Focusing on wireless technology TCIL plans a profitable rebound

The company is establishing an e-network between India and African countries to provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities

Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay took charge of Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd TCIL when the company was passing through a bad phase. Its revenues and profits have been falling for the last three years. The challenge before the new chairman and managing director is to revamp the company. In an interview to Manoj Gairola, he spoke about his plans and strategies in view of the changing scenario in telecom and IT. Excerpts:

Why have TCIL8217;s revenues been falling over the last three years?

Not only revenues, our profits have also dropped significantly during this period. TCIL is primarily in the business of providing consultancy and turnkey implementation of projects in telecom IT. Our core strength is in project exports in these fields. We have a good client list in overseas markets, while in India our biggest clients were the government-owned BSNL erstwhile DoT and MTNL. As telecos switched over from predominantly wireline to wireless in the last few years, we faced stiff competition. We are now focusing more on wireless technology. In a number of countries like Myanmar, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Ethiopia, we are already working in wireless technologies both CDMA and GSM.

We have strong presence in Africa, middle East and in South Asian countries. Earlier, telecom networks in this region were mostly government-owned and they used to get substantial funding by multilateral agencies. We were getting a lot of projects through them. As privatisation in telecom took place in these countries, funding by multilateral agencies reduced resulting in fewer access network tenders. This also had an impact on our revenues. Moreover, competition also increased as a result turnover from projects abroad reduced considerably and no major projects could be secured in the last two years.

So, what are your plans to revamp the company?

We are entering into new business areas, expanding our base both in terms of geographical area and in addition of new clients. For example, some of the big projects include National Internet Backbone NIB and Architectural Consultancy in Cyber Park. TCIL has also stepped up its efforts to revive its marketing network overseas. These have yielded good results and the company has been able to secure good projects in the first quarter of this financial year.

What are you doing about your presence abroad

We are establishing an e-network between India and African countries to provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities to the people of Africa. This project is called Pan African e-Network and is valued at 116 million. The company has already completed a pilot project in Ethiopia and with approval of the Union cabinet on Thursday, the project will begin in full pace.

What is the future of TCIL, in wireless?

Outlook for the company is very bright. Due to increasing demand of broadband, the market for fixed line access networks has again come up in India and abroad. Mobile operators are also expanding very fast. In the last three years, TCIL has developed expertise in this area and has started getting contracts from mobile operators. In the field of IT, TCIL has been awarded contracts for SWAN State Wide Area Network for e-governance. TCIL has also entered into strategic alliances for major projects in telecom and IT including GSM-R. It has developed expertise in road construction also.