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Vishwanath Kulkarni

In talks with major telecom operators

Bangalore , Oct. 12

Prompted by the big increase in international voice and data traffic, UK telecommunications firm Cable & Wireless wants to pitch for national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) licences.

Mr John Pluthero, Executive Chairman, Cable & Wireless, on his maiden trip to India, said the company would soon apply for these licences. The company was in talks with several major operators such as Bharti, Reliance Infocomm and VSNL for providing backbone for seamless and comprehensive solutions to its customers, he said.

Cable & Wireless does not plan to have its own infrastructure. However, the company expects to conclude tie-ups with at least two operators for NLD services in the next three-four months, Mr Pluthero said. The company has existing relationship with these vendors for servicing its global customers in India.

Outsourcing

Further, Cable & Wireless is also in talks with three-four top Indian IT vendors including Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services to outsource its IT and non-core business functions such as finance and accounting, Mr Pluthero said. Currently, the company has some 4,000 people employed in these functions.

"We expect to identify the number of jobs that could be moved to India over the next three-four months," he said, adding that the IT and BPO vendors would be finalised by then. Energis, acquired by Cable & Wireless last year, has an outsourcing engagement with Wipro, which has worked very well for us, Mr Pluthero said.

He said that the company does not have any immediate plans to pick up equity stake in the country's basic telecom operators. Cable &Wireless has seen a good growth in India, as more and more British companies have started their operations here. The ongoing outsourcing boom is further driving the growth, as many European firms outsource IT and BPO functions to Indian vendors to cut costs. "We are also seeing increased outbound traffic from India, as more companies and banks expand their operations to Europe," Mr Pluthero said.

Cable & Wireless has been operating in India since 1995 providing managed data, networking and system integration services. Mr Sunanda Das, Country Manager for India, said the company is currently servicing over 130 global customers in India and commands a 25 per cent market share of voice and data traffic to Europe.

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