srini 1 Report post Posted January 16, 2007 Tata woos Virgin for telecom alliance When the entire nation is engrossed in the unfolding Hutch drama, another landmark deal is in the works. Two of the world's most admired business leaders — Ratan Tata of the Tata Group and Richard Branson of the Virgin empire — are coming together for an alliance in India's telecom landscape. A source familiar with the development said the Virgin Group is in talks with Tata Teleservices to introduce Virgin Mobile brand in India. Globally, Virgin Mobile's business strategy is to act as a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) which buys bulk space from an existing wireless company and resell it under the Virgin brand. However, this model is not yet allowed in India. (For instance: Virgin Mobile has a tie-up with Bell in Canada, while it has an alliance with Sprint in the US). Instead, Virgin is planning to become an exclusive franchisee of Tata Teleservices which is permitted in India. For this, a new entity largely owned by Tata Teleservices will be formed. The products and services will be bundled under Virgin name, supported by the services provided by Tata Teleservices. The source added that discussions so far has been good and if all goes well with the regulatory approvals in place, Virgin Mobile would be launched in April this year. When contacted, a Tata group spokesperson declined to comment. In simple words, there would be two brands -- Tata Indicomm and Virgin. Tata Indicomm positioned as a mass market brand, while Virgin would be positioned as a youth brand pitted against brands like Hutch. This is been done as Tata Indicomm does not appeal to everyone in terms of popularity and appeal. Tata Indicomm has already established itself in the mass market category while Richard Branson's touch could bring in more subscribers. This comes at a crucial time when Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister of communications and IT, is pushing to promote passive (mobile tower sites) and active infrastructure (branding, service alliances) sharing, which would help companies to reduce its cost of rolling out services. Though wireless subscribers in India have already crossed the 100-million mark, making India one of the top five markets in the world, still more than 50% of the population is to be covered by mobile services. For the British billionaire, this is part of his strategy to expand his businesses — telecom, radio, food and beverages, financial services — in India. In 2005, Branson launched his airline Virgin Atlantic's flight services in India. Tata Teleservices pioneered the CDMA technology platform in India and it serves 13 million customers in over 2,500 towns in India. Its customer base increased thanks to its hugely successful schemes like ‘non-stop’ and 'don't stop'. Recently, Tata Teleservices saw a change in ownership structure with NRI businessman C Sivasankaran's Sterling Infotech group and Singapore government's private equity arm Temasek acquiring stakes in the company. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kunal Hemrajani 1 Report post Posted January 16, 2007 So we can expect the Tata`s growth graph to go upwards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thinkpositive 0 Report post Posted January 17, 2007 (edited) tata..... its your time....... make a right step. before anil.... Edited January 17, 2007 by thinkpositive Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
linuxguy 0 Report post Posted January 17, 2007 I think people have stopped trusting TATA now. Thats why Ratan Tata needs to save face and what better startegy than to rebrand it under someone else's name? Hehee...Virgin is gonna go back sore... I've lost all hopes in Ratan Tata and TATA as a brand. TATAMotors, TATA Indicom, VSNL ( now TATA ) all three **** big time! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srini 1 Report post Posted January 18, 2007 This rebranding exercise will definetly help TATA to increase revenue. I think it is the right step at the right moment by Ratan TATA. But i think still this has to be cleared by central ministry and DOT..lets wait and watch Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
copperco2 24 Report post Posted February 5, 2007 Virgin operates only on Brand name... It does not have an infrastructure of its own. What it does is buy talktime in bulk and sell in retail. This talk time is branded by the name of Virgin. It will most probably follow the same pattern here. 'it will charge more for providing the same kind of service'. New bottle Old wine kind of thing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shashank 8 Report post Posted November 19, 2007 Guys any new update on this????????????????????? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kshah 452 Report post Posted November 20, 2007 its still virgin. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rbdhoot 11 Report post Posted November 20, 2007 Virgin should go for IDEA !!! Then only competition rises. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
