Virgin Mobile is now in India, courtesy Tata Teleservices. That is an interesting combination--the maverick boss of a highly successful telecom service with the staid boss of India's slowest operating telecom company.
But, what is not clear is whether it is an MVNO or a franchisee operation. That is because the government has not given the green signal for starting MVNO services in India. So what exactly is this new animal?
That's what the Tatas should answer. After all, it has morphed its telecom operations so many times that one simply does not know aht they are up to. Yes, it seems to be the most confused mobile operator in the country.
A little bit of history here on the Tatas telecom business. It started life as Tata Cellular, a GSM service provider in Andhra Pradesh. Then it decided to join hands with Birla AT&T that provided GSM services in Maharashtra and Gujarat. That later morphed into IDEA Cellular.
Somewhere during this passage, the Tatas felt going CDMA was a better bargain. After all, the then Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Infocom was going the CDMA way. Then it sold its stake in IDEA to the Aditya Birla group. Now that the Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Communications is going the GSM way, the Tatas are as usual following them.
But going the MVNO way is a new path altogether. So when the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) raised objections, it has come up with a new complaint--the telecom policy did not allow outsourcing of networks.
But hello--what was the group doing for well over three years. After all, Bharti outsourced its network ages ago and has become a case study for mobile operators globally.
The confused thinking is clearly reflected in the subscriber base. It has just 22.5 million subscribers in 20 circles as opposed to IDEA which has 21.95 million subscribers while being present in only 11 circles. The only two circles where Tata is not present are North-East and J&K.
Maybe Richard Branson can pull this group's telecom business by the boot straps. That's what the group needs, if its telecom business has to last out.
1 comment:
Look, the Tata as a company and their ethics cannot be questioned. But it is the people who are advising and also executing the Tata' strategy who need to be looked. They would use all the tricks (DIRTY)in the trade and would not bother about the ethics.
I agree with you that others do the dirty work and Tata's walk on, when the road is clean. From Licenece fee to revenue share, then revenue share to UASL and now UASL to dual technology.
When Tata's launched Indica, there was a joke in automobile sector. All auto companies do test drive on tracks.
But where do the Tata's do?
Ans:On People.
Similarly they let other companies do the expriment and dirty work. Will not take a lead. Will not criticise. Wait. When the dust settles down, they will enter. They are happy being second, third fourth.
MVNO:Will they get through? They will, once Reliance launches its MVNO. which is not very far.
As far as their pin pricking on Bharti and Vodafone is concerned, it is a simple strategy. They too want to explore outsourcing. I would not be surprised, that Tata outsources its GSM netwrok if telecom ministry says Bharti and Vodafone outsourcing is leagl. Mark my word--Tata will follow.
Boss, Tata's are smart bawa's.
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