VSNL on expansion mode, to invest $500 million
Economic Times — June 8, 2007

The Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) will invest $500 million this fiscal in expanding operations and is looking at acquiring companies providing enterprise data solutions.

The NYSE-listed company has set up a global management committee comprising key officials from various businesses to take strategic decisions on national and international operations. VSNL is also looking at introducing a uniform brand for all its products and services across the globe.

"The capex will be used to upgrade existing cable systems and lay new ones. We are upgrading our data centres across the country and have also earmarked a part of the $500 million capex for rolling out WiMax services," VSNL corporate strategy head Srinivasa Addepalli told ET.

VSNL is laying two new cables - one between India and Europe and the other intra-Asia in partnership with leading carriers in the respective regions. The capex for the two is $600 million spread over few years.

VSNL is also upgrading its network capacity to keep pace with the growing voice traffic, he added. On acquisitions, he said, "We will continue to look at companies which will help us in driving business in the data enterprise business solutions space."

The company has also set up a global management committee comprising key officials from its various businesses to take strategic decisions. "As a large global organisation, we have people spread across the world. There is a need to take a single unified view of the company and various issues cutting across business segments and geographies. This led to the setting up of the GMC," Addepalli said.

Besides Addepalli, other GMC members are VSNL MD N Srinath, VSNL president (global data & mobility solutions) Vinod Kumar, CFO Rajiv Dhar, networks head MS Madhusudan, president (corporate services) Sandeep Mathur, VSNL president (global voice services) Michel Guyot, John Hayduk and Govind S.
The GMC will look into issues pertaining to networks, expansion, entry into newer geographies and human resources besides others.

Addepalli said the unified branding exercise was expected to be completed by this fiscal end. Asked if the new brand will have 'Tata' as part of it, he said, "It is an option and we are working to incorporate the name because it has strengths in the international market. We have just started the process and don't know the final outcome yet," he added.

Unified branding exercise has been necessitated by the multiplicity of brands now under the VSNL fold. The company has acquired Teleglobe and Tyco Global Network, major players in the wholesale voice and wholesale bandwidth space. The brand 'VSNL International' is used for some of the company's products while TGN and Teleglobe are well-known brands in themselves used in some markets. VSNL's retail broadband, dial-up internet, cybercafes and enterprise services are offered under the Tata Indicom brand name.

"We can't lose sight of each brand's own history. To get synergies and to communicate in an objective manner, we will integrate all these into one brand for all products and services," Addepalli added.