by Paul Gibson
Home >> Gold Rush
Since 1990, AT&T has merged with over 14 different companies to form the largest telecom operator in the world. The company began their shopping spree with CEO Edward Whitacre at the helm of the ship. But now that the company is under new management, the shopping has ceased, but operations have just got started.
For a long time, the original mergers carried out by the telephone operator were designed to boost profits, while adding value to the company’s overall share value in the marketplace. But now Mr. Stephenson has the company’s eyes set on a potential bombshell: India.
According to Mr. Stephenson, the marketplace in India, with over 500 million potential wireless users, is the perfect emerging market in the telecom industry. Together with countries like China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, India represents a potential gold mine for the first ones to get there.
And the race has already begun. Earlier this year, the Indian government loosened certain restraints to foreign investment in India, allowing major telecoms like AT&T to buy into the Indian market. Their first move was to acquire local telephone carrier, Telecom Mahindra and acquire the necessary licenses to operate. They are already spending millions in installation of network infrastructure to increase the amount of data they can transmit all across the country in a number of strategic cities. And to top it all off, AT&T has planned to open up their own headquarters in New Delhi.
Outsiders such as AT&T have their work cut out for them though. The Indian marketplace has been traditionally dominated and run through local telecoms and telecommunications networks. As new products and services evolve, the chance of wireless penetration rates goes up in direct proportion, however. Some experts have already confirmed a market for the expensive iPhone, which AT&T plans to introduce there.
AT&T is now heading the gold rush to India, together with other world telecom operators. But Stephenson plans to turn his company’s philosophy around, and run companies outside the US, and use the company’s consolidates sales operations infrastructure, to beat the competition.
The battle wages on to occupy the pole position in the race to become the world’s leading wireless service provider. The question is … who will get to the finish line first – at least in India.
Beginners
AT&T is the biggest telecommunications company in the world. Mr Stephenson is the new manager of At&T. He wants to sell mobile phones in India. The iPhone is their star product. 500 million people use mobile phones in India.Released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriv
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-10-02 10:00:00 +0200
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Mahindra Telecommunications is AT&T’s partner in the bidding for the telecommunications licenses. This company belongs to the great Mahindra family who are legends in the Indian business world. Apart from being involved in transport manufacturing , finance and technology they also established The K.C. Mahindra Education Trust , The Mahindra Foundation for Health & Disaster Relief and The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards
India is full of talent, historical excellence and ambition. AT&T have made a wise decision in going to a country where, apart from making money, they can learn a lot.
Hi everybody.
This is an article which explains perfectly the way telecomunications industry is changing nowadays. The most important companies in this area are spending such amount of money extending their infraestructures, serving a good value to the users. All those companies agree with the idea of expanding their business to the main emerging countries which have millions of potential clients.
Although is so difficult to guess what is going to happen in the future with this industry, the experts point to the idea of numbers of mergers between companies which will reduce the numbers of companies to satisfacing the demanfing of users with better value and service,
Greetings
Excellent observations Ivan!
Not only is the future consolidation. In fact, telcos have been merging now at a rampant pace for the past two years. The phenomenon is just now arriving to Europe as well. When companies merge, they also have to consolidate their business and create a new strategy for the future. AT&T is just one example of a large telco that has successfully acquired, merged and consolidated their business.
Donal, while I agree that Indian culture is certainlyl rich (that goes without saying) and that all of us have a lot to learn from them, I still believe that there is something to be learned from AT&T. As currently the largest telecommunications company in the world, every move they make is a sign to the rest – they create tendencies. That’s the difference!