AT&T eyes stake in Videocon's Datacom

US telecom giant AT&T is eyeing a stake in Videocon's subsidiary Datacom, which has been issued a license recently for mobile services throughout India.

If the deal fructifies, this would be AT&T's second innings in India's lucrative mobile telephony business. According to sources, the deal may be finalised within a few weeks.

When contacted, an AT&T spokesperson said, "We do not comment on market speculation."

The sources, however, said that AT&T's senior management team will be in New Delhi mid-April, to work out the details, and the US company may tie up as a strategic partner with Datacom, which has announced an investment of Rs 6,000 crore for a pan-India network.

They said that the deal would take shape only after the government allocated spectrum (radio frequency required for wireless telecom services) to the players as a mere license may not fetch a good value.

On the other hand, new players, which have been issued licenses but are awaiting spectrum, have alleged that existing big GSM players have been delaying the process of frequency allocation by indulging in litigation to weaken the case of new entrants.

Among the other new players are Unitech, Shyam Telelink and Swan Telecom.

Datacom has been approached by another foreign player Telephonica of Spain, company sources said, but they did not elaborate.

According to the government's policy to allocate spectrum on a first-come first-serve basis, subject to payment to be made by a licensee, Datacom is first in the list to get frequency for 19 circles other than Delhi and Mumbai and this would give the company further leverage in a deal with a strategic partner.