The company is in talks with Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company, a West Asian consortium, for providing global mobile personal communications services (GMPCS) in India and the SAARC region.

TCIL chairman and managing director A Bansal confirmed that talks were on sayiny that, "we want to set up and operate gateways for satellite telephony with a regional company like Thuraya."

Speaking to The Financial Express at the ITU Telecom '99 conference here, Bansal said that it made better sense for his company to address the regional market, instead of venturing into global services like Iridium, ICO and Globalstar. "We do not want to repeat the mistake made by others," he added.

Bansal disclosed that TCIL was also negotiating with Europstar for providing multimedia broadcast services. Europstar, in which telecom major Alcatel holds 49 per cent stake, is a Ku-band broadcast platform.

In addition, TCIL is also close to clinching a $60-million deal with Zimbabwe Posts & Telecom for setting up a 80,000 line fixed phone network.

The project involves setting up the entire network involving switches, transmission and access network in Zimbabwe.

TCIL has also bid for a 51 per cent stake in Uganda Telecom and intends entering into a strategic partnership for telecom services in the country. "Our bid has been pre-qualified and the financial offer will also be submitted soon," said Bansal.

Stating that TCIL was planning to increase its operations across the globe, Bansal said that the company's turnover would increase to Rs 750 crore by March, 2000. "We are aiming to grow exponentially, thereafter to touch Rs 1000 crore by 2001," he added.

Explaining the rationale behind this, TCIL executive director Subodh Saxena said that conditions were very favourable for operating and maintaining a network in Uganda. "The employees of Uganda Telecom have signed a VRS agreement and the incoming company will be able to pick up new persons," he said. He added that this arrangement would work in favour of the incoming company and go a long way in providing world-class telecom services.

TCIL, in conjunction with Hexacom (Shyam Telecom's cellular venture in Rajasthan and North-East), has also started bidding for cellular projects in West African countries including Botswana, Benin and Togo, among others.

"We want to be a global leader in telecom by using reliable and low-cost indigenously developed technology in basic and cellular services," said Bansal. He added that TCIL had emerged as the only serious contender for setting up a basic service network in Bangladesh.

The government of Bangladesh had recently called for tenders for basic service operations and decided to provide funds to the tune of Rs 30 crore for the project.

TCIL has also identified countries in the CIS, South-East Asia and Latin America and intends to open offices in these regions shortly. The company already has 14 offices and executed projects in 44 countries. The company provides consultancy in the banking, oil, transport, irrigation, power, fertilisers, mining, defence, health and public utility sectors.