Tata Docomo

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.[3] As of 07-July-2019, all Tata Docomo users were migrated to Bharti Airtel and hence became Airtel users.

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.[4][5][6]

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.[7] 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 inr 127400000000 in Tata Teleservices, at inr 117 a share for a 26.5% stake in the latter.[8][9] Docomo, TTSL and Tata Sons had in March-2009 signed shareholder agreement for the business alliance. In March-2009, Docomo acquired 27.31% of Tata Teleservices for Rs 12,924 crore and 20.25% in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, the listed arm of TTSL, for ₹949 crore. Overall, Docomo held 26.5% in Tata Teleservices.[10]

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 Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador on a three-year contract.[11] For the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, actors Vijay and Ram Charan were the brand ambassadors respectively.

In October-2017, Bharti Airtel announced its acquisition of Tata Docomo having roughly 17 million subscribers.[12]

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. T24 Mobile merged with Tata Docomo on 15-August-2018.[13] 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.[9][14]

former name	Tata Docomo
type	Subsidiary
industry	Telecommunications
foundation	November 2008
defunct	July 1, 2019
fate	Acquired by Bharti Airtel
location	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
members	20.04 million (March 2018)‡R1R‡
num employees	5,015‡R2R‡
parent	Bharti Airtel
area served	India
products	Mobile telephony Wireless Internet Internet services

History

Rebranding & Reformation

NTT Docomo Exit

Network

3G

References

Acquisition by Bharti Airtel