In December 2002, the two integrated service providers, Tata and Reliance, will launch their basic services operations in the country. While Reliance will launch its services across the country, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) will launch its basic telephony services in the states of Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. Another service provider, Bharti has already taken the lead by launching its services in Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The increase in the number of service providers on both the fronts (basic and cellular) will give a wider choice to customers in all the circles, as they can choose between the incumbent and the private operators. For instance, Delhi alone will have seven service providers to choose from in case of mobility-based services. On the GSM front, there are Bharti, Hutch, and MTNL, and very soon, Idea is also planning to launch its services in Delhi. On the CDMA front, there are three operators, out of which only MTNL is operational with its Garuda brand. The other two operators—Reliance and Tata—are planning to launch their services in December 2002. Bharti also plans to make an entry in the CDMA space, and initially, it will be limited to fixed wireless. But according to industry insiders, Bharti plans to be ready as and when WLL (M) picks up in India and gains ground over GSM. Since the company will have the frequency, it can think of launching WLL (M) services in all the five circles where it has the basic service license.

Having done pretty well in Andhra Pradesh, Tata Teleservices intends to perform well in Delhi as well, and leverage the Tata brand. But it will not be easy for the company, as there are a number of aggressive operators. Tata’s vision for Delhi is to be a clear leader in the industry, by providing world-class products and services that meet the entire range of communication needs of customers in the city. In order to be able to do that, it plans to invest around Rs 800 crore over five years, of which Rs 300 crore have already been invested, according to Rajiv Kataria, COO (Delhi), Tata Teleservices.

Rollout Plans
Initially, TTSL plans to launch its service in the five commercial hubs of Delhi—Nehru Place, Connaught Place, Rajendra Place, Bhikaji Cama Place, and Okhla Phase III. Simultaneously, it plans to launch CDMA-based wireless services across the city. TTSL received the frequency spectrum on 20 September 2002, and has requisitioned for filters and combiners that are expected by the first week of November 2002. It will take a couple of weeks for TTSL to fix up these components in about 120 cell sites. The company is planning to test the network and the entire IT back-end by mid-November 2002. The IT back-end supports a lot of applications like customer care, order management, repair management, and billing, which is integrated with IT management. Once the testing is complete, the company plans to launch its services in the first half of December 2002. That will give it a marginal lead over Reliance, which is planning to commercially launch its services on 28 December 2002.

The Network
The network is based on V5.2 technology and if TTSL plans to shift to other technologies, it can do it swiftly, as air interface remains the same, says Kataria. The company has a frequency pair of 2.5 MHz in the 142-183 frequency band, in the 824-844 MHz of frequency spectrum. Using this frequency band, Tata Teleservices can load a maximum of up to 200,000 wireless subscribers.

The main switch of Tata Teleservices will be located at Ishwar Nagar and this will be followed by the five remote switching units (RSUs) located in each of the above mentioned five commercial hubs in Delhi.

For wireless coverage, the company plans to install 120 cell sites to be located at strategic places within the city. To start with, Tata Teleservices is setting up a wireline capacity of 35,000 lines and a wireless capacity of around 120,000 lines in Delhi. The digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) is in place and would be operational depending on the demand from corporates.

On the infrastructure front, the company plans to set up a fiber-optic network of over 500 km across the city, over a period of five years. The company has already bought 200 km of ducts from Spectranet where fiber has been blown. It also has a copper overlay of around 50 km. It is constantly upgrading the infrastructure, as Delhi has a huge area of 1,483 square km. TTSL has opted for wireline switch from Alcatel, wireless switch from Lucent, microwave from Digital Microwave, transmission system based on SDH technology from Fibcom, billing system from CSG Systems, and CRM from Oracle. On the handset front, the company has already finalized deals with LG and Kyocera.

Marketing Plans
Tata Teleservices is aiming for 100,000 subscribers in its first year of operation, according to Kataria. The company intends to have a mix of wireline, fixed wireless and WLL (M). It expects that wireline and fixed wireless will contribute around 25 percent each, and WLL (M) will contribute the remaining 50 percent. Thus, it seems the focus is more on CDMA-based services.

In Andhra Pradesh, TTSL has recently branded WLL (M) services as Tata Mobitel and its payphone unit as Tata Telesmart. At present, the company is working on an umbrella brand, which will be released in November 2002, along with the launch of its services in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. "Initially, the umbrella brand will leverage the group brand, which will help in building the brand, but once the brand name is developed, constant reinforcement by the Tata brand would not be required," Kataria outlines the branding strategy.

The company is looking at a three-tier marketing structure for its basic operations. At the first tier, Tata Teleservices will directly handle the corporates. The company has targeted around 125 buildings that are being wired. At the second tier, the PCO and the SME segments will be handled by a large PCO player and the company is planning to appoint two or three big PCO players, which in turn will market the service to the individual PCOs. For PCO operations, the company is
looking at a franchisee model similar to what exists in the AP circle. The SME segment will be covered through channel partners and company’s sales personnel. At the third tier, the  residential segment will be handled by franchisees. The company has finalized close to 20 franchisees across Delhi in all the strategic markets. These franchisees will market both wireline as well as wireless units and will provide after-sales support. Tata Teleservices is spending a huge amount on training its franchisee staff. This is to ensure that there is uniformity in the quality-of-service across all the 20 odd franchisees.

Services in the Offering
Being an integrated service provider, Tata Teleservices may provide an integrated approach in services and synergize with the Tata Group of companies like VSNL and Tata Internet. The company is planning to provide an entire range of services like centrex, ISDN, leased line, DSL, Internet access, VPN, network management, network security, data center, and disaster-recovery services, to corporates.

On the wireless front, Tata Teleservices has already filed a standard tariff plan with TRAI, which has a monthly rental of Rs 200, with a service charge of Rs 1.20 per 3 minutes, says Kataria. TTSL is planning to permit all services like voice mail and call divert, and once there is clarity from the policy-makers, the company can think of providing SMS.

The company is in the process of finalizing the intelligent network (IN) and once that is finalized, it will launch IN-based features like pre-paid in February 2003.

On the QoS front, TTSL has made a significant investment in the customer-interface process. The company has recruited more than 120 call-center agents from day one. The installation of phones and connection is automated, so that people can install phones in households and commercial establishments at a faster pace. "There is a tremendous focus on providing world-class service to customers and they are comfortable interacting with us," says Kataria.

Pravin Prashant