Indian Stock Market

US telecom major AT&T is setting up a separate team in India to oversee= its plans for foray into the mobile segment. The company will go all out t= o enter the Indian cellular market and is considering all options =97 a buy= out, partnering an existing player, trying to enter the telecom space by pa= rticipating in the 3G auction or set up a new network =97 but will take a f= inal call only after it receives further clarity on the new telecom policy.= =20

“We are not limiting ourselves to just one option. We know that mul= tiple options are available to use to re-enter the cellular market here,” t= he company’s global Group President Ronald E Spears told ET. Mr Spears also= added that India would be the only country outside the US where the compan= y would offer both enterprise (national and international long distance con= nectivity) services as well as cellular services.=20

In a bid to enhance its presence in the enterprise segment in India= , Mr Spears said that AT&T would soon set up data centre in the souther= n Indian city of Bangalore. He also added that the company would soon unvei= l its plans to build a network-operating centre in India. At the same time,= AT&T will also ramp up its network by expanding the total number of gl= obal network nodes in India to about20 from 5.=20

In the first step towards this, the company has realigned its APAC = operations and has carved out India into a separate region reporting direct= ly to John Finnegan, senior vice-president of Global Sales. “This implies t= hat Mr VS Gopi Gopinath, who is currently vice-president of AT&T Asia P= acific, will relocate to Bangalore, to lead the company’s global services b= usiness in India. The restructuring is designed to reflect the growing impo= rtance of the market in India, which is now the fastest-growing market for = AT&T in Asia Pacific,” Mr Spears said. In October 2006, AT&T became= the first global telecom operator in India to secure =97NLD and ILD licens= es in India and it company started offering commercial services in early 20= 07.=20

Last month, AT&T had applied for Unified Access Service License= (UASL) in all 22 circles of India. “There will be a parallel set up to dri= ve our interests in the cellular space =96 it will be a separate division s= imilar to what Mr Gopi Gopinath is doing for the enterprise segment. India = assumes importance for us because and we want to participate in the cellula= r space =97 this is perhaps the only market in the world that offers tremen= dous scope for growth,” Mr Spears said.=20

“We have about 65 million wireless customers in the United States. = Even with a single digit market share in India, going forward over the next= couple of years, we can have more customers here than in the US,” he added= .=20

AT&T had exited the Indian telecom market when it sold its stak= e in the in the Batata (which is currently called Idea Cellular) and re-ent= ered it last year by bagging NLD and ILD licences.

Source: Economic = Times