lines had been installed for various corporate houses in the city. While almost 50 percent of these are 64 Kbps capacity, some have even opted for 2 MB.

One of the strongest indications for what Gurgaon Telecom plans to achieve and where it is headed to comes from the annual IMRB survey which rates different exchanges on the basis of Quality of Telecom Services (QOTS) scores. Last year it was ranked 65 out of 75 exchanges. This year it had already improved its ranking to 32 by Round 15. According to Manoj Johri of IMRB, who is associated with the survey, "The MIS report prepared by the Gurgaon Telecom team is simply brilliant. I expect it to improve its pition significantly by the end of this year’s survey."

When complemented for this impressive performance, Shubendu Ghosh, general manager, Gurgaon Telecom, humbly passed on the credit to his team. "It has been made possible by the able guidance of NK Mangla, our CGM, and continuous support and efforts by the whole team who have been working seven days a week," he said.

Initiatives for the Corporate User

The whole credit of making Gurgaon what it is today goes to the large-scale migration of big corporate houses and MNCs to the city. ISDN and leased-lines apart, DoT Gurgaon has taken some innovative steps to provide efficient telecom services to the corporate sector.

One of the first initiatives has been to simplify registration, payment and other processes, and has set up a single window clearance system for the customers. "It is amazing that though you have customers eager to pay their bills, you have to turn them away because of lack of time," said an official at Gurgaon Telecom. The way out has been a tie-up with the Syndicate Bank for convenient payments of bills.

Another initiative has been to lessen dependence on Delhi for long distance calls. Till recently, all STD traffic had to pass through the Delhi route, which was invariably congested. An exhaustive survey was carried out to study the most traffic-intensive routes and seven such direct circuit routes were identified. These are the Gurgaon-Mumbai, Gurgaon-Pune, Gurgaon-Calcutta, Gurgaon-Hyderabad, Gurgaon-Agra, Gurgaon-Lucknow, and Gurgaon-Kanpur.

Perhaps the most innovative step taken by DoT Gurgaon is the Data Users Forum, which is an attempt to bring together corporate users and DoT officials. According to Manish Gupta, IT coordinator, British Airways, who is an active participant at the Forum’s periodic meets, "It is a pro-active initiative to sensitize the participants to the critical issue of data communication. And interestingly, the response of the DoT participants has been unbureaucratic." Indeed a step beyond the traditional mind-set to improve services.

But what could be the most momentous initiative, especially for the corporate user in Gurgaon, is the proposed OFC route along the NH8 and the old Delhi-Gurgaon road. (See picture for details) According to the DoT team in Gurgaon, this will serve as the blue print for further infrastructure development. That the corporate customer is paramount to the team is evident
from another fact. Over 80 high-speed data circuits for the industrial and corporate sectors were commissioned during 1990-00.

The Roadblocks

Gurgaon is definitely on the fast-track to corporate world. And though DoT Gurgaon is doing its bit to make it happen, there are certain hurdles to be crossed for keeping pace with the ever-growing expectations of the subscribers. It is not the number of leased-lines or ISDN lines per se that is important to the corporate user but their reliability. If a 2 MB line gives a performance of 64 Kbps it is not worth it, is it? And that is the general perception among the corporate customers here. In fact, many have even started considering alternatives like VSAT and microwave connectivity, though the latter is a doubtful starter because of "line of sight" problem. Exorbitant though these options might be the reliability that they offer more than compensates the cost.

The DoT team, though striving hard to live up to the expectations of the customers, is faced with problems of its own. It is in urgent need of technologies like WILL, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), and xDSL. Though they recognize the importance of IVRS for quick redressal of complaints, it has been diicult to find a solution provider who can put the system in place quickly. But the biggest handicap has been the shortage of manpower. The staff ratio per 1,000 DELs has constantly been falling since 1991. It stood at a pathetic 4.13 as on 15 June 2000. While the justified strength of employees at all levels is 1019, the actual number stands at 283—a shortfall of more than 200 percent.

It is the customer perception that more than anything else proves to be the Waterloo for services’ companies. And that is very true of DoT Gurgaon. Despite its efforts like forming a Grievance Cell and holding Telephone Adalats, the DoT has not been successful in breaking the perception jinx. The corporate customer today is not prepared to compromise on the reliability of his infrastructure. And the private basic services providers will be a tempting alternative to change loyalties.

Despite these pitfalls, the spirit of the DoT team is high and the pending entry of the private operators seems to have done little to depress. "Ultimately it all boils down to the attitude. And we are game for the competition," said Ghosh. He and his team seem to have their plans worked out. Telephone-on-demand, better services, bringing the waiting list down to zero, and drastically reducing the fault rate are some of the "must achieves" for them. They have already equipped their linesmen with pagers for quick redressal of complaints. To make it even more effective, they have applied for IVRS which is expected to be in place within six weeks.

What Gurgaon Telecom is all about is summed up in the motto "What we have in abundance is the intention to serve. What we are running out of is the time to implement. What we need is support".

Narendra Dalal