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The data services market is expected to see yet another round of disruption. After Reliance Jio which has shaken the telecom market with free data usage offer, Canadian tablet and phone maker DataWind says it is readying ‘unlimited’ data plans at ₹20 a month and ₹100-200 a year. The firm has lined up investments to the tune of ₹70-80 crore to kick-start the VNO operations.
The firm is hopeful of getting a Virtual Network Operator licence in the next few weeks, when the Centre vets and picks a few years for VNOs. “You don’t need to have a spectrum of your own to launch a VNO service. We will tie up with the established telecom operators to use their spectrum,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, Chief Executive Officer of DataWind.
Besides bundled offers with its tablets and phones, DataWind will also sell standalone data SIMs to others.
He said the company was targeting a revenue of ₹500 crore in the current financial year. “We started off with a turnover of ₹80 lakh in the first year in 2012 and crossed the ₹290-crore mark last year. With the new capacities coming in, we are confident of reaching the ₹500-crore mark this year,” he said after the launch of DataWind’s manufacturing facility near here.
Manufacturing facilityEarlier in the day, Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao inaugurated the firm’s facility here. Starting with an initial capacity of 20 lakh units (tablets, phones), the firm would hit a capacity to produce 50 lakh units a year after the firm completed the planned investments of ₹100 crore on this plant.
Though it kicked off production at a GMR facility near the international airport here, the firm will set up its own facility in the vicinity. It already shipped 3.5 lakh tablets from the facility.
The firm claims to have a share of 37 per cent in the tablet market with a size of 50 lakh units a year. “The market has been stagnant for the last two years. We have a share of 76 per cent in the sub-₹5,000 tablet category,” he added.
After consolidating the Hyderabad facility, DataWind plans to go for another one in the North-East within a year or two. “We have not firmed up our plans yet,” he added.
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