New Call Telecom to invest $100m in India
Nigel Eastwood
CEO, New Call Telecom
Talks to Girja Shankar Kaura
With business support service centre in Delhi and headquartered in London, New Call Telecom was founded in 2010 when its chief executive Nigel Eastwood led a management buyout of the business from its US parent PTGi. It provides telecom services in the UK. The company was in news in India recently for acquiring social messaging powerhouse Nimbuzz in an estimated deal of $175 million. Nigel Eastwood, CEO, New Call Telecom, talks about his company’s plans.
Q. What are your company’s plans for India?
A. New Call Telecom, the sixth largest residential internet service provider (ISP) in the UK, plans to invest $100 million over the next 18 months in India towards strategic acquisitions of four mid-level telecom companies to enter the fixed line connectivity, Wi-Fi and messaging domains. We are looking at an ecosystem for over-the-top (OTT) broadband services in the country, leveraging the existing service provider infrastructure with revenue sharing through various innovative business models by identifying synergies across a number of different existing businesses. Our first acquisition in the country has been mobile messaging powerhouse Nimbuzz with 200 million registered users.
We are also exploring the e-commerce segment in the country going ahead. Under our medium to long-term strategy, we would be looking at building synergies around our different business areas involving data analysis and e-commerce, thus, developing a unified communications platform.
Q. What will be your strategy to tap the market? What will be the segregation in terms of fixed line, broadband customers, Wi-Fi, etc?
A. We aim to offer fixed-line broadband and public Wi-Fi services in the country. Our initial focus for 12-24 months will be on metro cities, since there is a concentration of subscribers in these cities. Moving forward, we would be tapping the semi-rural and rural areas of the country for internet services.
Q. Which are the companies you are looking at for a possible tie-up?
A. Nimbuzz has been the first company to join the New Call Telecom family. Now we are in talks with mid-level companies in the broadband, OTT and e-commerce space in India.
Q. How has been the performance since you established base in India?
A. With over 7,50,000 subscribers, New Call Telecom is a price leader in the residential telecom market through its brands, which offer phone and broadband packages through Fuel Broadband, and low-cost international calls from Planet Talk, Just Dial and Rate Buster. We’ve had a presence in India since our inception in 2010 but have now propelled our focus in the telecom market here. Our short-term vision in India is to capture the opportunity that the telecom sector presents surrounding data transit, usage manipulation, and streaming; where ever possible collaborating with other incumbent operators and generating new revenue streams in the sector in India by identifying synergies across a number of different existing businesses. During 2015, the New Call Group of Companies is targeting a $200 million run rate in revenues globally and India will contribute nearly 35% to this pie through our strategic acquisitions. In the coming five years, we see ourselves as a well-established international unified communications brand here.
Q. What are the challenges that you face currently?
A. Currently, we are in the process of identifying the right long-term partners as per our growth roadmap which is a challenging task considering the high level and multitude of entrepreneurship talent in India, especially in the technology space. We’re also looking forward to the support of government and the regulatory bodies in achieving our long-term goals in the country, which, in turn will help the sector to grow and harness entrepreneurial talent in the country.
