Tata Teleservices (TTSL) came a long way in 2003, a year which saw India’s telecom industry being confronted with sweeping changes. The company rode the turbulence to increase its subscriber base to about 1.3 million, while vastly expanding its operational footprint and the range of its services and products.

On the products and services front, TTSL expanded its bouquet by offering wire-free Internet (Wi-Fi) and DSL services, besides mobile, wire line, FWT and data services. Tata Indicom, launched by TTL in late 2002, gained in strength as it became the umbrella brand for the various telecom initiatives of the Tata Group as a whole. As part of this process, the Tata Indicom brand was later adopted by VSNL, Tata Internet Services and TTL (Maharashtra).

Today the brand encompasses a suite of products, including mobile, wire line, FWT, national long distance, international long distance, and data and Internet services. Tata Indicom also offers its customers value-added services such as voicemail, data and information services.

TTSL’s workforce swelled to more than 5,000 in 2003 as it stepped on the growth accelerator. Following a shift in headquarters from Hyderabad to Mumbai, the company is currently on a recruitment drive to kick start operations across 11 additional telecom circles.

Collaborations with Lucent, Motorola and Alcatel for the deployment of network infrastructure have enabled TTSL to deliver the best of technology to its customers. In October 2003 the company signed a $150-million deal with Ericsson to deploy the latter’s CDMA2000 1X wireless infrastructure across India. This network is expected to be in service by early 2004.

TTSL has joined hands with DishnetDSL, a leading Internet service provider and broadband pioneer, to offer broadband services to Tata Indicom subscribers through TTSL's wire line network. The key benefit of this strategic partnership to customers is a cost-effective, high-speed, ‘always-on’ broadband Internet connection at a monthly cost of just Rs 995.

There was more in the partnerships sphere for TTSL in 2003. It undertook a joint initiative with Tata Infotech, India’s leading systems integrator, to develop state-of-the-art wireless date applications. Under the agreement, the two companies will be setting up a wireless application lab at IIT, Mumbai, to develop new wireless products that can be used to exploit emerging opportunities in wireless data transmission. On the development menu are speech and script recognition software, video streaming, ATM-based applications and mobile applications for games, news and sports updates, music downloads, etc

Also in 2003, TTSL spearheaded the Wi-Fi revolution in India by teaming up with the coffee chain, Barista. As part of the tie-up, TTSL will roll out Wi-Fi services across key Barista outlets in the country. Tata Indicom services are already being served up offered at 10 Barista outlets across the country, with Wi-Fi cards being available to customers at Rs 25 per half-hour.

TTSL has identified three key market segments for its Wi-Fi offerings: enterprise hotspots for company sales and marketing forces located in franchisee or distributors’ premises; replacement of wired local-area networks with Wi-Fi in companies; and ‘hot spots’ at airports, shopping centres, malls and hotels.

Uploaded on January 5, 2004