Telstra to invest more in India ops despite caution on regulatory norms

MD says company may foray into consumer market, value added services

Hurdles faced by foreign telcos such as Vodafone and Telenor is creating some doubts in the minds of companies like Telstra, even as it is looking to invest more in India.

Martijn Blanken, president and managing director of Telstra Global said, "Everyone wants to be in India, but what Vodafone has experienced and Telenor has experienced are putting a bit of caution in the minds of foreign telecos, including ourselves."

But he added, "It doesn't mean that we are not going to be here, but how much you are going to invest is something that you want to think about a little bit more."

He was speaking to reporters after attending the 24th annual day of the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce, in Chennai.

In 2012, China invested approximately $57 billion in telecommunications infrastructure while India only invested $5 billion. Blanken said this was because foreign telcos were relcutant to invest deeply in the country. He said that Telstra is looking at the Indian business climate closely. The company, in the last three years, has invested around $35 million for Indian operations and infrastructure including two submarine cables.

It is looking to further invest in the consumer market and value added services segment. But Blanken said it would take a couple of months for it to finalise its India strategy.

"We would continue to augment our current services and we need to continue to invest to meet the demand of our customers... but whether we are going to step into the consumer market or in the value added services, that is something that we are currently investigating and it will take a couple of months before we complete our India strategy. We are actively working on it," he said.

Blanken said that the company could think of going into more value added services like data centre services, hosting services and managing communication applications such as voice and video that run over data networks along with services like emergency messaging or digital signage where companies can broadcast video content to the shops, to the retail stores, to inform the customers to advertise or to inform.

These kind of technologies are very specific and Telstra has invested in quite a few technology companies in North America and Australia for the same. It is going to deploy these technologies across its networks including in India. But the focus on the short term would be on the enterprise customers, Blanken said.

The company, which owns a majority stake in its joint venture Indian subsidiary, currently has 65 people in its Indian operations and has a presence in seven cities.