Tata Elxsi lines up 3G, WiMax plans

Tata Elxsi, the product design services and visual effects provider, is eyeing the upcoming 3G and WiMax auctions as much as telecom firms as it sees the next phase of growth coming from these services.

The firm has finished a pilot run of digital video broadcasting — handheld (DVB-H) technology for mobile TV — in Delhi and has started discussions with telcos and DTH providers for delivering various multimedia content services.

Product design currently contributes 80% of the revenue for Tata Elxsi. “WiMax is going to be a big opportunity for us. We are talking to some of our clients who bid for BSNL’s WiMax tender recently,” Madhukar Dev, managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Elxsi told DNA Money.

In June this year BSNL floated a WiMax infrastructure tender worth around Rs1,500 crore for 7,000 base stations, to connect Common Service Centres across the country. Tata Elxsi looks to provide software stack needed to run a telco’s base stations.

Besides WiMax, the firm is talking to multimedia content providers to design their content for delivery using its own software onto mobile phones. This work is being done at its animation and special effects division, Visual Computing Labs (VCL).

“3G services will see mass usage of various multimedia content. At VCL we have the capability to design the delivery of various types of content onto mobile networks,” Dev said.

Recently, in order to get a share of high-end visual effect and animation contracts from Hollywood, the firm has appointed three experts in its US office.  “We are looking to double the revenue contribution of VCL to about 20% in 3 years,” he said.