DOWN THE MEMORY LANE

To begin with, Tatas placed all their faith in GSM & CDMA tech In 2006, decided to pull out of GSM Had an earlier JV with AB group and AT&T, known as BATATA In 2005, AT&T walked out Remaining two Indian partners face off because Tatas held more than 10% in the JV, something not allowed JV called Idea Cellular No choice left, Tatas walk out, selling 48.12% to estranged partner Tatas then place all bets on CDMA, a tech on the wane then In 2008, govt allows CDMA players to receive GSM spectrum without separate licences Tata Teleservices returns to GSM by acquiring spectrum Tatas rope in Japanese giant NTT DoCoMo as JV partner Tata Teleservices plays pricing game aggressively Move dents profitability of Tata-DoCoMo As DoCoMo readies to invest, 2G scam erupts, dragging in Tatas and others in November 2010 Investments decline to a trickle, losses mount, cellular towers dwindle and market share vapourises Differences between NTT DoCoMo and Tatas emerge on technology and speed of JV Aborted attempts to sell business to Aircel and then to Vodafone In 2010, despite launching 3G services ahead of others, Tata Teleservices not able to tap first-mover advantage Tata Teleservices wary of buying spectrum in auctions as NTT DoCoMo insists on exit Both sides battle it out in court In the end, the Japanese partner paid off by Tatas Despite Tata group pumping in money, Tata Teleservices’ losses do not ease Firm utterly unprepared for dramatic shift in the market from 3G to 4G LTE With Reliance Jio unveiling its aggressive pricing, matters come to a head