Tulip Telecom

History

The company was started by Hardeep Singh Bedi an ex-army man. After serving the Indian army for 22 years, Lt Col HS Bedi took voluntary retirement and founded his company Tulip IT Services, then Tulip Software Pvt Ltd, in 1994 and today it is known as Tulip Telecom Ltd.

Bedi started the company with four employees in New Delhi as a software reseller. Later the company explored the field of Network Integration and implemented a wireless network in Mallapuram, Kerala. This was a key milestone in Tulip’s history. The company also explored the field of wireless and developed an MPLS VPN network.

The company’s data network has a reach of over 2,000 locations globally. The company has a global presence with over 3,250 employees and more than 1,800 customers. Tulip designs, implements and manages communication networks of large enterprises on long term contracts to include enterprise communications connectivity, network integration, managed and value added services.

Business transformation strategy

Tulip is gradually shifting its focus from enterprise data connectivity provider to enterprise data service provider.

Data centre

The company acquired a data centre facility in Bengaluru by purchasing 100 per cent shares of SADA IT Parks Private Ltd for Rs 230 crore. Tulip Telecom announced that it has chosen IT major IBM and data centre consultant Schnabel to establish a data centre in Bengaluru.

Tulip, through its wholly owned subsidiary company, Tulip Data Centre Pvt Ltd, spread across 9 lakh square feet, for Rs 230 crore. The data centre will be built with an approximate investment of Rs 900 crore, spread over three years.

Schnabel will do peer review consulting with Tulip on the data centre build.

This is Tulip's fifth data centre in the country, which will increases the combined space under its data centres to approximately 10 lakh square feet. Tulip already has one data centre each in Delhi and Bengaluru and two in Mumbai.

It has won a contract from the government of Madhya Pradesh for a statewide area network (SWAN). Tulip Telecom won Market Leadership Award for its MPLS/IP virtual private network for three years in a row from Frost & Sullivan beginning 2009.

Controversies

Investigations by Delhi Service Tax Commissionerate found that Tulip Telecom, which is engaged in providing Internet services among others, was not filing its mandatory returns of the central levy from 2012-13, they said.

Service Tax Commissionerate officials in Delhi arrested Lt Col (Retd) H S Bedi, CMD of Tulip Telecom Limited on Tuesday 19 March 2014 on charges of non-payment of tax even after collecting it from its consumers.

The estimated alleged service tax evasion by the company is Rs. 32.16 crore.

For the quarter ended 30-Jun-2013, the company has reported a Standalone sales of Rs. 253.42 Cr., down -39.21% from last quarter Sales of Rs. 416.90 Cr. and down -52.01% from last year same quarter Sales of Rs. 528.13 Cr.

Defaulter

Tulip had defaulted on redemption of foreign currency convertible bonds worth $140 million due in August 2012, apart from delaying salaries. Ultimately, it used proceeds from the sale of its stake in the joint venture with Qualcomm to repay this debt

Charges

Bank of India, ICICI bank, Canara bank & few other banks have charged Tulip Telecom for fraud.