Shyam Telelink Ltd, a 74:26 joint venture between the Russian conglomerate, Sistema Corporation (SSA) and India?s Shyam Group, on Tuesday launched their CDMA mobile services in the Rajasthan circle.
The launch marks the first commencement of services by a new licencee, which was awarded license by the department of telecommunications (DoT) last year. It also marks the beginning of mobile services by a Russian telecom major in the country.
Shyam Telelink has a pan-India license in 22 circles and the company plans to complete its presence across the nation by the middle of next year. STL, which has made investments of $1 billion so far, will invest another $1.5 billion by middle of next year, said Vladimir Evtushenkov, chairman Sistema SSA. ?We consider India as one of the most attractive markets with high potential growth. This is in line with our global strategy to enter rapidly developing markets and integrate Sistema SSA into the global community,? Vladimir said.
Speaking to FE, chairman and managing director, Shyam group Rajiv Mehrotra said that the company has also applied for GSM spectrum under dual technology policy. Vladimir added that though the company finds the GSM platform more interesting they would prefer waiting for the spectrum rather than going for any acquisition. Mehrotra said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) should make termination charges cost-based. At present, termination charge is at Rs 0.30 paise per minute but if it is made cost-based the charge would come down to Rs 0.10 per minute. ?Once that happens tariffs would further come down and the consumers would benefit,? Mehrotra said.
India has emerged as the second largest telecom market in the world and the fastest growing one with one of the lowest tariffs. The country is adding around 8 million subscribers every month. With a host of new licencees scheduled to roll out services in the next few months, tariffs are set to come down even further due to competition and tele-density, currently at 29% would get accelerated. ?We will bring a paradigm shift in the way telecom services are provided and consumed in the country. Our aim is to phenomenally increase our footprint and capture a sizeable chunk of the market within a short span of time,? Mehrotra said.
Sistema, which picked up 74% stake in Shyam last year, is the largest diversified corporation in Russia and the CIS, which manages fast growing companies operating in the consumer services sector and has over 100 million customers. It is present in telecom, radio and space technology, banking and real estate, retail, media, tourism and healthcare sector. Its revenues during the second quarter of 2008 stood at $4.3 billion. The company is looking at investing around $4 billion in India and in the next step, its RFID and chip manufacturing company Cetronix is planning to enter India.
?(Travel for this story was sponsored by Shyam Telelink)
