Jamshedpur, June 16: A new product in an old package is the new mantra of Tata Steel.
In a recent move the company has begun a slow but steady shift from its current Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) mobile phones to the Indicom.
After the sky-rocketing sale figures of Indicas ever since Tata Steel along with other Tata companies took to patronising the car in the city, it is now the turn of the Tata Teleservices to sail into happier times.
At present, the company has taken about 1,000 mobile connections and about 700 Walkies (landlines). But if officials of Tata Teleservices are to be believed the numbers are expected to multiply soon.
Sanjay Choudhury, head Corporate Communication, Tata Steel said, ?Yes we have taken to Indicoms. But it is not that we are switching over from BSNL. We have retained them and are additionally taking Indicoms.?
Although BNSL sources claimed that the move will not affect their revenue from the region, but if the elation among officials of Tata Teleservices is any indication, then it is sure to leave its imprint behind. ?It is only a few Tata Steel officers who have surrendered their phones. But that is just a nominal number,? BSNL sources added.
Numbers is definitely not what economics of the shift may be all about. ?We had launched out phones in December and currently we have about 35,000 connections from just one city in the state, which is not a bad figure. Therefore we are not looking for an increase in the number of connections from the subscription by the Tata companies,? said Rajesh Puri, COO Eastern Region, Tata Teleservices.
?On an average a typical customer bills is Rs 425 to Rs 450 per month but the figure changes drastically for an industrial user. It usually hovers around the Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 mark. That multiplied by the 5 per cent increase in number of connections from the Tata Steel is not a bad revenue to start with,? he explained.
With such numbers to deal with, Tata Teleservices on its part is leaving no stone unturned to live up to the expectations. ?Unlike any typical operator in Jamshedpur who have about 12 base stations, we have 22. Besides, in Telco that suffers a huge connectivity problem we have installed repeaters in many buildings for proper connectivity at a cost of about Rs 10 lakh. We are also covering areas where Tata Steel have their mines as well as providing good connectivity in Orissa,? said Puri.
