Tata Communications Eyes 95% Untapped Cloud Calling Market – And It&#8217;s All Theirs
Tata Communications’ global AVP of product management for UCaaS and voice products, Vivek Kar, pointed out that less than 5% of Indian businesses on the cloud have calling services available to them — a whopping ~95% lay untapped. In an exclusive interview with AIM, Kar spoke about Tata Communications’ recent first-of-its-kind partnership with Cisco, where they integrated their services with Webex to launch ‘Webex Calling by Tata Communications’. Essentially, this partnership introduces international calling for Indian businesses currently using the Webex platform, with Tata Communications ensuring a regulation-compliant service for Cisco and their clients. “The market is dominated by Microsoft and Cisco. For other collaboration platforms, like Zoom and Google, we address the requirement through a bring-your-own-carrier (BYOC) model,” Kar said. So, how do they address Microsoft’s current domination? Well, Tata Communications also partnered with the tech giant late last year, essentially offering the same service through their recently launched GlobalRapide platform. A Moat in the Indian Enterprise Cloud-Calling Business With Tata managing to partner with the two biggest providers of enterprise communication and collaboration tools, they have become the biggest providers of cloud-based enterprise-focused international calling services in India. In order to allow better integration, Tata Communications created a replica of the Webex Calling tenant, originally based in Singapore, in Mumbai. “The problem was that the cost of ownership for the enterprise was becoming high because they either had to use an on-premise solution or were supposed to take a private connection all the way to Singapore. “We decided to create that tenant in India. So, the solution was always there. It’s just how you deliver it to the customer and make it more accessible and cheaper for them,” Kar said, highlighting why the partnership meant a more effective solution for businesses. This is especially important, thanks to current telecom regulations, that make it difficult for international companies to effectively offer this service without the fear of legal repercussions. Kar stated that Tata Communications already had the voice infrastructure as well as the regulation-compliant framework needed to serve the purpose. It was only a matter of establishing a tenant in India. Additionally, thanks to the telecom company’s long-standing familiarity with the industry, Kar stated that they have a fully redundant infrastructure, meaning that call routing would always go through, even if one point of contact fails during the routing process. “We have just pooled it for multiple customers with the partnership. Every state is connected. That is our voice infrastructure – fully redundant. It is connected to the Mumbai tenant. If one node is cut somewhere, there are three other redundant parts which stay connected,” he said. While specifics on Webex’s clients are not available, Indian enterprises are the second largest users of Webex’s services, only behind the US market. Meanwhile, companies like Infosys, Axis Bank and ITC are notable customers of Microsoft Teams. India has also become a top destination for global capability centers (GCCs). With over 1,500 GCCs already present in India, this is set to burgeon to about 2,400 by 2030. This means that they are likely to make use of the partnership for more streamlined communication across their businesses. However, with a vast number of connections to be made, especially since the company is undertaking this for an entire country of enterprises, this requires an exhaustive routing system. What’s Next With AI? Like many companies, Tata Communications has leveraged AI in several areas. While not customer-facing, as is the case for Webex Calling, which uses AI similar to Copilot or Zoom in creating summaries of meetings, the company is still massively reliant on AI. “The entire call routing system has AI and machine learning behind it. For example, we are connected to 1,600 different operators. They connect 240 countries to us. Look at the permutation combination,” he pointed out. In order to ensure that calls go through without fail, the company relies on an AI-backed system, especially when it comes to taking into consideration the different parameters and rates suppliers from other countries have. According to Kar, as many as eight million routing changes occur in a day, which is entirely taken up through the use of their own in-built AI systems. In terms of machine learning, the company has been making use of this for at least 16 years, though Kar admits that back then, the systems were more rudimentary. Additionally, they also make use of AI in their security system, specifically with fraud detection, flagging potentially fraudulent or irregular calls taken on behalf of the company. “As a user, if you have never made calls to Cuba and, all of a sudden, the system detects there is a non-stop two-hour call. It will raise an alert that your system has been hacked,” he said. With Tata Communications taking a step into catering to cloud-based enterprises calling for Indian businesses, it’s likely that others will follow suit. As Kar mentioned, Microsoft already has a three-way partnership, using Airtel IQ and Tata Tele Business Solutions within its offerings. However, the Tata Communications-Cisco partnership seems to be exclusive, making it the first all-in-one solution for enterprises.
Current telecom regulations make it difficult for international companies to effectively offer cloud-based enterprise calling without fear of legal repercussions.
Tata Communications’ Vivek Kar said less than 5% of Indian businesses on the cloud have calling services available to them - 95% lay untapped.
["cisco", "tata communications"]
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["AI", "machine learning", "ML", "Aim", "RAG", "fraud detection", "R", "Go", "API", "programming_languages:R"]
Donna is a technology journalist at AIM, hoping to explore AI and its implications in local communities, as well as its intersections with the space, defence, education and civil sectors.