Rising competition and slow growth in the telecom space had made Videocon Telecom to develop its own USP by focusing on the ‘Hindi’ speaking belt of the country covering 47% of the total population. Arvind Bali, chief executive officer and director, Videocon Telecom in an interview to Prashant Mukherjee says, that the company is likely to become EBITDA positive within next 1 year and plans to rollout 4G services on the 1800 Mhz spectrum by end of this year. The company strategy is to take the price warrior route and offer the best value-for-money tariffs to our customers. Excerpts…
The telecom industry went through a regulatory setback with the 2G scam, with your licenses getting cancelled as well. How do see the way forwardIJ
Despite having received a clean chit from CBI, our telecom licenses were cancelled vide Supreme Court order dated 1st February 2012, except for the Punjab Circle. Not to be bogged down by the setback, we made a strategic come back in the domestic telecom sector after successfully bidding for six circles in early 2013. These circles are Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Bihar (Punjab circle was already operational). The objective in mind was to cover the Hindi speaking belt of the country covering 47% of the total population. This Hindi belt is a strategic revenue earner as it accounts for 31% of the total revenue market share of the industry and 39% of the total customer market share.
What are your plans for coming yearsIJ
Our immediate plan is to rollout out services in remaining 3 circles i.e Uttar Pradesh East, West and Bihar within one year. Further, we plan to become the first telco in the country to rollout 4G lTE FDD services on the 1800 Mhz spectrum within the immediate future.
Our ambition is to ensure fair customer market share and revenue market share in our operating circles within next 2 years and to become EBITDA positive within next 1 year and hold the distinction of being the fastest EBITDA positive telco in the country.
We also nurture the ambition of becoming a Pan-India player once again, but will seek to achieve it in a phased manner. Right now, our focus is on having a strategic presence in seven telecom circles, which constitute the Hindi-speaking belt of the country. Once we successfully roll out across all these circles, we shall definitely look at acquiring spectrum for newer circles, however in a phased manner, by picking select circles in one go and eventually expanding, forming a strategic corridor.
How do plan to cope up with huge competition among several operators in the marketIJ What would be your USPIJ
With nearly 7 to 10 telcos competing in the market place, there is fierce competition with everybody trying to grab the biggest pie in the share of New Adds. More than first time users, the market primarily is a churn market where the deal seekers take advantage of the low MOPs and tariff/freebies advantage to avail new connections and hop from one brand to other.
We believe that there is a room for everybody in the market place, and our strategy is to take the price warrior route and offer the best value-for-money tariffs to our customers to ensure acquisition and engagement. The way we see, the telecom business is a minute factory and owing to our production background, we are very cost-conscious, which gives us an edge over others. Our expertise on cost control and latest network allows us to produce minutes at a much lower cost compared to others. It is thus based on this expertise that we have been able to pass on the benefit to customers through comparatively lower prices. Our tariffs are much better than competition and we would continue to offer 20-25% better value than others, to our customers.
According to you what will be the next big thing will happen in the mobile market in near future, and is our country ready for thatIJ
Further, we feel that data will be the next significant growth driver for the industry. While we missed the bus when it came to taking the first mover advantage on basic voice services, we would ensure that we take the first mover advantage on data front by rolling next gen 4G lTE FDD services in the country on the popular 1800 Mhz spectrum for the service. The India telco market is hugely untapped when it comes to data and thus holds huge potential, which we seek to supplement with this innovative move.