We want to grow prepaid solution and MNP in India

Comment

Digg

Del.icio.us

What is Telcordia's strategy for this year?
Coming out of the last year, the year of global recession, I think that this years' environment is going to be better and things will start returning to the previous line slowly. For us getting back to growing again, as we grew in the previous years, is imperative. Also, India is going to be a focus area for us this year. We had a very successful territory running here in India. Acquiring new customers and participating in the growth is going to continue. Our plan is to grow our presence in India not only with prepaid solution but also with MNP.

How do you list your key achievements in 2009?
The key achievements globally would be that we are going to have the same revenue this year that we had in the previous year. While so many companies are having difficulty with the economy shrinking, we have been fortunate that this hasn't actually happened with us. We haven't grown y-o-y, but in the given economic environment, we are extremely happy that at least it's not shrinking. Specifically in India, we have grown our business y-o-y tremendously and expect to continue this way. We have a number of customers here and helping them successfully launch their business has been a huge achievement for us. The biggest launch this year that we will be doing-not only in India but around the world-is going to be MNP. That's why we are very focused on making this happen as early as possible. Our track record in India is very good in terms of supporting our customers and successful launches. Hence, we are expecting the same with MNP as well.

Are you ready for MNP implementation in India?
From our side, we are ready for MNP, operators are getting ready for it, and we should be in position to start testing soon and launching the whole service. It's going to be a key focus for Telcordia for the Indian market in the year ahead.

Have you seen any business model emerging from the operators' side during the recession?
Wireless has continued to become more important. In India, wireless is the primary source of telecom. The recession has forced people to shift much more to wireless and so we have seen a decline in wireline usage. Wireless will continue to grow despite the recession. So it has been an area where people will expand their business despite the global downturn. However, as the pressure is on pricing, so the ability to differentiate across different customers will gain importance.

Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in