TATA DOCOMO

Formerly	Tata Docomo
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	November 2008; 17 years ago (2008-11)
Defunct	1 July 2019; 6 years ago (2019-07-01)
Fate	Acquired byBharti Airtel
Headquarters	Mumbai,Maharashtra, India
Area served	India
Products	Mobile telephony Wireless Internet Internet services
Members	20.04 million (March 2018)[1]
Number of employees	5,015[2]
Parent	Bharti Airtel

Tata Docomo was anIndian mobile network operator, a wholly owned subsidiary ofTata Teleservices deriving its name fromNTT Docomo who invested in the company in 2008. In October-2017,Bharti Airtel announced a merger deal withTata Teleservices and the acquisition of Tata Docomo.^[3] As of 07-July-2019, all Tata Docomo users were migrated to Bharti Airtel and hence became Airtel users.

The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo,Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged intoBharti Airtel from 01-July-2019.^[4][5][6]

Tata Docomo was part of the Indian conglomerateTata Group. The company received the licence to operate GSM services in nineteen telecom circles and was allotted spectrum in eighteen of these circles and launched GSM services on 24-June-2009. It began operations first inSouth India and had operated GSM services in eighteen of twenty-two telecom circles. It had licences to operate inDelhi but had not been allocated spectrum from the Government.^[7] Docomo provided services throughout India. Tata Docomo offered bothprepaid and postpaidMobile Phone services. It became very popular with its one-second pulse, especially insemi-urban and rural areas.

In November-2008,NTT Docomo invested₹12,740 crore (equivalent to₹320 billion or US$3.8 billion in 2023) in Tata Teleservices, at₹117 (equivalent to₹290 or US$3.50 in 2023) a share for a 26.5% stake in the latter.^[8][9] Docomo, TTSL and Tata Sons had in March-2009 signed shareholder agreement for the business alliance. In March-2009, Docomo acquired 27.31% of Tata Teleservices for Rs 12,924 crore and 20.25% in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, the listed arm of TTSL, for₹949 crore. Overall, Docomo held 26.5% in Tata Teleservices.^[10]

On 05-November-2010, Tata Docomo became the first private sector telecom company to launch3G services in India. Tata Docomo had about 49 million users at the end of March-2017.

In April-2011, Tata Docomo signedBollywood actorRanbir Kapoor as itsbrand ambassador on a three-year contract.^[11] For the southern states ofTamil Nadu andAndhra Pradesh, actorsVijay andRam Charan were the brand ambassadors respectively.

In October-2017,Bharti Airtel announced its acquisition of Tata Docomo having roughly 17 million subscribers.^[12]

On 20-October-2011, theTata Group brought its brands – Indicom (CDMA), Walky (Fixed Wireless Phone), and Photon INTERNET – under the Tata Docomo brand. All subscribers to these services were transited to Tata Docomo's network on 20-October-2011. In 2015, Virgin Mobile India also merged with Tata Docomo.T24 Mobile merged with Tata Docomo on 15-August-2018.^[13] All operations across India of said companies had merged into Tata Docomo's entity to form the second largest CDMA and GSM network in India.

According to the agreement between theTata Group andNTT Docomo, the latter had the right to sell its stake if Tata Docomo missed performance targets, with Tata getting the right of the first refusal.^[9][14] On 25-April-2014, NTT Docomo had announced that they would sell all of their shares in Tata Docomo and exit theIndian telecom industry as they had incurred a total loss of $1.3 billion. Under the joint venture agreement between the two groups, NTT Docomo would either increase its stake from 26.5% to 51% or sell all of its shares, depending on the performance of Tata Docomo in the Indian market.^[15]

Since Tata was unable to find a buyer for the shares, they sought the approval of theRBI, in November 2014, to buy back the shares from NTT Docomo for $1.1 billion (at₹58.045 per share), half the price paid by them in 2009. The RBI had approved the deal in January-2015, but reversed their decision and rejected the deal in March-2015, citingFEMA regulations.^[16] Following the RBI decision, the Tata Group offered to purchase Docomo's stake at₹23.34 a share on the basis of a fair market value determined on 30-June-2014 byPwC.^[9] NTT Docomo then moved theLondon Court of International Arbitration seeking a valuation of₹58 a share.^[17]

On 28-February-2017, Tata and NTT Docomo resolved their dispute, after the former announced that it would pay the latter US$1.18 billion in exchange for NTT Docomo's shares in the joint venture.^[18] On 31-October, $1.27 billion was paid to NTT Docomo by Tata Sons, thus ending the dispute.^[19]

On 12-October-2017, Bharti Airtel proposed a deal for the acquisition of Tata Group's Telecommunications including, Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo. Tata Group made a deal with Airtel, to sell its assets in a debt-cash-free deal which will only include TTSL's spectrum liability.^[20]The Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Department of Telecom (DoT) gave approval for Airtel to proceed with the deal.

On 19-May-2010, the 3Gspectrum auction in India ended. Tata Teleservices paid₹5,864.29 crores for spectrum in 10 circles. These circles obtained 3G licences and they areMadhya Pradesh &Chhattisgarh,Gujarat,Haryana,Karnataka,Kerala,Maharashtra &Goa,Punjab, andUttar Pradesh (West).^{[21][22][23][24]}

• Telecommunications companies of India
• Mobile phone companies of India
• Mass media companies based in Delhi
• Companies based in New Delhi
• Indian companies established in 2008
• Mass media companies established in 2008
• Telecommunications companies established in 2008
• NTT Docomo
• Tata Teleservices
• Bharti Airtel
• 2008 establishments in Delhi
• Companies disestablished in 2019

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