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The Minister for Communications and IT, Mr Pramod Mahajan, with the Chairman, Tata Group, Mr Ratan Tata, and the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dixit, at the launch of Tata Indicom in the Capital on Thursday.

NEW DELHI, Dec. 19

TATA Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) the basic telecom services arm of the Tata group plans to invest Rs 7,500 crore across all its circles of operation over a seven-year period to provide services to approximately 70 per cent of the country's voice and data traffic.

Dr J.J. Irani, Chairman, announced this at the launch of the national brand — Tata Indicom — along with basic wireline and wireless operations in Delhi on Thursday. Dr Irani noted that this investment is expected to generate direct and indirect employment up to 50,000 in the extended TTSL family of employees, franchisees and PCO operators.

With the launch of the Delhi operations, the company currently services the lucrative circles of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi. It is also seeking to offer basic services in Kerala, Haryana and Punjab where a lot of international traffic exists.

He also noted that Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) proposes to invest Rs 50 crore in TTSL as part of its phased equity mop-up in the company. It is expected to invest up to Rs 270 crore by end March 2003, which would tantamount to 19.5 per cent stake in TTSL.

Mr Kishore Chauker, Managing Director, Tata Industries Ltd, noted that the limited mobility services of TTSL would not clash with the services of Idea Cellular in which the Tata group has a 33 per cent stake.

Both of them are catering to a totally different segment of the market and the Tata group intends to actively pursue interest in both, he said.

He noted that there is no question of selling off its stake in Idea Cellular because the group continues to see value in offering cellular services. While Mr S. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, TTSL, noted that the market overlap between Tata Indicom and Idea would be in the region of 15 to 25 per cent, and it will only help the group's growth in the telecom sector.

"Fixed wireless and CDMA mobile have great appeal for residential and small business customers. While fixed wireless has the widely sought after benefit of speedy installation, CDMA mobile is going to be hugely appealing to a wide cross section of society — as it provides local mobility at fixed line prices. It is like having your home phone in your pocket,'' he said.

As regards the Delhi services, Mr Rajiv Kataria, COO, TTSL, Delhi, said that the limited mobility tariffs have two plans, standard and Friends 599 plan. In the first plan, the monthly rental is Rs 200 with an outgoing call rate of Rs 1.20 for 180 seconds and free incoming calls. The security deposit is Rs 6,800 with an activation fee of Rs 1,000.

In the second plan, the outgoing and incoming calls are the same as the first. However, there are 400 free calls, Rs 3,000 is the security deposit and an activation fee of Rs 1.000. He said that the company plans to invest Rs 850 crore in the first five years of its operations, leading to a direct and indirect employment generation of 2,100 jobs in the State.

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