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Indian company says it is looking at all options for its telephony business after source suggests it could hold onto its fibre unit
Tata may retain a portion of its Tata Teleservices business, but not its mobile operations, according to an Indian press report this week.
There has been talk of Tata selling out of the telecoms space altogether for a number of years, but now it seems it is considering its options for certain assets.
The group is still keen to sell its mobile operations, which have struggled for some time, exacerbated by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm, an anonymous source told Livemint.
Tata’s mobile business is experiencing "a huge loss in subscriber base month-on-month and revenue reduction as well," the news outlet quoted its informant as saying. "This started ever since Reliance Jio came into existence."
According to recent figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Tata lost 1.6 million mobile customers in July, ending the month with a base of 42.1 million and a market share of just 3.55%.
However, "there is a lot more to Tata Teleservices than just the mobile telephony business," the source said.
S/he noted that Tata will retain some valuable parts of the business, possibly including its fibre unit.
On an official level, Tata told Livemint that the group is "examining all options" for Tata Teleservices at this time.
