US telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T), which was recently issued National and International Long Distance (NLD and ILD) licenses and has been ramping up its Indian presence is eying a strategic partnership with Videocon’s Datacom. Videocon expects spectrum allocation in 19 circles and has announced an investment of Rs 6,000 crore to set up a pan-India network by the end of 2008. Considering creating a pan-India network would cost Datacom 14,000 crores in addition to what its 2008 spends suggest, a strategic partner may be more necessity than strategy.

According to this ET report, Videocon may hold out until spectrum is allocated in-order to ensure leverage in case of a JV, which has another suitor, the Spanish telco, Telephonica. Videocon plans to garner a minimum of 10 million subscribers by 2011-2012.