MUMBAI: Telecommunications firm Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd aims to boost revenue by 15% annually, riding a broadband surge while a tie-up with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will help grab new deals, a top official said.
The Tata group firm has expanded into network services for corporates and broadband after a sharp fall in telephone call charges hit its revenue.
“We can sustain a growth rate in our business of about 15% a year,” VSNL managing director N Srinath said. “Over the next five years, that effectively is doubling our revenue.”
He said the revenue growth outlook did not factor in possible acquisitions, which the New York-listed VSNL was always evaluating.
VSNL has tied up with TCS to offer networking services and IT applications to customers and expects several contracts from companies.
“We have a very good pipeline both in India and abroad. We do expect to have some good success by the end of the year.” TCS and VSNL had an edge over rivals, he said. “Lot of the competition does not have this. All the major players we fight with — none of them have a strong IT and telecoms story.”
VSNL has about 250,000 retail broadband customers and hopes to reach a million in two years with help of Wi-Max wireless technology for last-mile connectivity. “We have lots of optimism. We are looking at Wi-Max as a very important technology for us.”
It has rolled out Wi-Max for retail customers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and in more than 120 towns for corporate customers.
Srinath said the company was looking for acquisitions to enhance its service offerings, but did not give details. VSNL bought network service firm Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd in 2006 and Tyco International’s global undersea fibre optic cable network unit in 2005.
It was shifting 400 jobs to India from North America and would gain from lower staff costs from next year, he said.
He said African countries, including South Africa where it owns 26% in a fixed-line operator, would be a growth area in the future.
“We believe the African market at some point of time will boom,” Srinath said.
