Cable & Wireless to pump $10 mn into local carrier

UK-based Cable & Wireless plans to invest in an Indian telecom carrier.

To start with, the company plans to invest $7-10 million in the next 12 months in areas like networking and security services, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and call centre services through its 100 per cent subsidiary Cable & Wireless India, Phil Green, CEO, Cable & Wireless IDC Inc, said.

"At present, we are studying the Indian telecom market. If the government encourages our move, we will definitely invest in one of the telecom carriers here," Green said.

"We are planning to ramp up our head count by 50 per cent in the next 12-18 months," Green said. At present, the company has 176 employees across its offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta, Pune and Hyderabad.

"Telecom is a growing market here. This growth will be driven by the large unpenetrated market for mobile telephony. This state of the market makes us to think about investing here," he said.

According to Green, cellular service providers in India should focus on offering more and more value-added services to increase the average revenue per user (ARPU). Sophisticated service offerings like internet browsing and e-mail on mobile phone and other third generation services (3G) are the order of the day, he said.

Green also said that broadband in India was at a nascent stage. "Cost of broadband must be brought down while the quality of service has to be raised. This will be possible by fiscal and physical measures from the government side and proper investment in infrastructure by the service providers," he said.

At present, Cable & Wireless has India operations in areas like networking and security services, VoIP and call centre services. It also offers high-end consulting and design services to various corporate customers.

Cable & Wireless Plc, UK offers business-to-business telecom service in the UK. It also provides IP (Internet Protocol), voice and data services to business customers, and to residential customers in some markets, as well as services to other telecoms carriers, mobile operators and providers of content, applications and internet services.

The company has operations in more than 80 countries across the globe. It has strategic alliances with Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks. Some of its customers include Citigroup, O2 (UK), Marks & Spencer, NHS and Hilton.