Clay Telecom Targets 50% Revenue Growth

Delhi-based Clay Telecom, an international-roaming services provider has set the target to achieve a 50-percent revenue growth by end of this financial year.

"We are witnessing a steady rise in the number of domestic travelers going abroad and aim to achieve US$15 million (INR 824.81 million) revenues by 2012-13, up 50 percent from our current fiscal revenues of $10 million (INR 550.10 million)," Gaurav Dhawan, Executive Director, Clay Telecom told Light Reading India.

According to Clay Telecom, the India-international roaming opportunity is presently pegged at INR 20 billion. This is expected to increase significantly as there is an increasing trend of Indians visiting foreign locations for leisure and business.

The company has recently launched country-specific SIM cards for United States, United Kingdom and Germany and has also unveiled new prepaid data-cards which will help it achieve the target growth. Clay Telecom claims that by using its travel-card, customers can save up to 80 percent on international roaming charges.

"The focus is on launching new products. We have launched close to 14 products in the last 12 months. We've recently launched World Mail service which allows you to access unlimited e-mail when you travel abroad. In addition to providing international SIM cards, we also provide MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) services in nine countries and it is catching up very well with our competition," Dhawan adds.

According to the experts, traditional operators like Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone India do not provide attractive roaming plans since this is a niche area which requires core focus. In the past, Bharti and Reliance have made failed attempts with international roaming services products.

"Lot of people have come into it but since this business is niche, it requires focus. The chunk of money that comes out of it is probably too small for them [traditional operators]," explains Dhawan.

Clay Telecom competes with the likes of players like Matrix and Uniconnect in India.

Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India