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    Tata Teleservices looks to offer 4G in enterprise segment

    Synopsis

    The telecom venture of the Tata Group feels offering 4G services will enable it to increase its share in the about million strong enterprise market in the country.

    ET Bureau
    NEW DELHI: Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is in discussions with 4G operators to add high-speed 4G services in its bouquet of enterprise offerings, according to a top executive of the company.

    The telecom venture of the Tata Group feels offering 4G services will enable it to increase its share in the about million strong enterprise market in the country.

    “There are current conversations happening around 4G, and some testing is on,” Prateek Pashine, head of enterprise business at TataTeleservices told ET.

    “Currently, I use my own 2G, 3G wireless to deliver services on the enterprise connectivity side. And, I will have more options to choose from our competitors’ 4G. It will be a great thing for our enterprise business.”

    Image article boday
    Pashine, however, declined to name the 4G operators.

    TTSL’s enterprise business competes with Airtel Business, Vodafone Business Services, Reliance Communications, and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL). Airtel and Vodafone already offer 4G services and are looking to leverage the high-speed service for their enterprise offerings.

    Asked if the telcos with 4G technology have an edge over TTSL, Pashine said, “Absolutely not. We give a mix of wired and wireless connections. I use my own wire, wireless, and third-party wire, along with third-party wireless.”

    On Reliance Jio being the future rival in the enterprise space, he said, “I think competition is always healthy. It’s great, as and when they launch the service, be it in the consumer space or enterprise space.”

    TTSL doesn’t offer 4G services in India, but possesses spectrum in 800 MHz band in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra, which it can utilise for 4G services after liberalising it by paying fee to the telecom department.

    For the mobility or retail business, TTSL has presence across India’s 19 telecom circles where it offers 2G, 3G and CDMA services. The enterprise business, on the other hand, serves pan-India with the help of a fibre-optic backbone covering over 125,000 km.

    Tata Teleservices is also expanding its 125,000-km-long fiber network by deploying fiber in newer pockets of enterprises. Pashine said the company is putting 25,000-30,000 km of new fiber in the core backbone access network to improve last-mile connectivity.

    Further, it is fattening the pipe to offer faster data services. “In areas where we have 1 Gigabit Ethernet pipe, we are transforming that to 10 Gigabit. In some cases, 10 gigabit is becoming 100 gigabit,” he said.

    TTSL’s enterprise business is growing at around 17% annually, more than double of the industry average of 8%, and accounts for about 30% of the company’s overall revenues. Pashine said the industry average is 10-12%.

    “India’s enterprise market is about Rs 22,000 crore, which is roughly 10-11% of the total telecom market of Rs 200,000 crore,” Pashine said, adding that the enterprise arm enjoys close to 30% market share in the data services segment in India.

    “In totality, we are gaining a percentage or two of market share every year,” he said. TTSL addresses the enterprise market under three segments — large enterprises, business-tobusiness, which consists of SMEs and mid-market enterprise, and Carrier. Besides the traditional voice and data with managed services, the enterprise arm now offers a complete product portfolio, which includes complex services such as security and threat management, mobile applications, cloud services, and CDN services, among others.

    The wireline voice portfolio and managed services vertical are annually growing at about 15% and 45%, respectively, compared with the industry rates of 2% and 25%. It also claims that the SME business is growing at 17% compared with the industry rate of close to 10%.

    The company’s enterprise team comprises 2,000 people who work through around 1,600 channel partners. Out of a million enterprises, TTSL currently serves around 150,000 enterprises through its IT and connectivity solutions. “We offer around 60 IT products to our clients in India,” Pashine said.

    Internet of Things (IoT) is also emerging as one of the fast growing segment for the enterprise arm, and is growing at 70-80% annually for the company, which is providing services like smart metering, location-based tracking services. “In five years, it would be a significant component. Right now, it’s small in revenue terms but is growing very fast,” Pashine said.

    TTSL is also speaking to municipal corporations and various government bodies on the smart cities front, and is involved in a number of projects. "We have got orders. We are also executing a three-year order in Gujarat, where we have done the connectivity for a municipal corporation," Pashine said, adding that the company is already providing telecom/ IT services to companies that are involved in some of the smart city solutions.


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