Tata-Docomo plans R&D centre in India

KOLKATA, INDIA: Telecom major Tata Teleservices and Japan-based Docomo are planning to jointly set up a research and development facility in India, a top official said Thursday.

"The company (Docomo) is interested in developing certain amount of value-added services which will be available on the Tata-Docomo GSM network here," Tata Teleservices managing director Anil Sardana told reporters at the launch of Tata-Docomo GSM services here.

Several locations have already been looked at for setting up the R&D unit, he said.

"We're primarily interested in finding a location in the southern India."

Added Tata-Docomo president Deepak Gulati: "NTT Docomo has altogether five R&D centres across the globe - two in Japan and one each in the US, Europe and China."

Tata-Docomo is Tata Teleservices's new cellular service on the GSM platform.

The Tata group had entered into a strategic alliance with the Japanese telecom giant in November last year to roll out GSM services.

Tata has received licence to operate GSM services in 19 circles and had been allotted spectrum in 18 of these circles.

"We've already launched GSM service in many circles and we're expecting to launch the pan-India network by the end of this year," Sardana said, adding that the company has already outlined $2 billion as capital expenditure for rolling out the GSM services over two years.

"The Tata-Docomo GSM service offers 'pay per second' facility which will be a value for money to all its subscribers," Sardana said.

©IANS