Bharti Airtel continues to set path breaking initiatives and forays in the Indian telecom services landscape. After being the first to forge outsourcing deals with IBM for IT infrastructure followed by industry first deal with Ericsson for outsourcing core wireless network management as well the recent deal with Alcatel-Lucent for management of fixedline and broadband infrastructure, the integrated telecom services provider, today marked its foray in Mobile Application Toll targeted towards the Enterprise segment.

The Platform:

Branded as MATE, the new platform aims to provide an integrated solution encompassing components and aspects such as hardware, software, connectivity, integration, data centre, security, operations and management.

It has been designed in-house by the company in alliance with its partners and subsidiaries.

While demonstrating the various applications possible through the platform, Mr. Rajiv Sehgal, Head, Enterprise Voice Solution-Bharti Airtel, draws attention to the fact that there is a need from the enterprise segment to have real-time information, portability and improved efficiency for its increasingly mobile work force. This need requires the integration of hardware, software and mobile devices and it is here where the new MATE platform fits into the picture by providing a virtual interface for such convergence.  

Mr. Milan Rao, Head, Global Voice Business-Bharti Airtel emphasizes that “It is the end-to-end delivery coupled with top-notch security mechanisms employed that makes the platform unique and more appealing to the Enterprise segment,” said Mr. Milan Rao , Head-Global Voice Business of Bharti Airtel when pointed out to the fact that web-based mobile application are already on offer.

Target Market:

Bharti is initially focusing on media and services sectors including Media Houses, Hotels, Airlines, Hospitals, other services, Manufacturing & Distribution (FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Auto, Manufacturing sectors) and the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector.

While the company has developed a standard solution for these industries, customization is also an option offered to the clients.

Mr. Vivek Agrawal, Product Head, Enterprise Business Solution, Enterprise (Corproates) while demonstrating a particular application to TelecomTiger developed for the healthcare industry and branded as HealthMate showcases how medical records can be sent while on the fly from remote locations and there upon prescription can be provided to patients through the use of the application.

The company is targeting private as well as government agencies for such offerings.

Market size:

As the initiative is green field in nature precise targets have not been set for the services. But the company expects the market size to be around Rs 500 crore for the next three years.

Pricing and Availability:

The services will be offered to customers on two popular options with the first option requiring a upfront capex in addition to monthly rental and the other option revolving around the operating opex model.

Initially the services will be offered over Airtel network in India. The services can also be extended to include international places which have data inter-connect tie-up with Airtel.

These services will be offered under the now popular, SaaS (Software as a Service) model.