The Hindu Business Line : `Tata Tele to focus on wireline this year'

Mr Darryl Green is CEO of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and the first expat CEO of an Indian telecom services company. He had been President & CEO at AT&T in Japan and held the same post in Global Crossing Japan as well as in Vodafone Japan.

Over the last year TTSL, under his leadership, has been more aggressive, its most distinctive move being the introduction of the non-stop mobile offer.

TTSL also grew the fastest among pan-Indian operators in subscriber base during the year.

In an interview to Business Line, Mr Green talked about his plans for the company.

Where do you want to take TTSL and how do you plan to take the company there?

We want to be the first to market with things, we want to try to be the first over there with this service or that product. I believe that that is the way to build a strong brand. I believe we will be the first to market with a number of things.

The second thing is, we are establishing a ruthless meritocracy. We have clearly defined objectives for the year that are laid out and have to be met.

We have been faced with problems - the ADC problem about Walky, for instance. But we must meet the situation, whatever the situation, we must figure out a way of doing it.

What are TTSL's expenditure plans for the year?

We have Rs 4,000 crore of capex for this year for our network buildout. A good part of this will go towards our wireline expansion. We hadn't focused on the wireline business for some time; we had been building out our mobile side. But we have a very good wireline business among enterprise and corporate customers and we'd like to build on it. We need to lay more fibre.

Why did you decide to take up an India assignment? And how long will you be here?

It was really a choice. I did have an offer from one of the top 10 telecom companies in the world to set up a value-added services unit - it was a very good package too.

But the romance of working for the Tata group in India, which is also one of the most exciting telecom markets, was compelling. I am also interested in history, and this also was another factor. I have a lot of interest in China too for this reason. I am here indefinitely.

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