UK cell firm O2 eyes tie-ups

O2, the British mobile communication service provider, is in talks with Indian cellular operators for strategic tie-ups to market its high-end personal digital assistant phones in the country.

The company, which had recently launched the XDA IIi, the latest of its XDA series of PDA phones, has held discussions with both Bharti (which provides mobile services under the Airtel brand) and Hutchison-Essar for a marketing venture of its handsets, vice president, sales and distribution, O2 Asia, Chia Eng Keat, told Business Standard.

"Operator alliance is a key to increasing our market share in high-end convergence devices. O2 has been working with its key regional alliances across Asia," he said.

O2 views partnerships with Bharti and Hutch as an extension of its alliances in Asia. In Singapore, it is associated with SingTel, which is the largest foreign investor in Bharti. It has has a partnership with Hutchison in Hong Kong to offer PDAs.

Both Airtel and Hutch have already tied with BlackBerry and Motorola respectively to sell PDAs through their networks.

"With the average revenue per user in India on the decline, we are confident that premium data deveces will bring in additional revenues for the operators," he said.

The company is also buoyed by the success of its Xda II Mini in India. "When we launched this PDA in December, 2004, with a target of 200 handsets per month. However, we have been selling over 2,000 units a month," Keat added.

O2's strategy for India also involves establishing more outlets and increased advertising and roadshows for product promotion. "We are also working on the servicing aspect," he said.

"Indian operators will soon offer 3G services. We will launch 8-10 multimedia smart phones by October to address this top-end segment," he added.

O2's latest handset, the Xda IIi, is an advanced version of its Xda II PDA, but retains the core functions of the popular Xda II platform.

This lightweight, voice-enabled PDA with a high quality 1.3 Mp camera, fully integrated Wireless LAN connectivity, the latest Windows 2003 2nd edition software, also boasts of a 520MHz processor, whcih makesit the fastest PDA in the market.