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Foray into long distance telephony

TELEPHONY VENTURE: Mr C.S. Rao (left), Managing Director, BT India, and Mr Sanjay Malhotra, Senior Vice-President, Jubilant Enpro Pvt Ltd, at a press conference in the Capital on Monday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Nov. 13

BT (formerly British Telecom) today formed a joint venture with the $700-million Jubilant Group for foraying into India's long distance telephony segment. The UK-based telecom major has approached the Department of Telecom seeking both national and international long distance licences and is planning to hire 6,000 people within the next two years.

BT is the second major international operator to apply for a long distance licence after AT&T.

While BT will hold 74 per cent stake in the joint venture, the balance will be held by Jubilant Enpro Pvt Ltd, a New Delhi-based company, engaged in the businesses of oil and gas, food and services. Jubilant Enpro is a member company of Jubilant Group, which has diverse business interests including pharmaceuticals, life sciences and specialty chemicals, food services and food retail, oil and gas and trading services.

World-class services

Mr Andy Green, CEO of BT Global Services, said, "India is one of the fastest growing markets for BT and our strategic partnership with Jubilant Enpro will strengthen our ICT deployment in India. With this alliance and under local licensing, customers can be assured of world class end-to-end global services."

BT's initial intention is to provide both domestic and international managed services to corporate customers who have sites in India. It will provide these companies with virtual private network-based (VPN) services using technologies such as ATM and Internet protocol-based multi-protocol label switching (MPLS). Currently, BT assists its customers wanting connectivity to India through an arrangement it has with a local licensed operator.

BT has been present in India since 1987. The company has a 36 per cent stake in Tech Mahindra, a joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra that is focussed on providing IT services.

According to Mr Green, BT has strong growth plans for its Indian operations, predicting that its revenues from India will be $250 million by 2009. BT employs over 15,000 people in Asia Pacific (both directly and indirectly), of which the majority are based in India.

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BT forms joint venture with Jubilant Group

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