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Domestic telephone provider, Telecom Fiji Ltd has signed a USD7.6 million deal with an Indian company Tech Mahindra.Under this agreement, Tech Mahindra will implement a transformation programme for Telecom Fiji in the OSS BSS domain for a period of 18 months.
This 18 month engagement is for replacing TFLs technology systems to make it more agile in order to take on competition in Fijis recently deregulated telecom market, Taito Tabaleka, group acting chief executive officer told Business Line.
Tech Mahindra will replace Telecom Fijis IT systems, billing systems and look at the prospects of outsourcing its billing requirements to other telecom carriers, said Tabaleka.
Until last year, the company had the exclusive licence to provide domestic voice and data services, while Vodafone Fiji, a joint venture between Vodafone and Telecom Fijis holding company, has been the sole provider of mobile services. Fijis telecommunications sector was deregulated in late 2007.
It is believed that the Venezuelabased Digitel GSM is also keen to enter Fiji.
Tech Mahindra has also signed a USD 24m retail transformation deal with Telecom New Zealand.
Separately, ATH is in talks with Indian IT companies for partnering its call centre business, said Howard Politini, deputy chairman, ATH.
Ninety nine per cent of Fijis population speaks English, which could be a boon for any back office oriented industry, said Politini.
Moreover, Fiji has the same time zone advantage to countries such as Australia, New Zealand and parts of South Asia, which can be leveraged for serving clients.
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