Tarun Kumar Chief Technology Officer, Tikona Digital Networks
Tarun Kumar, chief technology officer at Tikona Digital Networks, is also a co-founder of the company. He has been directing its technology strategy since its inception and is responsible for the design, deployment and operation of its network and IT infrastructure.
Kumar has over 22 years of industry experience spanning IT, broadband and digital broadcast technologies. He has successfully deployed and managed the operations of many technology-intensive projects, including enterprise and retail broadband business service solutions, cutting-edge interactive IPTV over metro Ethernet networks, service delivery platforms for new age products and broadband radio access networks. Prior to Tikona, Kumar worked with Reliance Communications. He earlier worked with Hughes Telecom (now Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited) in its formative years.
Kumar considers the founding of Tikona as his most memorable career move. “We started in 2008 with three people on the rolls and now have about 3,000 people associated with the company. We have been able to establish a base of about 300,000 customers over the past seven years,” he says.
According to Kumar, “While revenues from voice services have saturated, data is on a growth path. Users are adopting more economical voice solutions, such as over-the-top applications, and this is killing voice. Usage on the go and at home is increasing and more and more people are watching movies and serials on their laptops and smartphones using the internet. This will push up the demand for data. Tikona will continue to focus on the fixed broadband market and provide affordable broadband to users.”
Kumar’s biggest strength is that he is technology savvy. “I look inside the box rather than just at the box,” he says. He is passionate about the work he does. “I love to interfere with technology, modify it and make it more feasible, economical and affordable for end-users,” he explains. However, his high level of motivation and involvement makes him expect too much in too little time.
Kumar is an electronics and communications engineer with a master’s degree from the IIT, Delhi. In his spare time, he likes browsing the internet and watching technology-related videos. He also likes to spend time with his family, which includes his wife, a railway officer, and their two college-going daughters.
