VSNL, Microsoft plan strategic deal
Deccan Chronicle — November 22, 2005

In what could be a remarkable milestone in the coming of real digital convergence in India, the Tata Group controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is entering into a strategic alliance with the US based software giant Microsoft. Under this alliance, it is expected that Microsoft will help VSNL to co-develop innovative products and technologies to offer enterprise and retail customers with a varied range of convergent services in telecommunications and broadband segment.

When contacted, the company spokesperson refused to comment on the proposed deal citing regulatory constraints. The deal will be a first of its kind in the Indian telecommunications industry. The deal with Microsoft can help VSNL consolidate its now rapidly growing product portfolio of high speed broadband, dial-up Internet, net telephony and calling cards through convergent services. This deal will include its value-added services like television/video uplinking, programme transmission services, frame relay services and Inmarsat services.

VSNL currently has an Internet subscriber base of over 8,00,000 subscribers and sells all its telecom products under the brand name Tata Indicom. For the US-based software major, this deal with VSNL will be the second shot in the arm in its efforts in trying to establish itself in the global telecommunications software technology space. In June this year, Microsoft clinched almost a similar kind of a deal with global telecom major France Telecom for cooperation on a next generation service platform.

This would enable aggregation and delivery of a wide variety of services, including voice, video and data for France Telecom using the Microsoft Connected Services Framework (MCSF) for building and managing complex services using a service oriented architecture (SOA) and web service interfaces while giving the flexibility to combine TV, VoIP, instant messaging (IM), presence awareness and content. It may be noted that in May this year, Microsoft collaborated with Tata Group's $2.69-billion IT major Tata Consultancy Services.