Wipro and British American Tobacco enter into strategic engagement

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited has entered into a multi-year outsourcing engagement with British American Tobacco, to help the company improve the effectiveness and efficiency of application support services for its global business operations.

Under the agreement, both companies will partner to leverage Wipro's global scale and transformational capabilities to achieve step change results in productivity, IT costs and service quality. More specifically, the agreement will provide an enterprise-wide global application support delivery model and capability, reduce the total cost of ownership and allow more opportunities for value added services to business users of British American Tobacco.

Wipro will be delivering this global program across over 130 countries in which British American Tobacco operates.

GTL infrastructure agrees to purchase Aircel's telecom tower assets

GTL Infrastructure Limited (GTL Infra), a Global Group Enterprise, has reached a definitive agreement to purchase the telecom tower business of Aircel Limited and its subsidiaries (Aircel) in an all cash deal valued at an enterprise value of Rs. 8400 crore. This transaction will make GTL Infra the world's largest independent tower company with a portfolio of more than 32,500 towers across all 23 telecom circles after the completion of the deal. This creates a partnership between Aircel, one of the leading telecom operators and GTL Infra, the leading telecom infrastructure company.

GTL Infra, has structured the transaction through a SPV, to purchase Aircel's 17,500 existing towers that comprise 21,000 tenancies (i.e. a tenancy ratio of 1.20 x). In addition to the existing towers, Aircel will also commit 20,000 towers over a three year period. On completion of this roll-out, GTL Infra is expected to have a portfolio of more than 50,000 towers across 
India. Aircel is the fifth largest GSM mobile service provider and the fastest growing telecom operator in India with over 31 million subscribers. Aircel is promoted by Maxis Communications Berhad, which has a telecom presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, and India and the Apollo Hospitals Group, a premier healthcare provider in India.

On completion of the transaction, GTL Infra would have deployed a capital of Rs. 14,000 crore, for the development of passive telecom infrastructure in India.

The transaction is transformational for GTL Infra and will enable it to target

• Tower base of over 50,000 by FY 2013
• Pan-India presence across all the 23 telecom circles
• Industry leading tenancy of 2.3 on towers by FY 2013
• Decisive competitive advantage to attract new tenants due to pan India presence and enhanced scale

The transaction will also help significantly improve operational efficiencies of GTL Infra. This transaction is subject to regulatory and other approvals, and is expected to be consummated over next four to five months. GTL Infra has been advised by Citi and Barclays as financial advisors for this transaction. Nomura, Rothschild and Standard Chartered were the advisors to Aircel.

HCL Infosystems partners with Motorola to roll out India's first Government Radio Network for Commonwealth Games

HCL Infosystems in partnership with Motorola has won a prestigious project worth approximately Rs. 100 crore from the Delhi Government to establish the country's first exclusive Government Radio Network (GRN). This TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) communication network will facilitate swift and secure communication among various government agencies like the Delhi police, fire services, hospitals, Public Works Department, and the Delhi Transport Corporation during the Commonwealth Games and beyond. The project is a part of Delhi government's vision, fueled by the will and commitment of the capital's premium agencies like the Delhi Police, leaving no stone unturned in providing Delhi a solid security net.

HCL Infosystems and Motorola will jointly collaborate with all Delhi Government departments to deploy a secure communication network for seamless inter-department communication. This network would cover the entire metropolitan area of the capital, including transportation networks such as Delhi Metro Railway Tunnels and New Delhi Airport Terminal-II. The GRN has been designed to minimize the reaction time in the toughest of situations, ensuring minimal call drops and encrypted communication to maintain the highest levels of security.

The GRN is an advanced digital interoperable communication platform that will operate on a secured spectrum and will have 46 base stations. Communication on the GRN is encrypted to ensure security, and unlike other public communication infrastructure, this network is specially designed and built robustly to ensure failsafe performance even during emergencies.

The GRN will help multiple agencies collaborate over a single platform to ensure well coordinated optimum response. In the long run, the GRN will continue to offer options of scalability with easy expansion through additional radio terminals.

Teracom to roll out WiMAX services in maximum number of circles for BSNL

State owned telecom operator, BSNL announced its partners for rolling out WiMAX based broadband services on franchisee model for 16 circles across the country.

The stated numbers of circles are distributed amongst five companies who submitted their Expression of Interest in November last year. Noida based Teracom Limited has created their presence, winning in all the three categories of cities grabbing the maximum numbers of circles. Teracom will roll out in eight circles namely Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, and North East. Cisco systems will be the main technology partner for this project with Teracom Limited.

BSNL had received the bids from five companies: Teracom Limited, Adishwar India, Ampulse, E-mall and Take Solutions. Teracom Limited bid for 14 out of 16 circles leaving the peers far behind. While, Take Solutions bid for 7 circles, Ampulse bid for 5 circles, E-Mall bid for 4 circles and Adishwar bid for 3 circles totaling 33 bids for 16 LSAs.

Elitecore Technologies Ltd. wins the prestigious 2009 Frost & Sullivan Price Performance Value Leadership Award

Elitecore Technologies Ltd. has been awarded the prestigious Price Performance Value Leadership Award for its billing and charging solutions in 2009 by global growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. This award is an acknowledgement of Elitecore's significant contribution to the OSS BSS software market.

The Frost & Sullivan Growth Leadership Award is presented to the company that has demonstrated excellence in generating price advantage for its customers while delivering high value solutions, gaining customer's satisfaction. Frost & Sullivan took into consideration price advantage of product, its ability to meet client's need, and the ease of usage and support services to determine the award recipient.

Elitecore Technologies Ltd. has leveraged its location advantages along with its technical strength to come up with cutting edge billing solutions, which have unique price advantages while meeting the client's need and providing them with greater value.

The onsite and offsite support and professional services provided by the company is at far more competitive prices compared to many other players in the market. Being based out of India, it is preferred by some of the operators for its better understanding of complexities and challenges pertaining to the Indian market.

Its product is also offered in modular format unlike the complete packaged products offered by some of the key players in this market. This enables operators to buy only specific modules as per their requirement, thereby reducing their cost to a significant extent. Its product quality and services have captured the attention of the clients, which has expanded its scope of engagement over the years.

According to Frost & Sullivan, Elitecore Technology Ltd. has created a unique position for itself due to price advantage it offers to its customers. This is clearly reflected in increasing scope of engagement with some of its existing clients.