Tikona to Launch 4G Services in 30 Cities in 2016

Mumbai-based Indian Internet Service Provider (ISP), Tikona Digital Networks, is preparing to roll out its 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services in 30 cities of the country. The company aims to launch the services during the first half of 2016. The company holds 20 MHz of 4G spectrum in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, and Rajasthan circles.

Plans of Tikona

Tikona launched a pilot project of its 4G Home Broadband Service in Varanasi in October 2015. It focuses on homes and small offices for its services. Tikona has made an investment of INR 20 crores to cater to over half a lakh households in the city.

Tikona is keen on providing services to more users, with its customer-base absorbing around 1,200 new users each month. This is around 2.5% of the monthly market share, revealed Heramb Ranade, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Tikona. After the marketing campaign, the company expects to witness an increase in its customer base. Attractive Tikona internet plans will help the company to achieve this goal. Ranade said, “With the campaign, this number should double, if not more. We can sustain it for at least two quarters.”

Tikona has increased its customer base from 2 lakhs to 3 lakhs in the past year. “We are clocking annualized exit revenue in the region of INR 3.5 billion”, Ranade added.

Tikona Broadband will be expanded to 5 circles in the initial period of 2016, after the company goes through the feedback from the Varanasi project. This will help Tikona provide flawless services, as it expands and begins its network rollout.

The company is planning to offer complete coverage with Tikona 4G in cities and towns where it will deploy its services. Tikona’s product will feature 10 Mbps connections and this will be 5 to 10 times higher than the existing Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)/3G based products. More such plans can be viewed on their new dedicated website, tikona4g.in.

Tikona’s Associations

Tikona has chosen Chinese company, Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corporation, for the deployment of Time-Division (TD) LTE equipment in Tikona’s circles. This will let Tikona establish a strong broadband network.

As per the deal, ZTE will be supplying TD-LTE switching and radio equipment in the circles where Tikona holds 4G LTE licenses. It already supplies the equipment in Varanasi and other cities. Outdoor LTE Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE) will be supplied by Telenet Systems, using Sequans chipset.

Last year in November, Tikona had raised USD 4.5 crores in a new round of funding. The highest investment of 2.5 crores was from International Finance Corporation (IFC). The remaining 2 crores came from funds managed by Oak Investment partners, L&T Infrastructure Finance, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Everstone Capital.