Despite Reliance Infocomm's highly-visible
campaign ‘Kar Lo Duniya Muthi Mein’, a number of people in the state of
Gujarat are still unaware of its recent commercial launch. Quietly penetrating
into the market in the meantime was Tata Teleservices, which notched up more
than 100,000 connections in a year’s time. Jagrut Vyas, the COO of the
Gujarat circle of TTSL, is the man behind this phenomenal growth. Binu Alex
of CNS spoke to Vyas about his company's services.
Jagrut
Vyas
l Is
the progress of TTSL on the expected lines? What are its future plans in
Gujarat?
The response that we got in Gujarat is overwhelming and much more than we
expected. In 12 months, our subscriber base reached 100,000 plus. In the coming
months, we are adding six more SDCA circles to our existing six and I expect to
add a host of value added services and innovative planning before the end of
this year. We have already earmarked Gujarat as one of the markets with high
potential growth.
l How
is the response to the different telecom services that you offer?
We offer fixed-WLL and the limited mobility phone services, both based on latest
CDMA 1X technology. We estimated near-equal demand for both fixed-WLL and
limited mobility connections, and the market has responded exactly as per our
planning. Though we operate within our network capacity parameters, we had to
delay some of the installations due to huge response, because of reasons like
delay in the delivery of handsets. As a company, we like to believe that all our
customers are our brand ambassadors. We are proud of the fact that customer
complaints regarding our services have been negligible in number so far.
l Did
your experience in Andhra circle help you in any way, in providing services in
Gujarat circle?
Every new entrant in this business faces the problem of adjusting to the
business model and I admit that we also faced the same problem in Andhra.
However, now we have the largest customer base in limited mobility services.
Moreover, we learnt from our Andhra operations that the customers dictate the
business policy. Traditionally, Gujarat has been a production economy and people
have rarely got a good service that they can put as benchmark. Now they are
demanding value for money and I think that is their right. But are they willing
to pay for it? This is what we have to figure out.
l Has
the recent telecom tariff chaos hampered your progress in any way?
We have not noticed any change in our subscriber growth because of the frequent
changes in tariffs. But these changes are bound to confuse the customers. Nobody
can help it since new technologies keep on emerging and businesses and revenue
models continue evolving. But we ensure that in case of change in tariffs, the
migration of the customers to new tariff plans is smooth and they have zero or
minimum disadvantage in choosing a plan. We are also waiting for certain
announcements related to roaming and long distance calling within the network
etc. from TRAI.
l What
about the value added services especially data connectivity?
Our application for SMS is pending with TRAI since a year now. Though we can
provide data connectivity at 144 kbps but we have realized that there may not be
enough business demand for the service. We will shortly come out with Internet
access on phone. Moreover, we are not very sure if TRAI will permit these
data-related services. Since it is a grey area, we have decided to delay it till
clear instructions are issued by TRAI.
l What
is the USP of your service?
We only promise what we can deliver. Our brand name is synonymous for trust and
service. We even undertake maintenance of the equipment and most importantly
understand the customer needs. And we are here to stay and provide the best
service available.
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