O2 Asia starts talks with GSM providers

O2 Asia Pacific and Middle East (O2 AP & ME), member of Telefonica O2 Europe, and a leading provider of mobile communications services, is in talks with several GSM service providers for bundling handsets to attract corporate customers.

O2 plans to tap the corporate sector for its PDA phones, and in next three years, it plans to have a 50:50 ratio of individual and corporate customers. At present, about 15 per cent of its revenues come from the corporate sector.

"We are talking to several GSM service providers to sell bundled products to their corporate clients. We should be able to finalise deals in another two months," said Myilravanan Nathar, country manager (India) of O2. The company is not exploring CDMA service providers as of now.

"CDMA service providers are concentrating more on voice-based services and rolling out products tailor-made for lower-end customers, penetrating the rural markets where tariff structure is lower. But as O2 is concentrating on rolling out premium PDA phones where revenue per user collected is more data-driven than voice, it would make sense for us to tie-up with GSM service providers and access their corporate clients for bundled products," Nathar explained.

The PDA market stands at close to Rs 540 crore and is growing by 50 per cent, of which O2 is looking at a 35 per cent market share by the end of this financial year. O2 is targeting a turnover of Rs 190 crore by the end of this financial year.

Looking forward, O2 also plans to source applications from telecom solution providers in India, informed Nathar. The company, at present, sources applications from European companies such as Jeyo Mobile Extender and Codewallet Pro that provide solutions for Windows mobile pocket PC or smartphone. The company has appointed BrightPoint as its distributor in India that works through 32 cities in India with 440 retail outlets. O2 is also planning to set up a 12-hour helpdesk in Mumbai by the end of this month that will take care of consumer queries.

O2 started its operations in 2004 in India and has so far rolled out nine products with plans to roll out five more this year. These premium PDA phones cost anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 45,000 and are manufactured by original equipment manufacturers (OEM) based in Taiwan. According to industry estimates, the Asia-Pacific telecommunication services market - covering 12 major economies - including fixed, mobile, Internet and data communications services, is estimated to reach $298.2 billion by end-2012, from $181.4 billion in 2006.