NTT DoCoMo to set up R&D centre with Tata Tele’s aid

After becoming the first mobile operator in the country to offer per-second billing, Tata Teleservices Ltd, will now help its Japanese partner, NTT DoCoMo, to set up a new global research and development centre in India.

Giving this information to the media at the launch of Tata DoCoMo's GSM service in the Kolkata Circle, Anil Sardana, managing director, TTSL, pointed out that this would be DoCoMo's sixth R&D centre in the world. Its other centres are in Yokosuka City (Japan), Beijing, California (two) and Munich. DoCoMo has a 26 per cent stake in the Indian joint venture company.

''We are jointly conducting a study to set up the R&D centre, preferably in the southern region of the country. A certain amount of work has already been completed in this direction and the size and shape of the project is currently being worked upon,'' Sardana said.

While refusing to give any time-frame for the project, Sardana said, ''Talks are at an advanced stage.''

The R&D centre would primarily look into developing and implementing innovative and customer-friendly value-added services. ''We plan to introduce in India a host of new VAS introduced by DoCoMo in Japan,'' he said.

In Japan, DoCoMo's value-added services cater to the customers' daily requirements such as in purchasing railway tickets and buying merchandise. ''A lot of this would be launched in India gradually,'' Sardana said.