The Hindu Business Line : Patni eyes contracts in mobile virtual network operators space

New Delhi, March 13 With a detailed policy for Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) on the anvil, Indian IT services company Patni Computer Systems said it will aggressively go after contracts in the MVNO space.

It has already initiated a dialogue with 3-4 prospective players, for systems integration contracts in this space, a top company official said.

“We still have to see the actual uptake in India but are confident that we can bring our experience in working for MVNO clients in the US and Europe, to the Indian market. For instance, we have been working with the UK-based Carphone Warehouse for providing such services. With the market in India now set to open up, we are talking to 3-4 prospective players here,” Mr Samvit Raina, Senior Vice-President, Patni Computer Systems, told Business Line.

He said that MVNO would be the company’s next ‘growth engine’ in the domestic telecom segment. “Our service would target both the virtual players and the operators that they tie up with, and the offerings range from provisioning, network integration, billing integration to customer management among others,” he said.

Put simply, an MVNO buys airtime in bulk from existing telecom firms and then sells mobile services to customers under its own branding and tariff plans - a model popular in mature telecoms markets in the US, Europe and East Asia.

“A vanilla Systems Integration contract in the MVNO market typically tends to be about $2-5 million in size. However, we are expecting a lot more volume play in the Indian market and the deal structure could be different compared to the Western markets. So instead of a pure-play systems integration deal, the virtual operator may want to opt for a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler model where he asks us to build the platform and goes for a per-subscriber pricing,” Mr Raina pointed out.

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