Announcing the details, Tata group chief Ratan Tata made it clear that “Our partnership with NTT DoCoMo is going to be a long-term partnership... for its technology, its value-added services and very high ethical standards and value systems.”

The open offer price represents a premium of 22 per cent over TTML’s Friday’s closing of Rs 20.20 on the National Stock Exchange. The open offer will open on January 8 and close on January 27, 2009. The offer is for acquiring 38,42,41,919 shares or up to 20 per cent.

Japan’s biggest mobile-phone operator NTT DoCoMo acquired a 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) for $2.7 billion (Rs 13,070 crore) on Wednesday. TTSL will issue fresh equity as part of the deal. The unlisted telecom is part of the sprawling Tata Group, and group firms own about 80 per cent of it. Temasek owns about 10 percent of the firm, while investor C Sivasankaran holds 8 per cent. “There is a plan to issue fresh equity. The details of it are being worked out,” TTSL’s managing director Anil Sardana said.

TTSL today said that it will roll out its GSM operations in January 2009. “It is a great pleasure and privilege for the Tata Group to partner with NTT DoCoMo. I hope to give the public a wider range of products and excellent bases of service not only in current technologies but in the technologies yet to come,” Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata said.

“The co-operation between DoCoMo and TTSL across marketing, handset development and technical support is expected to create new opportunities for both companies. We expect to earn more revenues from data services as it taps into the experience of its new stakeholder NTT DoCoMo.

We will bring in advanced value-added services which the Indian market has never seen before,” Sardana said. About 11 per cent of TTSL’s revenue comes from data.