Reliance Jio in talks to outsource call centre, back-office operations

  Reliance has started talks with half a dozen BPO companies to outsource call centre and other support work for its Jio telecom operations in what could potentially become one of the most lucrative contracts for the IT-enabled services industry. The service is expected to be commercially launched in the first half of next year. The deal is expected to include customer voice support, know-your-customer and activation services, two people with direct knowledge of the plans said. "The process to outsource this has already begun. The deal will be split between three or four providers and should be concluded in January," a person with knowledge of the outsourcing contract said. Reliance has shortlisted five companies — Serco, Concentrix, Wipro, Aegis and WNS — for the deal, a second person with knowledge of the discussions said, adding that French business process outsourcing company Teleperformance could also be in the reckoning. "Jio is a building a robust infrastructure that will deliver an unmatched customer experience and create new benchmarks in the industry. To achieve this, Jio works with several partners across various functions. As a policy, Jio does not share information about its partners and associates," a Reliance Jio spokesperson told ET in response to an emailed questionnaire. Serco, Concentrix, Wipro, Aegis and WNS had not responded to a request seeking comment at the time of going to press. Though ET could not establish the exact size of the deal, sources said it would initially be in the 'hundred crore range'. "It is hard to pinpoint deal value because Jio isn't fully operational yet. Deal sizes will depend on the number of full-time equivalents needed and that will depend on how much the company grows. But similar deals with telecom companies can go to over a thousand crores over five to seven years," a third source with knowledge of the outsourcing contract said. A full-time equivalent is effectively the number of people required to fulfill a contract. Telecom outsourcing has been a cornerstone of the BPO industry and deals are split across several outsourcing providers.

Reliance Jio launches 4G for employees

 Mukesh Ambani introduced his much-touted 4G telecom services on Sunday evening, restricting it only for Reliance employees for now, as the petroleum-to-retail corporate giant prepares to shake the telecom industry with a full-bloodied launch around March next year. For Ambani, this is the second calling in the telecom business after his first venture, Reliance Communications, went into the kitty of younger brother Anil as part of a family settlement between the siblings. On offer from Reliance Jio Infocomm will be low-cost 4G devices (under 'Lyf' brand) costing as low as Rs 4,000 and a host of services along with the regular voice and data. These will include a big collection of music (Jio Beats); around 200 television channels with back-up (Jio Play) and movies (Jio on-demand). At the commercial launch, Ambani is expected to go in for an aggressive pricing for his offerings which are expected to come bundled with a host of SIM cards (to make it a family offering) and large data-pack plans. The telecom entry is one of the group's most ambitious project to date (after retail) and it has pumped in nearly Rs 1 lakh crore into the business which aims to take on the established telecom behemoths such as homegrown Bharti Airtel, Britain's Vodafone and Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular head-on.

Ericsson eyes huge opportunities from mergers in telecom sector

Ericsson expects the ongoing consolidation in the Indian telecom industry to offer a big business opportunity to the Swedish telecom gear maker's managed services business. New Mexico's Unique Architectural StyleAFAR Are Multiple Sclerosis Patients Experts?Living Like You by Novartis Recommended By Colombia "It is a potential opportunity specifically from managed services view point. We do multivendor managed services, and are already managing all the other vendors in India," Jeroen Dorrestein, vice president and head of operations, Ericsson India, told ET. "Large consolidation opens up the market because it brings new dynamics, it brings bigger parties," he said. Reliance Communications (RCom) is the biggest managed services customer of Ericsson in India. The company currently has around 15,000 people involved in managed services operations. It plans to increase this number going ahead. "We have big-big ambitious plans on growing business. If you double your services business, then you are going to need more people," Dorrestein said. Ericsson also has Bharti Airtel as one of its oldest managed services partner. Asked if the company is planning to work with Reliance Jio, he said, "We have an ongoing engagement with Reliance Jio. We have a number of projects ongoing -- we are supplying a number of solutions. We have a couple of teams on the ground that provides services."

No current plans for VoLTE

  Idea Cellular, the country's third largest telco by subscribers, said it has the capability to introduce Voice of LTE (VoLTE) technology, but it would do so only when the ecosystem is ready and matured in India. Idea's views echo those of market leader Bharti Airtel, but are in complete contrast to Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is planning mainly a VoLTE-based rollout and is banking on the software patches to make VoLTE enabled as many handsets as possible. VoLTE stands for voice calls provisioned over a 4G LTE data network, instead of the circuit switched 2G or 3G networks that are commonly used. VoLTE allows voice to become just another app that rides on a LTE data network. "The deployment of VoLTE will be evaluated at a later stage," the company said in a statement. Currently, 6 million 4G devices are registered on Idea's pan-India network and are growing at an exponential rate. Idea said its existing customers' current 4G smartphones do not support the VoLTE feature. The Aditya Birla group company, which launched 4G services in four telecom circles, is deploying 'Single RAN' equipment that supports multiple technologies in a given frequency band. For every 4G site on 1800MHz, this equipment also provides additional 2G voice capacity on GSM spectrum, it said.

Reliance Jio differs with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on spectrum cap, reserve price of airwaves

Reliance Jio Infocomm has disagreed with GSM telcos Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on spectrum limits for operators and the reserve price of airwaves to be auctioned, although it concurs that bandwidth for high-speed mobile broadband services shouldn't be offered for sale any time soon. Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio, in a submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), said the government must abolish the cap on the amount of airwaves an operator can hold in a band, while retaining the overall limit of 25% in a circle. Responding to the regulator's consultation paper on valuation of the reserve price of airwaves in various bands, the company said, "Since the auctioned spectrum is technology neutral, intra-band spectrum caps have become redundant." Jio said band caps can constrain service providers and they are forced to opt for multiple bands. This takes away the benefits of a higher quantum of spectrum for mobile broadband services in terms of enhanced spectral efficiencies. However, other members of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) including Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, suggested that the cap within a band should be retained at 50% and sought an increase in the overall cap in a circle from the current 25%.