Datacom may shelve Orissa operations

Datacom Solutions, the telecom company promoted by the Videocon group, may shelve its Orissa operations. The company has asked its employees recruited for the Orissa operations to put in their papers or face termination without any benefit.

Already three employees including the head of the project in Orissa have resigned and the remaining 16 employees are likely to follow suit soon.

The company started recruitments in August-September 2008 for its operations in the state. About 60 candidates were selected for different positions and 19 were given offer letters to work in the tower infrastructure, sales, human resources and administration departments.

The company has got unified access service license (UASL) across 22 circles and 2G spectrum to start operations in five states — Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. While the project work in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu has taken off, it is in the process of starting in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The company’s move to shelve the Orissa project is in sharp contrast to other telecom infrastructure companies planning to start their operations in the state. Companies such as GTL, Quippo, American Towers Company (ATC), Independent Mobile Infrastructure (IMIL) have already recruited more than 50 employees each and are moving ahead with their projects in the state.

Meanwhile, the company’s move is causing a lot of problem for its Orissa employees.