Cable & Wireless to rebrand itself

Cable & Wireless, the UK-based telecom and networking company that provides voice, data and IP solutions to service providers, will soon embark on a complete branding activity to get increased visibility in the Indian market as part of its broader strategy to make India its main operating centre.

Recently, Cable & Wireless shifted its national network management centre, which is also called the national operation centre (NOC), from Hong Kong to India.

The company, which is in the process of applying for national long-distance (NLD) and international long-distance licences to the Union ministry of telecommunications, plans to hire a brand consulting firm locally in India.

"Although we are not in the consumer business, we will soon engage a brand consulting firm locally to get more visibility. This will help us express ourselves to the market and strengthen the recruitment brand as we plan to hire another 100 persons in India in the next one year," John Pluthero, executive chairman, Cable & Wireless, told Business Standard during his maiden visit to India.

The company has also promised an investment of another $37 million in India. Of this, about $9 million has been earmarked for network upgradation and $28 million for technology spend and for strengthening the Indian team.

Pluthero said as part of its strategy to strengthen its Indian operations, the company was in discussions with the Indian outsourcing firms like Wipro and TCS about the opportunity of moving large functions to India.

"We already have a significant in-house capability out of India with 250 people in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. We are evaluating the roles we can move across to the outsourcing companies in India," Pluthero said.

The firm operates four nodes in India, in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, which provide network-related functions.

The jobs Cable & Wireless plans to move, might be of basic transactional type of functions in finance, "although this is in the early stages of evaluation". The company already works with Wipro for IT services.

Cable & Wireless is also in talks with some telecom services providers like BSNL, Bharti and Reliance for commercial partnership.

"ILD licence requires local participation. We are talking to these companies on the possibility of working with them or may consider some other local parties if required," Pluthero added.