Samsung fetches 30-40% revenues for Tata Indicom

Tata Indicom’s revenues have surged since its tie-up with Samsung mobiles, currently accounting for 30-40 per cent of the company’s sales in Kolkata from the sale of this bundled offer.

According to Sanjeev Sinha, regional head-east and COO of Kolkata Circle, Tata Teleservices, “Samsung has proved to be a good revenue partner for us. Around 30-40 per cent of our sales in Kolkata is with the Samsung handsets.”

Qualcomm, a leading developer of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, had joined Tata Teleservices (TTSL) for offering data services based on Qualcomm's BREW solution.

With this, TTSL reportedly attributes 80 per cent of its value-added services (VAS) revenue to non-SMS services and is a way forward in strengthening its average revenue per user (ARPU) in India. Devices launched on Qualcomm's QSC solution with full BREW capability, like the Samsung Explore and Huawei 2900i, which are based on Qualcomm's chip, offer internet browsing experience at attractive price points.

Tata Zone, the VAS portal for Tata Indicom, offers more than 500 BREW data applications that are available on handsets from leading OEMs such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, Huawei and Kyocera. Popular applications such as ringtones, wallpapers, games and email are pre-installed on devices. TTSL also has launched BREW in Hindi, which is expected to enhance the BREW uptake in non-urban areas and augment revenues from traditionally low ARPU locations.

Among other plans, Tata Indicom is planning to introduce high-speed-internet-access (HSIA) soon. “We have already rolled it in Chennai and next stop will be Kolkata,” Sinha said.

Tata Indicom invested close to Rs 600 crore in 2008-09.

“Our investment for the next fiscal will be lower as we do not need to spend the same amount on infrastructure and network building any more,” Sinha said.

Currently Tata Indicom has a 15 per cent market share in Kolkata with approximately 456 towers. The company has close to 1.5 million subscribers in Kolkata right now, of which 1.25 million are on prepaid. It has 170 branded outlets in Kolkata.

Tata Indicom also recently launched ‘holi offer’ with Samsung colour handset with local and STD talk-time worth 1,200 minutes free.