Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

Finally the numbers, the company look like that of a big player. The first to introduce its services in India but still a late entrant in the big game, and lagging in the race for some time, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has finally started creating a more colorful picture for its business. The company now offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers under the Tata Indicom brand in 20 circles. In a growing mode, TTSL-according to V&D estimates-raked in Rs 1253 crore in revenues during FY 2004–05, as compared to Rs 698 crore in FY 2003–04. With an impressive, nearly 80 percent growth, TTSL currently has over four million subscribers (including TTML), in over 1,200 towns across 20 circles. It has clearly covered up on the lost time and is truly leveraging on the telecom boom in the country. TTSL was aggressive in coverage, and made investments of up to Rs 8,000 crore (to be spread over two years) in capex.

TTSL, in its 12 new circles where operations commenced only a few months ago, achieved a market share of 28 percent in April 2005, compared to just eight percent in January 2005. It is aggressively expanding its national backbone to add 22,000 km of fiber and has currently achieved an all-India market share of 6.3 percent. Within the CDMA space, the company commands a market share of 24 percent. In April 2005, TTSL had a 16 percent share of net additions, third highest behind Bharti which had 23 percent and Reliance Infocomm which had 22 percent.

In the fixed wireless phone (FWP) segment, TTSL has made headway in the new circles it has entered, raising its market share from 8 percent in January 2005 to 28 percent in April 2005.

The group plans an additional investment of Rs 9,000 crore in TTSL in FY 2005–06, which will include rolling out services in 2,500 more towns by September 2005, which will take the coverage to 3,700 towns. The funds for expansion will be raised through a mix of equity and debt in the ratio 1:1. The company also intends to tap the international markets to raise funds. TTSL is also looking at trebling its mobile phone customer base in the
FY 2005–06. The company is looking at increasing its market share to 20 percent from the current six percent by the end of this fiscal. TTSL also plans to quadruple its operations in east India in the next year. The company has outlined a capital expenditure of Rs 600 crore to add more than 350 cell sites to the existing 500 by March 2006. It will double its network to around 900 cell sites next fiscal and cover more towns and highways to create an umbrella presence in the east. By March 2007, it will have 13,000 base stations in place. In West Bengal, it will go up from 90 sites to 125 by March 2006.

Though the company has been making sizeable investments, its CDMA mobile is yet to contribute the numbers. The FWP still contributes over 50 percent of the total revenue for the company. Introduction of the True Value shops has been a viable strategy for TTSL, which had a reputation for poor customer service and support.

The firm will introduce 3G mobile services by deploying CDMA 2000 IX EVDO technology. The company is on the right track with investments in both its infrastructure capacity and data-centric solutions to be better placed competitively.

Next Page :

"We can meet the needs of 25 percent of the telecom subscribers in the country"

Page(s)   1  2