The Tata Group's commitment to building a substantial presence in India's telecom industry has seen it play a leading role in the development of the country's communications infrastructure. The telecom services of the Group are offered under the brand name Tata Indicom, and cover all segments, from retail and enterprise to wholesale and international. The objective is to make Tata Indicom the preferred telecommunications choice of customers across the country.

The Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit (TIEBU) is the central, specialised enterprise sales and marketing unit for the Tata Group's telecom initiatives. The unit is the benchmark telecom player in the enterprise space and was formed with a view to providing customised, end-to-end voice and data solutions to customers across India. It delivers cost-effective, integrated solutions that are designed to fulfil the most complex communication needs.

The Tata Group's telecom initiatives are currently spread over four enterprises: Tata Teleservices and its subsidiaries, namely Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), VSNL and Tata Power Broadband, a division of Tata Power. The vision is to ensure that the business operates seamlessly across these entities, while offering customers a one-stop solution.

Tata Teleservices
Tata Teleservices, the telecom access arm, today operates wireless services in 20 circles and has a pan-India footprint. The company has a customer base of over 3.5 million spread over 1,000 towns. Tata Teleservices, which heralded convergence technologies in the Indian telecom sector, is the world leader in the fixed wireless service market, with a customer base of 1.8 million. Aggressive marketing plans and a slew of new product offerings — including brand names such as True Paid and Walky — have driven rapid subscriber growth.

Tata Teleservices bouquet of telephony services includes mobile services, fixed wireless phones, public booth telephony, wireline services and value-added offerings such as voice portal, roaming, post-paid internet services, three-way conferencing, group calling and Wi-Fi internet. The company pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, and has established a robust and reliable telecom infrastructure that ensures quality in its services. Tata Teleservices has partnered Motorola, Ericsson, Lucent and ECI Telecom for the deployment of a reliable, technologically advanced network.

VSNL
VSNL, the first telecom service provider in the world to get the prestigious TL-9000 certification, is India's leading provider of international telecommunications and internet services. It is the country's top player in international long-distance services, has a strong national long-distance presence, and is also the leader in the corporate data market. VSNL has well-established relations with over 80 carriers across the globe and an infrastructure base that includes multiple gateways, earth stations and submarine cable systems.

The company is rapidly growing its retail and corporate presence under the Tata Indicom brand, through products such as high-speed broadband and dial-up internet (it has over 700,000 internet subscribers) net telephony and calling cards. VSNL offers a host of other valued-added services, including television and video uplinking, program transmission, frame relay and Inmarsat.

VSNL is spearheading the international telecom foray of the Tata Group and has established its presence in key international geographies such as the US, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company has a fully owned subsidiary, VSNL Lanka, that operates in Sri Lanka, and it is a joint venture partner in United Telecom, a wireless access provider in Nepal. Additionally, VSNL has acquired Tyco Global Network's submarine cable systems, which cover three continents with over 60,000 km of advanced optic fibre.