Was the intention then to be mainly a supplier to DoT and MTNL?
No, even in the first year, we were the largest supplier to the open market. We had already started our efforts on brand building, distribution, quality, etc. But even then telecom as an umbrella was important than anything else. But what was it that we could do? There were three options: jelly-filled cables, EPABX and telephone instruments. The exchanges appealed to us but we didn’t have the wherewithal to do it — our capital was very small. We could not go into jelly-filled cables for two reasons. The money required was very high, plus it was a commodity business. The telephone instruments segment was what was left. But manufacturing instruments is a high-volume, low-profit margin business. Yes it is, and that is why smaller companies are much stronger than the big ones. There were 52 companies that were licensed to manufacture telephones: the Tatas, Birlas, Thapars, PSUs, everybody who was anybody jumped into it; today only three — Bharti, Tata and BPL (which came in later) — rem
