Syed Safawi, president, wireless business, RCOM
Reliance Communications (RCOM), an integrated telecom operator offering both CDMA and GSM mobile services across the country, crossed the 100-million mobile customer mark on March 15, 2010, In an interview with tele.net, Syed Safawi talks about the company’s growth story so far and business strategies going forward. Excerpts…
What did it take to cross the 100- million subscriber mark? What will be the next step?
The momentous achievement of 100 million customers has been attained in less than seven years of going pan India. RCOM is the world’s youngest and fourth largest single-country mobile services operator to achieve this landmark. It is the company’s values and undying spirit that have materialised this, coupled with its “Transformation to Leadership” initiative. The initiative, christened as R2.0, is a 360 degrees programme to transform the organisation.
R2.0, which is a new way of life, will measure our business health differently. It defines where are we today, where do we want to go and how do we get there.
We have defined “winning” at every level. Earlier, if it was about leadership in customer market share, now it is about incremental revenue market share. We have set an objective to achieve 20 per cent revenue market share over the next three years and iRMS leadership year on year. We have defined nine strategic pillars and six enablers that will constantly drive us to achieve the organisation vision and have also clearly laid down the measures to define success.
RCOM has also automated its operational structure. Thus, a person sitting in Mumbai can see what progress is taking place at the national, regional, hub, circle, cluster and site levels. We have equipped and empowered our teams to win at the site level.
The next big change is that everyone in the organisation, from a foot soldier to the CEO, will have a significant portion of their salaries linked to meeting revenue market share targets.
The incentives will no longer be calculated on an annual basis but on a quarterly basis. In such a hyper competitive environment, you have to win every day and thus the annual incentives become irrelevant.
What is the company’s strategy for adding the next 100 million users?
We are on a transformation journey. Our clearly defined road map through “Transformation to Leadership” and a focus on achieving iRMS leadership will enable us to add 100 million customers in the next 1,000 days. Our welldefined strategic pillars and enablers, along with the company’s new vision, will drive us to our target.
What is RCOM’s investment plan for 2010-11? How are you planning to finance that investment?
Our peak capital expenditure is behind us. We will continue to invest continuously in improving our network, customer care and technological innovations. We are free cash flow positive. RCOM has diversified operations in various segments including VAS, IPTV, DTH and retail. What is the revenue contribution of these segments?
As a policy, we do not share segmented revenues in such detail due to competitive reasons.
While the company has maintained its second place in the wireless subscriber market, how will you ensure that its share in the revenue market is also growing?
RCOM is the largest integrated telecom operator in the country, offering services on both the CDMA and GSM platform. Our CDMA customers are the core base and we are challengers in GSM.
Our market leadership in the CDMA segment combined with our recent panIndian entry into the GSM space will give us an opportunity to go after revenue growth in the future.
GSM is likely to be used more for voice services while CDMA, with its superior 3G-enabled data capabilities, will deliver content-rich data and voice applications.
RCOM will focus on the quality of customers and segmented ways to increase their usage pattern. For its CDMA customers, the company will upgrade handsets and provide better choices to customers. On the GSM front, the company will continue to increase the quality of customers by focusing on revenue-earning customers.
We shall strive to offer our CDMA and GSM services in new geographies and make it the most technologically superior service in India.
Which segments are likely to receive greater thrust in the coming years?
RCOM has a core base of data card users who are high-ARPU customers. We are market leaders here by a significant margin. We will drive data, will be aggressive in GSM and grow the core CDMA base which is very stable.
Our high-speed 3G-enabled data services will soon be available in 100 towns while our 1x service is offered in over 20,000 towns. The data speeds in CDMA are far superior.
We are focusing on and will aggressively push services like m-commerce and new-age VAS. The other segment is handsets, which will witness variety in the times to come. With the telecom industry gearing up for 3G service launch, the 3G-enabled handset ecosystem will also evolve rapidly.
RCOM has ambitious plans to strengthen its presence in the smartphone segment and generate high ARPUs through mobile data usage. The company is entering into a tie-up with Nokia to launch Nokia’s proprietary NMS service on its network.
What is your view on the ongoing 3G and broadband wireless access spectrum auctions? What are RCOM’s plans for this?
Since the 3G auctions are under way, it would not be appropriate to comment on this subject at this stage.
What is your view on the ongoing tariff war? Is it sustainable?
The ongoing tariff war plaguing companies could well be over because the new operators launching services are getting more rational on the tariff front. There will be more emphasis on customer experience and quality of customers acquired through various initiatives. Segmented offerings will gain more prominence over irrational base plans.
What key trends do you foresee in the telecom sector?
A strong move towards 3G-enabled applications in the areas of new-age VAS, for example multi-portal gaming, video streaming, etc., is inevitable. Also, the mobile phone will become the centre of commercial transactions. It will truly become a mobile wallet.
Recent initiatives:
