Orange seeks level turf for telecom foray

Orange, the world's second largest mobile service provider, today said that it would consider a foray into the Indian telecommunication market as the country's services sector "presented tremendous business opportunities".

"The potential is tremendous. But we will enter only when India is ready to open up to us," Orange's Chief Executive Officer Sanjiv Ahuja said at the India-EU Business Summit.

He said, the company, which was investing billions of dollars in new markets in Europe and Africa, had so far refrained from entering India as "it did not present a fair playground to all operators".

He said that India had not completely opened its telecom sector. "Orange would not do business in countries where it would not be able to control the business.... We do not want to just invest in the Indian market, but, want a controlling stake and also generate revenues from it," Ahuja said.

Orange has also evinced interest in providing 3G services in India. 'The impediment is that there has been no progress in allocating 3G spectrum to operators. India has been talking about 3G for a while but nothing has happened on this front,' he said.

Orange was amongst the first operators in the world to offer 3G services though the business has not generated adequate revenue to justify the high licence fee paid by the company.

It was the first to offer TV on mobiles in Europe and is also acknowledged as a market leader in launching and developing application services for TV on mobile. The service provider currently offers about 50 live TV channels to its subscribers.

'An independent entry will enable us to leverage our skills, experience and knowledge base. India can also emerge as our key entertainment and content creator our markets,' Ahuja said. Telecommunications apart, Orange would continue to build upon its IT services and call centre operations in India, he added.