In future, he predicts that TCS’ role will become even more crucial as the industry becomes more customer-centric and software to power billing systems of multiple services (voice, data STD, ISD and so on) becomes central to the success of a service provider.

Similarly, the Tata-Birla AT & T merger threw up systems integration issues which were solved by TCS. "Expertise built on a global basis can be used in the domestic market, while new intellectual property and software developed for the Tata telcos can be sold internationally," said Mr. Ramadorai.

Support comes not only from the 12^th man on the team but between players as well. Take AP, a state where the Tatas offer cellular, basic and Internet services. Tata ISP and Tata Tele are working together to provide Tata with fixed line customers with an option to be billed for their internet usage in their phone bills.

This says N. Srinath, CEO, Tata ISP, is the first time any ISP can offer users a package where they pay as per use rather than buying a whole load of hours in advance.

In a similar vein, Tata ISP, currently present at five locations other than AP, is planning to expand only in centres were Tatas will start basic services, so that multiple services can be offered to customers. Likewise, it is working with TCS to become an application service provider (ASP) to corporate e-mail systems.

Tata Teleservices is also working closely with BATATA currently in Andhra Pradesh, where the companies share office space, cell sites and other facilities to squeeze costs.

This cooperation, according to officials of both companies, will be extended to new circles like Delhi where the Tatas are supposed to roll out basic and cellular services.

Watch that fumble
While the Tatas are marshalling every group resource possible to make infocom its future, their success is by no means assured. For one, for all the talk of a captain and his team, the decision to invest in telecom will have to be made by each company’s board and shareholders.

"At the end of the day, we (Tata Sons) can only push and nudge these companies. But it is for them to justify to their boards and shareholders, that the business is worth investing in," says Ishaat Hussain, finance director.

For the record, none of the companies sponsoring the new telecom flagship have got board approval for their investments yet. Another worry, evident even in Bombay House, is the marketing aspects of the business.

There is a history of weakness when it comes to consumer marketing – a skill crucial in the telecom business where a captured consumer can be sold all manner of voice data and video services.

Team Tata hopes that a new umbrella brand for these services and human resource initiatives, which are inducting new people at all levels, will help them sell.

Moreover, while Team Tata may now have a strategy and players to make Steve Waugh jealous, in no domain does it currently have a leadership position. Its ISP business, launched in March, is only present in eight locations and has 30,000 customers, although group efforts are on to reach 30 places in a month’s time.

Its basic services business physically exists only in AP, although four more circles’ licences have been paid for.

The cellular business is still to complete its merger with BPL and it’s too early to make a call. The national and international long distance businesses still depend on government policy.

Ten years later, if the Tata Group is defined by its infocom business, it will be as much of a contortionist’s turn as that made by founder Jamsetji Tata when he moved from trading to manufacturing a hundred years ago.