The move comes close on the heels of VSNL’s acquisition of two big players in the wholesale voice and wholesale bandwidth space, Teleglobe and Tyco Global Network. This has added two more names to its existing brands, leading to a multiplicity of brand names.
The current thinking in the group is to bring all products under one unified brand that will have the ‘Tata’ name as part of it. “Our agency and public relations firm are working on it. I don’t know what it’s going to be but the Tata name will be there,” N Srinath, executive director, VSNL, told FE. The company feels that the multiple brands are creating confusion and there is a need to link them together to present a single interface to the customer, industry sources said.
In India itself, the company’s products are offered under two brands - VSNL International and Tata Indicom. The Tata Indicom brand was adopted a few years ago and its retail broadband, dial-up internet, cybercafes and enterprise services are offered under this name.
However, the VSNL International brand, which was in existence earlier, is still being used for its services overseas. While the products will be unified under one brand, a common corporate branding is still a few years away. VSNL chairman Subodh Bhargava said the board would consider such a proposal only if there was consensus on it.
According to sources, one of the hurdles to adopting a corporate brand with the ‘Tata’ name and logo is because the government still owns 26% in the company.
