Last May, the Indian government announced plans to open up basic phone services under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao’s three year-old economic reform program.
It’s clearly one of the biggest telecommunication support unities in the world.” John Legere, president of AT&T Asia/Pacific’s Communications services group told a – news conference, saying Rao would not backtrack on re-forms.
With almost 300 million minutes of telecommunications traffic per year between India and the U.S.. India is set to become one of the top 10 traffic countries for the U.S.,” he said.
The government wants to triple the number of phone lines to 20 million by 2000, and put at least one phone in each of the country’s 570,000 villages by 1997. Currently, only 140.000 villages have phones.
The Department of Telecommunications recently invited private firms to bid for tile right to supply services, and said it would announce conditions for the tender Jan. 16. The results of the bidding will be announced March 31.
AT&T and Birla, after signing a memorandum of understanding to explore telecommunications opportunities, said they would wait for DOT to spell out the conditions before deciding whether to create a joint venture and how much capital to spend.
India will auction off the rights to supply basic phone services in 20 zones corresponding roughly to the boundaries of Indian states, and cellular services in 19 zones. STATES EYED
AT&T and Birla said they were eyeing the states of Delhi in the north, Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west and Karnataka in the south. They did not rule out working together in long-distance services in the future.
AT&T Asia/Pacific president Walter Sousa said his firm was committed to India, where it already has three manufacturing joint ventures. “We must have a presence in Asia and India,” he said.
The agreement marked an expansion for Aditya Birla, whose web of companies of the same name has annual turnover of $4 billion and is concentrated in heavy industries.
His group is the world’s largest producer of viscose staple fiber, the third largest maker of insulators and the sixth biggest in carbon black. Its flagship firm is Grasim Industries Ltd.
AT&T said it is the world’s largest communications and computer company, with 80 million long distance customers in the United States. It handles 175 million calls a day.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 20, 1995
