Tata Telecom, the decade old an equal joint venture between Tata Industries and the US-based Avaya Inc which manufactures handsets under the TataFone brand, is planning to change its name in sync with its new business profile.

Senior Tata group executives said, "There is a thought process that is going on that the name of the company does not reflect the nature of its business.

"We have not yet finalised the name but ideally, the identity should reflect any of these aspects -- the company is a convergent communication provider in the enterprise space or the partnership nature and provider of end-to-end solutions."

The company has divested its interests in the manufacturing of telephone equipment and had demerged Tatafone division into ITel Industries.

Tata Telecom is also one of the Tata group companies which do not subscribe to the Tata brand equity and business promotion scheme. Avaya also has a presence in India through its wholly owned subsidiary, Avaya India, which has a application development centre in Pune.

Tata Telecom has posted a turnover of Rs 110.11 crore (Rs 1.10 billion), up by 19.80 per cent for the period ended March 31, 2003 compared with Rs 91.90 crore (Rs 919 million) in the previous fiscal.

Profit after tax stood at Rs 8.32 crore (Rs 83.2 million) as on March 31, 2003 against Rs 7.93 crore (Rs 79.3 million) in the corresponding period last year, up by 5 per cent. The board has also recommended a dividend of Rs 2.50 a share for 2002-03.

Niru Mehta, vice-chairman, Tata Telecom and managing director & vice president of Avaya India said, "We see the future of all communications infrastructure in converged networks. This opens the path to applications and network intelligence that businesses need to create more responsive."