Tata Docomo was an Indian mobile network operator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Teleservices deriving its name from NTT Docomo who invested in the company in 2008. In October-2017, Bharti Airtel announced a merger deal with Tata Teleservices and the acquisition of Tata Docomo.
The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged into Bharti Airtel from 01-July-2019.
History
Tata Docomo was part of the Indian conglomerate
Tata Group. The company received the licence to operate GSM services in nineteen telecom circles and was allotted spectrum in eighteen of these circles and launched GSM services on 24-June-2009. It began operations first in
South India and had operated GSM services in eighteen of twenty-two telecom circles. It had licences to operate in
Delhi but had not been allocated spectrum from the Government.
Docomo provided services throughout India. Tata Docomo offered both prepaid and postpaid
Mobile phone services. It became very popular with its one-second pulse, especially in semi-urban and rural areas.
In November-2008, NTT Docomo invested in Tata Teleservices, at a share for a 26.5% stake in the latter.
On 05-November-2010, Tata Docomo became the first private sector telecom company to launch 3G services in India. Tata Docomo had about 49 million users at the end of March-2017.
In April-2011, Tata Docomo signed Hindi cinema actor Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador on a three-year contract.
In October-2017, Bharti Airtel announced its acquisition of Tata Docomo having roughly 17 million subscribers.
Rebranding & Reformation
On 20-October-2011, the
Tata Group brought its brands – Indicom (CDMA), Walky (Fixed Wireless Phone), and Photon INTERNET – under the Tata Docomo brand. All subscribers to these services were transited to Tata Docomo's network on 20-October-2011. In 2015, Virgin Mobile India also merged with Tata Docomo.
Airtel India merged with Tata Docomo on 15-August-2018.
All operations across India of said companies had merged into Tata Docomo's entity to form the second largest CDMA and GSM network in India.
NTT Docomo Exit
According to the agreement between the
Tata Group and
NTT Docomo, the latter had the right to sell its stake if Tata Docomo missed performance targets, with Tata getting the right of the first refusal.
On 25-April-2014, NTT Docomo had announced that they would sell all of their shares in Tata Docomo and exit the Indian telecom industry as they had incurred a total loss of $1.3 billion. Under the joint venture agreement between the two groups, NTT Docomo would either increase its stake from 26.5% to 51% or sell all of its shares, depending on the performance of Tata Docomo in the Indian market.
Since Tata was unable to find a buyer for the shares, they sought the approval of the RBI, in November 2014, to buy back the shares from NTT Docomo for $1.1 billion (at 58.045 per share), half the price paid by them in 2009. The RBI had approved the deal in January-2015, but reversed their decision and rejected the deal in March-2015, citing FEMA regulations.
On 28-February-2017, Tata and NTT Docomo resolved their dispute, after the former announced that it would pay the latter US$1.18 billion in exchange for NTT Docomo's shares in the joint venture.
Acquisition by Bharti Airtel
On 12-October-2017, Bharti Airtel proposed a deal for the acquisition of Tata Group's Telecommunications including, Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo. Tata Group made a deal with Airtel, to sell its assets in a debt-cash-free deal which will only include TTSL's spectrum liability.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Department of Telecom (DoT) gave approval for Airtel to proceed with the deal.
Network
3G
On 19-May-2010, the 3G
spectrum auction in India ended. Tata Teleservices paid 5,864.29 crores for spectrum in 10 circles. These circles obtained 3G licences and they are
Madhya Pradesh &
Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat,
Haryana,
Karnataka,
Kerala,
Maharashtra &
Goa, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh (West).
