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Note: Indian operator Aircel has grown from two regional operations to a nationwide network in a few years, tripling the number of customers in a plan to become a pocket internet' service. CIO Ravinder Jain explains how he ensured the IT systems could meet the demand
Internet in the pocket puts stress on Indian operator's IT systems
Ravinder Jain: We outsourced the IT to make the IT
work for the business
Indian operator Aircel has taken the first steps in an attempt to boost its share of a highly competitive market by completely replacing its IT system in a period of just a few months.
The whole of its legacy operations were moved to the new system, outsourced to Wipro with overall architecture by Oracle, over a period of just a few weeks.
The aim, says Aircel's chief information officer Ravinder Jain, is to build the company's market share in value-added services and mobile internet access. "We have a very firm belief that mobile will be the largest screen," says Jain.
But that hasn't been the case so far. Of India's 500 million mobile phone customers, only 120 million have internet-capable phones, "and only 12 million of them actually use more than two minutes a month", complains Jain.
Aircel wants to change that. In advance of the completion of India's 3G auctions, Aircel has built its 2G network to have Edge-based internet technology. "We have a pocket internet strategy," says Jain, who joined the company in November 2007 after several years with what is now Vodafone India.
Aircel was already in transition, having begun as a small regional operator as long ago as 1999, working in just two districts in India or "circles" as they are called there.
It launched in seven new circles in 2007-08, along the country's eastern corridor, but then Maxis, the Malaysian operator that owns 74%, decided Aircel...