Spice Comm hires Wipro, Sify for NLD, ILD biz

Spice Communications, the operator of Spice Telecom brand, has roped in IT majors Wipro Technologies and Sify for the rollout of its national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) services. The company is expected to launch these services in the country by the year end.

Wipro was roped in to provide broadband and internet backbone, while the company would use Sify's point of presence (POP) for its NLD operations. The company was also in talks with Chinese telecom equipment major ZTE Corporation for infrastructure, Spice Telecom CEO H N Nanani said.

The company was also in talks with various carriers for its ILD venture, he said.

At present, Spice Communications, which provides GSM services in Punjab and Karnataka, leases bandwidth from other players in the country. Telecommunications majors such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) are the major NLD/ ILD operators in the country.

According to Nanani, the company paid 40 paise a minute for every call to another operator, and venturing into the NLD and ILD segments would help the company cut this cost by half.

"We will able to save around Rs 17 crore a year after commencing the operations," he said.

The company had earlier applied for the licence and the department of telecommunications (DoT) granted a letter of intent to commence the services. Spice Communications can commence operations by paying the licence fee of around Rs 45 crore.

Spice is also looking at expanding its presence to cover all other circles in the country. It has announced plans to raise Rs 520 crore through an initial public offering, which will remain open between June 25 and 27.