Q1-09 Results: Tata Communications Revenues Up 4%, Profits Down 20%; Cisco-Telepresence Deal; Neotel Acquisition; No Details - WiFi, Broadband, Subs

View: Earnings release | Financials

Tata Communications has reported a fairly small rise in revenues - of only 4 percent, year on year, at Rs. 921 crore, up from Rs. 888 crore for the same quarter last year. They’ve reported a net profit of Rs. 98.3 crore, down 20% from Rs. 123.6 crore for the same quarter last year.

During the quarter:
– Acquisition of South African Telco Neotel: Alongwith Tata Africa, Tata Communications announced an acquisition of 56 percent - a majority stake - in Neotel, a fixed line telecom operator in South Africa. Tata Communications acquired 30 percent of this stake from Eskom and Transnet. The transaction is subject to conditions, and has not been closed yet.
– Launch of Telepresence services with Cisco: The first phase of public rooms are in the Taj Hotels and major business centres in Mumbai, Bangalore, New York, Boston and London; also in CII offices in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The cost of the service is not mentioned. Telepresence rooms offer life-like, high definition conferencing facilities with audio, video and environmental qualities that provide an alternative to face-to-face meetings. Here’s a video demo of Telepresense (Ed: definitely worth a look)

Update: here’s a chart with Internet and Broadband subscriber growth, and Broadband ARPU, from Tata Communications’ Investor presentation -

Numbers from last quarter: The company has only around 500 WiFi hotspots, and claims to be India’s leading WiFi hotspot provider; frankly, that’s a sad state of affairs for WiFi deployment.

Shankar M Prasad, President (Broadband & Retail) At Tata Comm Puts In His Papers

MediaNama has confirmed from internal Tata Communications sources that Shankar M Prasad, President (Broadband & Retail Business) for the company, has put in his papers. Prasad had joined the Tata Communications from BPL Mobile, where he was COO for UP (East) Circle, in August last year.

Tata Communications comprises of the broadband, dial-up Internet, WiFi and content services business of the Tata Group, and includes VSNL, VSNL International, Teleglobe, Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit (TIEBU), and CIPRIS brands worldwide. Earlier this year, Tata Communications had announced a $2 billion global expansion plan, spread over three years. We’ve contacted Tata Communications for an official confirmation.