As part of a major restructuring exercise, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) has integrated all its service offerings under a single brand – TATA DOCOMO. The brand had so far been used only for the operator’s GSM-based mobile services.

“Our CDMA, GSM, 3G and Photon platforms will now be available under the new unified brand of TATA DOCOMO. This will enable our consumers to upgrade to a world of new possibilities in voice and data services, and avail of all services under a single brand. They will no longer have to go through multiple touch-points for our various brands,” says Deepak Gulati, executive president, mobility business at TTSL.

Phasing out brands including Tata Indicom, Tata Photon and Walky for its GSM, CDMA, fixed line and internet data card services will help the country’s sixth largest telecom operator direct its advertisement spends mostly towards TATA DOCOMO. This will improve customer recall and help the company save costs on separate advertisement campaigns.

“We can’t afford to spend on so many brands. Having five different brands leads to multiple spends and fragmented focus. Besides, whatever revenue we earn through marketing will be directed towards acquiring new customers and generating demand for our products,” Gulati adds.

TTSL, which registered 90 million mobile users as of September 2011, originally offered mobile services based on the CDMA platform. In 2009, following Japan’s NTT DOCOMO buying a 26 per cent stake in the company, TTSL began to offer mobile services on the GSM platform as well. The company’s GSM services witnessed huge uptake and in the past two years, its TATA DOCOMO brand enjoyed greater success than any of its other brands.

According to a company statement, the Tata Indicom brand will be a part of TATA DOCOMO wherever TTSL offers GSM services. However, in circles like Delhi where TTSL is yet to launch GSM services, the company will retain the Indicom name. This will also apply to the three circles including Delhi where TTSL does not have a GSM licence.

For the company, this is a major step towards consolidation. Since July 2011, TTSL has been restructuring its operations to integrate the various teams working on CDMA and GSM services into one unit. It has been consolidating its organisational assets – spectrum, retail touch-points, digital footprint and consumer franchises – across technology platforms. The move is aimed at helping TTSL derive internal efficiencies and reduce costs. As part of the new strategy, the company is also planning to have a single website and call centre, and remodel 3,500 stores for providing customer services.

Given that the CDMA business has been stagnating for a while, the company plans to use the new branding exercise to support its services. It plans to make significant investments in this technology platform. The company recently launched Photon Max on its Rev. B platform in five metropolitan cities along with a range of six CDMA handsets and smartphones. Rev. B is the latest CDMA technology, which promises broadband speeds of over 10 Mbps. At present, Photon Max is available in five metros – Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai – and another 22 major cities are set to be covered by the end of the year.

TTSL’s total revenue from non-voice data stands at 25 per cent, which is much higher than that of other mobile service operators (at 14-15 per cent). Therefore, TTSL needs to aggressively expand the penetration of the Tata Photon high speed mobile broadband service network in the country. Tata Photon is currently the largest net access broadband service in India.

“The domestic mobile phone market is increasingly moving towards smart phones, with the segment growing at 77 per cent. It is estimated that by 2013, internet access through mobile phones in India will exceed that via desktops and laptops,” Gulati says.

Meanwhile, Japan-based NEC Corporation has been roped in for deploying its iPASOLINK platform for transforming TTSL’s backhaul mobile transport network. iPASOLINK provides an ultra-flexible mobile transport network for adapting to next-generation IP-based networks.

In all, as Gulati puts it, dual technology is a strategic advantage in the telecom industry, and TTSL will continue to aggressively invest in CDMA, GSM and 3G networks.