MUMBAI, INDIA: Tata Group's telecommunication arm Tata Tele Services (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), today launched its GSM mobile service Tata DoCoMo in Mumbai and across Maharashtra.
Minister of State for Information Technology and Communication, Government of India and MP from Mumbai Gurudas Kamat made the first call to TTML's chairman Kishor Chaukar from Tata DoCoMO's next generation network (NGN).
Commenting on the occasion Kamat said that the key to industry's growth is the healthy competition due to strong government policies and regulations.
“And the telecom industry will expand further with the mobile number portability (MNP) round the corner and auctions of 3G spectrum and WiMax licenses within this financial year.”
Chaukar said Tata Group is committed to bring new technology and is committed to adopt new technology to help the people of India and will continue to do in future as well.
“People understand the value of mobility, they understand the value of information, business and its timeliness,” he added.
In order to reach out the customers, TTML has introduced the 'pay-per-use' model for range of products and traffic plans for both pre and post-paid connections.
In fact, the Tata DoCoMo has about 140 odd plans including the life time plan for one paisa per second for all calls across India. The company claims to be the first to offer international long distance (ILD) calls on the per second billing plan.
The fastest GSM roll-out
Leveraging the existing network and communication infrastructure of TTML, the roll out of Tata DoCoMo has become the fastest mobile service launch.
In the last few years, TTML has been constantly upgrading its networks and telecom infrastructures with fiber optic cables for better connectivity and data transmissions. In fact, the company had allocated a capital expenditure of nearly Rs. 850 crore for the financial year 2008-09.
It has paid off well for the company as a recent survey commissioned by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stated TTML as the top wireless operator in terms of overall customer satisfaction across Maharashtra (including Mumbai) and Goa states.
According to TTML's managing director, Dr. Mukund Rajan, for the current financial year, the company has allocated about Rs. 1000 crore capex and bulk of which is towards GSM services.
“We are strong in wireless and wireline networks with our legacy and now with the GSM services we are one of the leading fully integrated telecommunication service provider,” said Dr. Rajan.
“The existing networks and tower infrastructure are 3G enabled networks and with spectrum auctions we would be offering 3G services to customers,” added Dr. Rajan.
Across the Maharashtra state, TTML has about 2000 towers to support its CDMA network. The company was allocated 4.4 mega hertz spectrum in the 1800 mega hertz band in September 2008 and by June 2009 it was ready to roll out its GSM services.
In fact, Tata Group's alliance with Japanese telecom giant NTT DOCOMO is considered very strategic in terms of technology as NTT DOCOMO is the pioneer in 3G technology and domain.