LIRNEasia » Manoj Kohli

Seven Indians among 100 global influential telecom people

Chanuka Wattegama — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:22:48 +0000

Global Telecoms Business, a journal for communications service providers around the world, has named Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) CEO N Srinath has been as one of the 10 most influential telecom personnel.

Among the top 100 telecom personnel named by the magazine, N Srinath has been positioned at number 8. He has been credited for transforming Tata Communications in an international company and for the acquisition of networks like Teleglobe and Tyco Global Networks.

The list tops with Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at number two.

Other Indians in the list are Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal (at number 35), Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli (number 39) and CEO of Motorola’s mobile services division Sanjay Jha (number 41).

Tata Communications’ President of global data and mobility solutions Vinod Kumar at number 68 and former CEO of Vodafone Arun Sarin at 71 are other Indian in the list.

Business Standard

India: Bharti Airtel gives US$ 40 million to promote telecom innovations

Chanuka Wattegama — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:31:31 +0000

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday launched a Rs 200-crore (about US$ 40 million) innovation fund for promoting entrepreneurship in the telecom sector.

The objective of the fund is to provide opportunities to the entrepreneurs to undertake innovation in the field of telecom with regard to content, software and technologies, Bharti Airtel Joint MD and CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters.

This is the first ever telecom innovation fund in the country, he said.

Source: The Economics Times

Bharti Airtel hopes to enter Sri Lankan telecom market this year

Chanuka Wattegama — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:32:10 +0000

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said the company hopes to start operations in Sri Lanka within this calendar year, despite the delay in getting interconnection from the local operators there.

“Discussions are going on with the Sri Lankan telecom regulator and the existing operators there relating to the interconnection issue. It should be sorted out shortly,” company’s CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters here.

“We should be in a position to start our operations there before 2008. It is as per our schedule,” he said.

Earlier a Senior Executive of Bharti Airtel, Sanjay Kapoor said the incumbent operators in Lanka are not giving interconnections to the company, which is anticompetitive in nature.

Responding to that four Sri Lankan operators had issued a joint statement yesterday terming Bharti’s allegations as false.

The four operators – Dialog, Hutch, Mobitel and Tigo lashed out at Bharti Airtel on being accused that they are preventing the company’s entry into the island by not providing interconnection on the same terms.

Source: Press Trust of India