Geodesic mulls MVNO foray to broaden offering

Geodesic Information Systems Ltd, the Mumbai-based internet communications platform provider, plans to become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in India, which involves selling airtime of telecom operators.

Some of the applicants for MVNO in the country are British Telecom, Telekom Malaysia, Mobile ESPN, Nokia, Ericsson, ValueFirst and Kishore Biyani led Future Group.
“MVNO is an interesting option that we are looking into. We have products in the value added services (VAS) space. With airtime we would complete the stack,” Kiran Kulkarni, managing director, Geodesic Information Systems Ltd, told DNA Money.
Kulkarni said Geodesic would look to associate with new telecom operators for MVNO rather than older ones for “they would be more accommodative than incumbents”.
The firm plans to use internal cash reserve, which were Rs 380 crore as of May 2009, to finance the move.

Geodesic provides front-end mobile applications including its Mundu suites of products like Mundu instant messaging (IM), (voice over internet protocol) Mundu speak, Mundu Radio and Montage, etc.

The company has already bought back foreign currency convertible bonds worth $15 million and is still buying “to reduce some of the company debt”, he said.
Geodesic is also looking to acquire a firm in Europe for about $15 million by the next month.

Meanwhile, Geodesic has acquired a telecom licence from the Singapore government to start internet telephony services under brand name Spokn in 40 countries, including roll out some services in India as well.

An outgoing call will cost 90 paise per minute while incoming has been kept free. “Though this may not have immediate takers within India as it may be expensive in the absence of regulations to allow internet based calls, Spokn will have users in expatriates looking to talk to people in India, small businesses having workforce scattered across the globe, etc.”