The Hindu : Business : NTT DoCoMo R&D centre to be in South

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NTT DoCoMo R&D centre to be in South

Special Correspondent

Company launches GSM services in Kolkata

— PHOTO: ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY

VALUE-ADDED SERVICES: Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices, launching GSM services in Kolkata on Thursday.

KOLKATA: India may be the next site for the research and development centre of the Tokyo-based NTT DoCoMo, one of the world’s leading mobile operators and a provider of advanced mobile services. The location of this centre, which will focus on value-added services (VAS), is likely to be in one of the three southern States — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh — even as various locations are being checked out.

Launching the Tata DoCoMo GSM services here, Tata Teleservices Managing Director Anil Sardana said exploratory talks to locate an R&D site here had already begun between the two partners. “India is being targetted to be the next R&D site of DoCoMo. South India is being checked out as a likely location. We are trying to see the details of what we will put there, but R&D on VAS services is being examined — we are trying to see the size and whether VAS can be the epicentre of the facility,” he said. DoCoMo is a global leader in the VAS space, both in terms of services and handset designs. Deepak Gulati, President Tata DoCoMo indicated that the software talent pool of India had helped NTT zero in on India as the preferred location for the R&D centre. NTT DoCoMo at present has two such centres in Japan, and one each in China, the U.S. and Europe, he said.

Mr. Sardana said that by 2009-end, GSM launch would be rolled out all over India barring Delhi. “We have got spectrum allocations in all circles (18 telecom circles) other than Delhi,” he said.

The pay-per-second tariff pioneered by TTSL, he said, would be the most honest and simple tariff. Consequent upon the launch Tata DoCoMo subscribers can call anywhere in India for just one paisa per second.

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