The past year has been a busy one for Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL). The company undertook several domestic and international projects, and expanded its footprint in new markets. In an interview with tele.net, Vimal Wakhlu, chairman and managing director, TCIL, discusses the challenges faced by the company and its plans for the current year…
How has the company performed over the past year? What have been some of its important achievements?
Last year, we improved our turnover and profitability as compared to 2011-12. We also executed a few new projects during this period. For instance, we undertook a network implementation and modernisation project for Sierra Tel, a telecom service provider based in Sierra Leone.
We also undertook fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) projects in Saudi Arabia and Mauritius, and began working on FTTH engineering for Reliance Industries Limited in India.
What are the key focus areas for TCIL?
Currently, the company?s key focus areas are telecom, IT, e-governance, project management and green energy. We have been operating in the e-governance space for quite some time now and have undertaken several new projects in security such as the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems, which is being implemented in about eight states. Besides, we are exploring various options in the field of e-waste management. In this regard, we have approached a few PSUs and are currently in talks with them. We feel that this segment has tremendous potential. In each of the aforementioned projects, TCIL functions as a system integrator. For example, in an e-governance project, our scope of work includes sourcing hardware/software providing services and system integration. After the project has been executed, we continue maintaining the systems.
What technology trends do you foresee in the Indian telecom sector?
Two key trends are already beginning to take shape. First, new technologies such as 4G are picking up in a big way and we expect significant network transformation to take place within a year as several telecom operators seriously consider 4G as a viable business proposition. Second, machine-to-machine communication will gain significant traction in India.
In a nutshell, information and communication technology (ICT) is utilised in practically every field including education, health care, agriculture, power, water management and e-governance. Therefore, the sky is the limit with regard to applications that can be utilised for meeting various Millennium Development Goals.
What are your views on the central government?s radiation emission norms for telecom towers? What role does the company play in implementing them?
Effective September 2012, the government tightened the radiation norms to nearly one-tenth of what they were initially. This has been a positive step, especially in light of various global case studies that highlight the health problems caused by high doses of RF radiation.
There has been a lot of discussion on this subject in India as well. In this context, the government gave us the task of measuring radiation levels in buildings and residential areas in Mumbai. This was undertaken on a complaint basis and individuals could pay Rs 4,000 to get the radiation levels in their buildings measured. We would take measurements and give the client a report on the spot. This initiative was launched after the new emission norms came into practice. In most cases, our assessment indicated that the radiation levels were well within the prescribed limits. This implied that all service providers had broadly complied with the new norms.
What is the outlook for the 4G service segment? What initiatives is TCIL planning to take to tap the business opportunities offered by this segment?
The throughput available for 4G is substantial ? 100 Mbps ? and several applications can be supported only on this bandwidth. Although 3G may be sufficient for some applications, there are limitations. For instance, there is a substantial difference in throughputs in static, nomadic and mobile conditions. Usually, a 2 Mbps throughput is applicable in the context of a static condition. So when consumers are on the move, they may be able to avail of only 100 kbps connectivity. That is a major challenge with 3G networks. With 4G technology, however, an optimal amount of bandwidth is available for heavy applications such as streaming movies and online gaming.
For instance, a 3G connection would not be sufficient to access services such as health care and education applications, whereas a 4G network will better serve users for the same. However, backhaul is a challenge. To address this, the government has launched the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project. Initially, the project will link about 250,000 villages with gram pachayats at 100 Mbps or more bandwidth. This would encourage service providers to enter this domain, which is otherwise commercially challenging as it is difficult to set up backhaul infrastructure in these areas. TCIL prepared the blueprint for the NOFN project.
FTTx is also a part of the decentralised architecture of 4G networks. TCIL leads in the implementation of this technology and is working with a few leading service providers for executing projects in India.
What trends do you foresee in the optic fibre cable (OFC) market?
Overall, there is infinite potential in this market as in the long run, all households in the country will be connected by fibre. At present, fibre is a medium which offers substantial bandwidth and, over the past few years, the uptake of bandwidth-hungry applications has been increasing. This, in turn, has resulted in a greater demand for bandwidth. In the near future, projects like Network For Spectrum (for the defence forces), the NOFN and other government initiatives aim at laying over a million kilometres of OFC in the country.
Therefore, fibre will be extended to the majority of homes in urban areas and will support content such as video-on-demand, gaming and education. In particular, the field of education will be able to leverage this technology to the fullest as campuses can be connected via this medium. So, OFC will be an important connectivity medium over the next few decades at least.
What role does the company play in rolling out telecom services in rural areas?
TCIL has rolled out several OFC-based networks in urban and rural areas. We have executed a number of such projects in other countries as well. For example, in Nepal, we implemented the East-West Highway, which was a challenging project given the local weather conditions, terrain, etc. Implementing such networks in rural India is relatively easier, though there could be challenges in certain areas in states like Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
What are the key challenges faced by TCIL?
Most of the projects launched by the government are based on a build-own-operate-transfer model. The biggest challenge while implementing such projects is lack of adequate funds. This is a major issue for our company as the government has invested only Rs 3 million in TCIL so far. We have paid a dividend of nearly Rs 1.79 billion till now. We are not a cash-surplus company and with limited funds, we will not be optimally positioned to implement such projects.
Another challenge before us was the rupee depreciation. When one takes up domestic projects, one has to import equipment. If the currency goes haywire, like it did in 2013, it impacts us adversely. International projects do not face these issues. However, for undertaking international projects, one requires adequate credentials in one?s own country. Hence, domestic projects are important.
What are the company?s investment and operational plans for 2014-15?
For the next financial year, we are expecting a few large-scale projects to materalise. We are already in the reckoning for some projects in India and abroad. We expect TCIL to register an all-time high turnover. Besides telecom projects, we hope to undertake more projects in the ICT domain, such as the non-cloneable ID project.
The company?s primary focus areas will still be telecom and IT. Business is expected to be generated from the civil and architectural fields as well. Moreover, we plan to increase our focus on our international business, especially in existing markets like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Our international businesses currently account for nearly 60 per cent of overall revenues.
