Tata Communications bullish on data business

NEW DELHI: Tata Communications has said it will continue to invest in the data business which is expanding strongly and also driving growth.

"Our data business continues to grow very strongly across geographies and segments especially with our new services. Our enterprise business growing 30% per year," Tata Communications managing director and Group CEO Vinod Kumar told reporters here.

He also said that the company's deal with Vodafone's South African arm Vodacom for selling its stake in Neotel failed after 21 months of talks "due to regulatory complexities in concluding the transaction as well as certain conditions not being fulfilled".

The deal was originally signed in May 2014 wherein Vodacom had reached an agreement to buy Neotel, controlled by Tata Communications, for 7 billion rand (about Rs 3,200 crore).

In dollar terms, the value of transaction at that time was around $676 million.

Tata Communications owns over 68% stake in South Africa's largest fixed line telephone service provider Neotel.

Kumar said that company's data business is now driving growth and Tata Communications will continue investing in it.

The revenue of Tata Communications from voice solutions declined by about 5% to Rs 2,009.54 crore from Rs 2,114.14 crore while that of data and managed services segment increased 16.7% to Rs 2,723.3 crore from Rs 2,332.67 crore during the October-December quarter.

The company is also in discussion to divest its stake from data center business which it expects to close in next financial year.

The Tata Communications global network includes infrastructure includes one of the largest submarine cable networks and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to more than 240 countries and territories, as well as nearly 1 million square feet of data centre space worldwide.

The company provides services to telecom operators in various countries by connecting their local network with global telecom network.