Tata DoCoMo

Tata DoCoMo Limited
Joint venture
Industry Telecommunications
Founded November 2008
Headquarters New Delhi, NCT, India
Area served
 India
Services Mobile network, Fixed wireless, Wireless broadband
Parent Tata Teleservices (73.5%)
NTT Docomo (26.5%)
Slogan "Do the new", "Keep it simple, silly"
Website www.tatadocomo.com

Tata DOCOMO is an Indian cellular service provider on the GSM, CDMA and platform-arising out of the strategic joint venture between Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo in November 2008. It is the country's sixth largest operator in terms of subscribers (including both GSM and CDMA).

History

Further information: Tata Group

Tata DOCOMO is part of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group. The company received the license to operate GSM services in nineteen telecom circles and was allotted spectrum in eighteen of these circles and launched GSM services on 24 June 2009. It began operations first in South India and currently operates GSM services in eighteen of twenty two telecom circles. It has licences to operate in Delhi but has not been allocated spectrum from the Government.[1] Docomo provides services throughout India. Tata DOCOMO offers both prepaid and postpaid cellular phone services. It has become very popular with its one second pulse especially in semi-urban and rural areas.

On 5 November 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector telecom company to launch 3G services in India. Tata DOCOMO had about 42.34 million users at the end of December 2010.[2]

In April 2011, Tata DOCOMO signed Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador on a three year contract. [3] For the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, actors Vijay and Ram Charan Teja are the brand ambassadors respectively.

Rebranding

On 20 October 2011, the Tata Group brought its brands – CDMA, GSM, Walky (Fixed Wireless Phone), Photon, INTERNET – under the Tata DOCOMO name. All subscribers to these services were migrated to the Docomo brand on 20 October 2011.[4] The companies other brands – Virgin Mobile and T24 – are not part of the rebranding and continue to retain their names.[5]

NTT DOCOMO exit

On 25 April 2014, NTT Docomo had announced that they were forced to sell all of their shares in Tata DoCoMo and exit the Indian Telecom as they had incurred a total loss of $1.3 billion. Under the 2009 joint venture agreement between the two groups, NTT Docomo would either increase its stake from 26.5% to 51%, or sell all of its shares, depending on the performance of Tata Docomo in the Indian market.[6] Since Tata was unable to find a buyer for the shares, they had seeked the approval of the RBI, in December 2014, to buy back the shares from NTT Docomo for $1.1 billion, half the price paid by them in 2009. The RBI had approved the deal in January 2015, but however, went back on their decision and disapproved the deal in March 2015, citing FEMA regulations.[7] Theses judgements have forced both companies to seek arbitration at the London Court of International Arbitration.[8]

Network coverage

Tata DOCOMO mobile services are available in the following telecom circles:[9]

State CDMA 2G 3G
Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh Yes Yes Yes
Maharashtra & Goa Yes Yes Yes
Mumbai Yes Yes No
Andhra Pradesh & Telangana Yes Yes No
Bihar & Jharkhand Yes Yes No
Gujarat Yes Yes Yes
Haryana Yes Yes Yes
Himachal Pradesh Yes No No
Karnataka Yes Yes Yes
Kerala Yes Yes Yes
Kolkata Yes Yes No
Odisha Yes Yes No
Punjab Yes Yes Yes
Rajasthan Yes Yes Yes
Tamil NaduYes Yes No
Uttar Pradesh (East)Yes Yes No
Uttar Pradesh (West) Yes Yes Yes
West Bengal Yes Yes No
Assam No No No
North-East No No No
Jammu and Kashmir No No No
Delhi Yes No No

With effect from 17 June 2013, Docomo does not offer postpaid services, on both CDMA and GSM, in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal (except Kolkata).[10]

3G

On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Tata DOCOMO paid INR6964.29 crores for spectrum in 22 circles. These circles obtained 3G licences and they are Madhya Pradesh&Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra & Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh (West).[11]

On 5 November 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector telecom company (third overall) to launch 3G services in India, with a 20 city launch.

On July 19, 2011, Docomo and Aircel entered into a roaming agreement for 3G services to jointly roll out 3G networks in the three circles where they both have coverage (Karnataka, Kerala, and Punjab).[12] On December 14, 2011, Docomo ended its agreement with Aircel. Both operators ended the deal after the Department of Telecom said that such 3G arrangements were illegal, as the pacts violate licence terms and conditions.[13] Tata DOCOMO and Aircel currently have bilateral roaming agreements to allow their subscribers to seamlessly use 3G on roaming. Tata Docomo[14] customers use Reliance GSM's 3G network when they are on roaming in Delhi.

Docomo had about 1.5 million 3G subscribers as of May 2011.[15]

Awards and Recognition

Tata DOCOMO was ranked 64th among India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report 2012, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory. In the Brand Trust Report 2013, Tata DOCOMO was ranked 117th among India's most trusted brands while according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, Tata DOCOMO was ranked 261st among India's most trusted brands. It was among 16 of Tata's subsidiary brands to feature in the report apart from the parent brand. Ratan Tata also featured in the report among India's most trusted 'Personality' brands.[16]

References

  1. ↑ "About Tata DOCOMO | 3G Mobiles in India | 3G Network". Askbiography.com. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  2. ↑ Annual Report 2010 - 2011 - Tata Teleservices
  3. ↑ "Tata DOCOMO ropes in Ranbir Kapoor as brand ambassador". The Times Of India. 2011-04-07.
  4. ↑ "TATA Indicom is Now TATA DOCOMO". Telecomtalk.info. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  5. ↑ Tata Tele Data Products Get New Identity With Docomo Brand
  6. ↑ Reeba Zachariah (26 April 2014). "DoCoMo to exit India at $1.3 billion loss". The Times of India.
  7. ↑ ET Bureau (25 March 2015). "RBI rejects Tata offer for DoCoMo's Teleservices stake". The Economic Times.
  8. ↑ Dev Chatterjee (6 January 2015). "Docomo plans foreclosure action against Tata Sons". Business Standard.
  9. ↑ Biswas, Rudradeep (2012-11-26). "TT Special: 2G Map of India". Telecomtalk.info. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  10. ↑ "Tata Docomo to Shut Down Postpaid Services in Rajasthan, Bihar & West Bengal". Telecomtalk.info. 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  11. ↑ India’s 3G Auction Ends; Operator And Circle-Wise Results
  12. ↑ "Light Reading India – IP & Convergence – Tata, Aircel Join Forces for 3G – Telecom News Analysis". Lightreading.com. 9 January 2011. Archived from the original on 16 August 2011. Retrieved 2014-09-09.
  13. ↑ "Tata Docomo and Aircel Terminate 3G Roaming Deal". Telecomtalk.info. 2011-12-14. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  14. ↑ "Docomo Launches Facility for users to add unused 2g/3g Data". www.wapmasterszone.com. WapmasterZone. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  15. ↑ "PC World Product Latest News | PC World India". Pcworld.in. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  16. ↑ "India's Most Trusted Brands 2014".