Parsvnath Developers, a realty company announced that it plans to diversify into Telecom services and has applied for an Unified Access Services license in 22 telecom circles across the country.The licence for Unified Access Services would entail a 2G licence for GSM and a triple play of various services like IPTV, Wi-Max, internet, broadband and any other services relating to the signal.
Mr. Pradeep Jain, Chairman. Parsvnath Developer said,
This is a great opportunity for the Company to diversify into a new business area, which is continuously growing. Despite increasing number of subscribers, the penetration of mobile telephony in India is still low as compared to developed countries. As and when number portability is introduced, it would offer immense business opportunity to new entrants.
You can see how the stock jumped 4% immediately after the announcement. Parsvnath had recently diversified into SEZs apart from Residential and Commercial Real Estate play. Last November, the company had completed its IPO which led way for dozen other Realty IPOs. Parsvnath is likely to enter the telecom sector in association with a leading foreign Telco.
There is already a backlog for licenses from companies such as HFCL, Aircel, By Cell, Spice etc. Apart from the licensing backlog, there is a severe demand for spectrum which has stopped companies like Idea Cellular from operating in lucrative metro circles. The DoT and TRAI must really clean up the house, make the spectrum allocation transparent [Auction] and lay down severe quality of service norms. Telecom is a capital intensive business and I really doubt the ability of Parsvnath to build and operate a business of this scale. We really need to address the Broadband and Internet mess, Spectrum Mess and 3G issues on war footing to keep India as the fastest growing Telecom market in the world.
Tags: Telecom India, Broadband India, 3G India, GSM CDMA India