Tata Teleservices Limited, the fastest growing telecom service provider in the country, the Department of Telecommunications and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the leading technical institute in the country, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for developing innovative solutions for ‘inclusive and sustainable growth’ through telecommunications.

The objective of the CoE is to facilitate application research in India with the larger objective of establishing worthwhile competencies in the field of wireless telecommunication and associated areas. The Centre will focus on developing ‘rural applications’ and providing support to the telecom industry in shaping future growth. It will also undertake India-specific application development that matches with the behavioral pattern of the masses and adds value to their day-to-day activities—both economic and social.

“With a vision of taking the economic benefits of developing India to the poorest of the poor through telecommunications, the CoE would perform a unique task in building a nation connected—anytime, anywhere—by developing and strengthening the capability to generate a skilled talent pool, indigenous technological applications, and innovative business models for India,” Mr DS Mathur, DoT Secretary, said.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr Anil Sardana, Managing Director of Tata Teleservices Ltd, said, “This MoU with India’s leading institute is aimed at supporting the growth of the telecom sector in India and further strengthening the government’s program to take telecom to the grass-root level in rural areas. India’s telecom sector is witnessing explosive growth—as falling tariffs and rising incomes are bringing mobile phones within the reach of millions of new customers.”

“Rural India, with huge untapped potential, is a tremendous area of opportunity for telecom players. This, however, would be possible provided ‘access’ could be made more efficient and cost-competitive. We are happy to join hands with IIT, Bombay in setting up this Centre and promoting telecom excellence with the focus on rural India, and are sure that together, we will evolve the means to beam between antennas at low cost,” Mr Sardana added.

“For us, this MoU is a significant step toward developing the foundation for many such alliances that we intend to form, going forward. TTSL is committed to promote R&D activities in the telecom technology space that will eventually enable better and more efficient usage of scarce resources like spectrum,” Mr Sardana revealed. “We are also scouting for similar alliances with institutes and reputed companies in the Global landscape, including the US,” he said.

The center will work toward the creation of a market-ready talent pool and continuous talent building endeavor through ‘training of the trainer’. It will integrate and benchmark technologies that can ultimately form standards for manufacturing or rendering services. The center is conceptualized to create an environment of innovation in the field of telecom to enable absorption of the current technology and develop future ready indigenous capabilities.

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About Tata Teleservices Ltd

Tata Teleservices is one of India's leading private telecom service providers. The company offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers under the Tata Indicom brand, and uses the latest CDMA 3G1X technology for its wireless network. Tata Teleservicesalong with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited operates in more than 4000 towns across 20 circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka, New Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kolkata, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Tata Indicom brand has a customer base of over 21 million.