Tata Nova operations to come under Tata Teleservices ambit

Anindita Dey

Mumbai, Jan 6: Tata Internet Service Provider (Tata ISP), popularly known as Tata Nova, will be shortly operating as part of Tata Teleservices following the group’s plan to merge Tata ISP with Tata Teleservices.

According to officials, Tata ISP has already started operating in association with Tata Teleservices and is on its way to be merged as a single entity — Tata Teleservices. While the modalities are in the process of finalisation, the merger will be over in the coming fiscal, ie, 2002-2003, said officials.

The decision to merge has been taken with a view to bring the Tatas’ voice and data communication services under one umbrella, official sources said. On similar lines, it is also understood that the group is mulling over a proposal to bring the operations of Tata Net, a division of Nelco which deals with very small aperture terminals (VSAT), in association with Tata Teleservices. However, the officials of Tata Net could not be contacted for confirmation.

Earlier, in order to leverage maximum benefit out of individual capacities, the Tata group had worked out a policy of integrating the operations of three group communication companies — Tata Communications Ltd (now part of Birla-Tata-AT&T-BPL), Tata Teleservices and Tata Internet Service Providers (Tata ISP) — for working in co-ordination, while maintaining independence of operations and individual identity.

Further, the group is in the process of positioning Tata Teleservices as the special purpose vehicle (SPV) through which it will route its investments in the telecom sector. Tata Steel presently has substantial investments in two of the telecom companies of the Tata group — Tata Teleservices and Tata Cellular.

Tata Nova of Tata ISP is the dial-up access service and has a dedicated bandwidth that assures fast surfing and downloads and has set a target of one lakh retail subscribers by the end of the current fiscal. The company also plans to make a significant foray into public Internet centre with over 2,000 centres across the country. To this effect, it has already tied up with Bharat Petroleum to set up such centres at their key outlets in major cities.