Arvind Jalota has over 23 years of work experience, having started out as a software professional and worked in the telecom industry for the past 15 years.

In the initial eight years, he was involved in software designing and architecture, in India and internationally. In 2004, he joined Quadrant Televentures Limited (formerly known as HFCL Infotel Limited) as business head, enterprise and carrier business. Aside from achieving substantial growth in the business vertical, he managed major projects for large corporate houses. One of the successful projects was the launch of commercial VSAT services in the XC and KU bands within the stipulated period of nine months – from licence acquisition to service launch. Another was the signing of agreements with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for IPTV services.

Jalota’s next big opportunity came when HFCL Infotel was acquired by Videocon Telecommunications in 2010. He became a part of Videocon and at present is head of the carrier and enterprise business for international and domestic markets, project management and telecom infrastructure development. He was one of the core team members to be given the responsibility of undertaking Videocon’s telecom roll-out in India.

Jalota identifies the roll-out of international long distance (ILD) services for Videocon as his most challenging assignment at the company. Videocon was the last entrant in the highly competitive ILD market, dominated by established players like Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications. “We launched ILD services 12 months back. It was a challenging task to establish our points-of-presence to facilitate traffic on the network,” he says. “In a short span of time, Videocon is supporting 6-7 per cent of the India terminating traffic per month on its network.”

Going forward, Jalota intends to focus on growing the company’s carrier business by expanding its market reach and partnering with telecom majors in the international market. The company also plans to introduce international calling cards in the international market.

Jalota enjoys spending time with his family that includes his wife and two children. He is also a certified mountaineer and has climbed various peaks of up to 16,000 feet in the Lahaul Spiti region.