Videocon faces tough competition: Planning to sell 26% of Videocon Telecommunications
Videocon Industries is busy looking for possible buyers to sell 26% of its telecom arm Videocon Telecommunications that has 1.9 million subscribers and has a market share of 0.31%. The company in the recent past had started discussion with South Korean company SK Telecom, UAE’s Etisalat and Turkey’s Turkcell. By selling 26% of Videocon Telecom, the main company will raise around INR 15,000 crores which will be employed to improve services and expand operations to improve customer base.
According to a source, Videocon is struggling to keep up with the major players like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, and Vodafone due to fewer offerings to the customer.
The telecom company currently operations in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, UP East, UP West and Himachal Pradesh. Videocon recently announced 1 paise/sec international calling to US and Canada. Such schemes may help the company in fetching new customers, but if the company wants a stand in the market it needs to improve service and infrastructure to handle larger customer base.
Indian telco Aircel reveals 2010 investment plans
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With a view to expand the areas of operation, an investment of approximately USD1.4 billion in 2010 has been planned by Indian mobile network operator Aircel. The aim of the company is to roll out services in five circles by June 2010.
The five circles include- Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab. 17 of India’s 22 telecoms circles receive Aircel network. In addition to the investment this year, around USD2.6 billion between 2011 and 2012 will also be spent by the company.
Around 17,000 towers to GTL Infrastructure was divested by the mobile operator in January 2010, in a deal worth approximately INR85 billion (USD1.85 billion). According to Sandip Das, CEO of Maxis, the company’s growth is not restricted for lack of funds. The tower hive off had given us liquidity of around USD3 billion.
TATA and BSNL enter Network Sharing deal (India)
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan India telecom service provider, today announced the signing of a landmark ‘Master Services Agreement for Passive Infrastructure Sharing’ with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
Becoming the first Indian private telecom operator to enter into an agreement of this nature. The agreement which is valid for 15 years will be applicable to both Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited in all of India’s 22 telecom Circles.
This is a moment of pride for us, as we have become the first private telecom operator to enter into such a strategically important agreement with BSNL, one that will allow us to expand our telecom footprint across the country much more quickly,†Mr Madhav Joshi, President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Teleservices Limited, said.
The agreement comes at a very strategic time for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), as both companies have been aggressively expanding their network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom, while also rolling out GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name. In the short space of just three months, we have already rolled out our GSM services in nine Circles—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Haryana,†Mr AG Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and rollout process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,†he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country.
