ISP Roundup

DataAccess to Provide NOW in India
DataAccess, an affiliate of Pacific Convergence Corp. (PCC), will provideInternet and live television broadcasting services on a converged platform underits global initiative Network of the World (NOW) services. India will be thefirst to have NOW services in the Asia-Pacific region. Initially to be launchedin Delhi, the service will be available in Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore lateron. "We have invested $10 million each in Delhi and Mumbai and $12 millionin Chennai and Bangalore together," says Sidhhartha Ray, managing director,DataAccess.

NOW is a $350 million global initiative already launched inthe UK by Li’s PCC. PCC has taken 49 percent stake in DataAccess and willinvest $100 million in the Indian project.

DataAccess will provide the services on dial-up linesinitially, but will also provide access through technologies like ADSL later. Itwill set up a number of gateways in India to ease up the problem ofinternational connectivity. It will also set up data centres in India to hostits sites. The India-specific portal is called NOW-India.com besides which sevenother India-specific portals will be launched shortly.

Government Allows 100 Percent FDI in ISPs
In a decision, which will have widespread repercussion, the Government hasdecided allow 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in ISPs. This may welltrigger a phase of consolidation, with category "B" and "C"ISPs being the most vulnerable to acquisitions.

Satyam Relaunches Its Portal as Sify.com
The flagship portal of Satyam Infoway, SatyamOnline has been renamedSify.com. However, the Internet access brand name continues to remainSatyamonline.com. The new avatar will provide several additional features inaddition to the existing services available on the old portal. "Theadditions have been made after extensive consumer research to provide a oneclick access across the sites to the most commonly used services," saidGeorge Zacharias, CEO of Satyam Infoway.

Haryana Plans Fibre Optic Network
With a view to implement its IT policy, the Haryana government has decidedto create a high-speed fibre optic wide area and backbone communication networkin the state. This will form the basic infrastructure for providing Internetconnectivity, data communications, cable TV and other value-added services onTransmission and Distribution (T&D) lines of various Haryana powerutilities. The state has T&D lines covering about 56,000-circuit kms alongwith other infrastructure of sub-stations.

ModiCorp Ties Up with Cisco
ModiCorp has entered into a MoU with Cisco Systems (I) Pvt Ltd to initiate jointbusiness development and marketing activities. Cisco’s equipment and serviceswill provide end-to-end solutions and help ModiCorp to expand its operations inthe country by setting up ISP operations and Internet Protocol (IP)-based longdistance network, Internet Data Centres (IDC), and call centres.

Wipro Net Expands Services
Wipro Net Ltd, the ISP arm of Wipro Corp., has set up three new nodes inCochin, Coimbatore, and Jamshedpur thereby expanding its presence to 11 citiesin India providing communication services to corporates, including end-to-endmanaged Internet, intranet and extranet services.

Wipro Net's complete range of services, now to be offeredfrom the three new nodes, comprise Internet e-mail, messaging, VPN, managednetwork services, multicasting, Web hosting and co-location services, andcorporate Internet access services through dedicated leased-lines and ISDNlines.

Wipro Net is also in the process of setting up its ownInternet gateways both through satellite as well as the International PrivateLeased Circuit (IPLC) through the terrestrial route.

"We plan to extend our network to cover an additional 21cities by October 2000," said TK Kurien, managing director, Wipro Net.

VSNL Commissions International Gateway in Kanpur
VSNL’s international gateway in Kanpur has become functional and is nowproviding direct uplinking, giving a major boost to the IT industry in UttarPradesh. Thus, data transfer from software firms through the Internet, which wasbeing routed through Delhi gateway, will be sent directly, thereby saving timeand ensuring reliability. The Kanpur information gateway will cater to most ofUP, western Bihar and northern Madhya Pradesh.

Category "A" Licence for Tata Power
Tata Power has obtained a category "A" ISP licence, enabling it tooperate throughout the country. With the ISP licence, TEC’s plan fordevelopment of broadband business will get further momentum.

Mantra Online Commissions Second Gateway in Bangalore
Mantra Online has launched its international gateway in Bangalore, therebyproviding its subscribers a total uninterrupted bandwidth of 8 Mbps downstreamand 3 Mbps upstream. This is in addition to the international bandwidth that ithas leased from VSNL and STPI. Mantra Online CEO, Atul Kunwar, disclosed that aspart of the expansion, it was uplinking with Panamsat’s PAS-4 transponder forhaving 8 state-of-the-art Ku-band satellite gateways across the country by theyear-end.

Mantra Online will now focus on corporates and largeorganizations to offer a range of value-added services, including broadbandaccess by leveraging on its Internet platform with the group’s cellular andbasic telecom services.

Caltiger Selects 3Com for Expansion
Caltiger will add several 3Com networking products to its nationwide network inthe first phase of implementation. 3Com’s Total Control RAS is already in usein the network. The new products to be added includes CommWorks 8250 unifiedmessaging system, CommWorks 8200 IP fax server, and Total Control gigabitrouters. Caltiger which operates India’s largest free ISP services is expectedto more than triple its subscriber base from the present 3 lakh to 1 million bythe end of this calendar year.

India ISP Show to be Held in Mumbai
Mediascope Associates is organizing the India ISP Show, an exhibition that willbring ISPs face-to-face with their customers, in Mumbai from 6 - 8 October 2000.The organizers were confident that they would be able to get all the ISPs inMumbai to exhibit in the show. The show will be held at the World Trade Centre.Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) will the official patronof the show, while Computers@Home will be the official media partner.

JAIPUR DIARY

Shyam’s Internet Foray
Shyam Internet Ltd, the ISP arm of Shyam, has applied for Category"A" licence. Besides, it also has a plan to set up 40 gateways inRajasthan. Setting up community Internet centres throughout the state is also inpipeline once its plan of wiring 63 cities in the state is completed. This willalso allow the company to provide VPN services, one of the target areas of thecompany.

Vertec Starts Services in Dehradun
Vertec Communications, the Jaipur-based ISP has startedInternet services in Dehradun. It claims to have acquired a customer base of1,000 already. In the next phase, according to the director Moin S Kagzi, citiesthat will be covered will include Rishikesh, Roorki, and Hardwar.

Rajasthan ISPs Tie Up with Shyam
Jain Infonet, Data Infosys, and Vertec Communications, theprivate ISPs in Jaipur, have entered into a tie-up with Shyam Telelink to bundleInternet connection with latter’s phone connection. Shyam, which operatesprivate phone service in Jaipur under the brand name "Rainbow", hasabout 2,000 customers as of now.

Jain Infonet Ties Up with GNFC
Jain Infonet, the private ISP in Jaipur, has entered into atie-up with Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizer Co. Ltd (GNFC) for gatewayservices. The gateway will become operational by October. Once the gateway isup, the company plans to expand services to Jodhpur, Udaipur, and Abu Road.

Price War in Jaipur
There is an all out price war among the ISPs in Jaipur, withDishnet’s package giving sleepless night to all the private operators in thecity. Moin S Kagzi, the director of Vertec Communications, says, "There wasno need of any price war at this time as Internet is in its initial stages.Those who are engaged in price war are big names. They just want the venturecapital, they are out to kill smaller ISPs."

Vertec Ties Up with Waverider
Vertec Communications has entered into a tie up withWaverider, a Canada-based wireless data communication company, to distributewireless Internet equipment.

Data Infosys Gears Up for VoIP
This local ISP in Jaipur, which claims to have 16,000subscribers, is all set to provide VoIP services once the Government allows it.According to Ajay Data, the managing director, Data Infosys, "We have allthe infrastructure in place and we are ready to provide all the VoIP services asand when allowed." The company has tied up with Net2Phone for providinge-mail services. It has also entered into arrangement with Israel-basedsatellite company, Gilat, for providing interactive distant learning forhigh-end courses on networking through Internet.

Sudesh Prasad

GUJARAT DIARY

Gujarat ISPs Protest on Submarine Cable Regulations
The Gujarat chapter of ISPAI has sent a letter to the GujaratGovernment protesting against the recent regulations for submarine cable landingstations which includes Gujarat coast under the security sensitive areas wherepermission for landing stations would not be granted. SN Khemka who heads theISPAI chapter, said that the regulation did not make sense considering the hugepotential of Gujarat. The state has the maximum number of ISPs in the countrytoday. It also boasts of a 1,600-km coastline, which is fast shaping up as thesea gateway to the northern states of India. Many large ports, both governmentand private, are coming up here.

E-Gujarat Promises 10 Mbps Connectivity
E-Gujarat has entered into a strategic tie-up with SiliconValley-based Interpacket Group for commissioning an international gateway inAhmedabad. The gateway will have a capacity of 10 Mbps to begin with and laterscale up to 48 Mbps. This facility, combined with its Direct2Net product, thecompany says, will enable it to provide a direct 10 Mbps connection fromsubscriber-end to US/global Internetbackbone.

In another related development, it has signed a contract witha Hyderabad-based ISP to implement Internet-through-Ethernet (ItE) technology inthe city. ItE, the company claims, does not slow down the speed of the Internettraffic on addition of more users, in contrast to a cable network. Also, thecustomer has a major cost saving in terms of requiring a Rs 600-Ethernet cardinstead of a Rs 15,000-cable modem.

Elitcore Out to Grab ISP Billing & OSS Markets
JISP, Elitcore’s ISP management software suite has grabbeda big chunk of the billing and OSS market for ISPs. "Out of 72 ISPs whohave launched their services, 20 ISPs are our customers and this includesleading lights of ISP industry like Icenet, BSES Telecom, Zee Telefilms,Reliance Telecom, Jain Studios, Comsat Max, and Bharat Connect," saysNikhil Jain, chief technical officer, Elitcore. JISP is Java-based softwarealong with LDAP, which manages an ISP, does online registration, billing, dealermanagement, and Web-based reporting.

GNFC Gateway by 15 October
GNFC is all set to provide its Internet services through theVSAT route. It is coming up with an international gateway in Bharuch that willlink up directly to the ISPs in the US. For this it has entered into a deal withglobal major TIW Systems. GNFC is ready with a hub station that can provideInternet over VSAT connectivity to corporates in the country. The hub stations,which will be using INSAT 2B, are likely to be commissioned on 11 October whilethe gateway link through Intelsat is to be up by 15 October.

The gateway will have an initial capacity of 10 Mbpsexpandable to 50 Mbps.

Nareshchandra Laishram

HYDERABAD DIARY

Pioneer Moves Ahead
Pioneer Online, a category "B" ISP operating inAndhra Pradesh has got the licence for the Karnataka circle. The company isplanning to start with Bangalore, which would be operational by October.

It is planning for data centres that would be located inIndia and US. The US centre will focus on organizations that have a low budgetwhereas India centre will focus on the quality front. Reduction in optical fibrecost and laying of fibre optic backbone in the country will help Pioneer Onlineto shift the US-based data centres to India in future, said P Sridhar Reddy,managing director, Pioneer Online.

Pioneer has also got the gateway clearance for Hyderabad andBangalore and has tied up with Loral Orion for a satellite gateway.

Major Plans for InTechNet

InTechNet Ltd, is planning to expand its services fromHyderabad to Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Calcutta, andCochin. The company is planning to start its services in Chennai within a
fortnight.

After the Chennai launch it is planning to launch itsservices in all the remaining cities simultaneously, says M Someswara Rao,senior manager, InTechNet Ltd.

InTechNet is also the only ISP that launched its servicesafter its gateway was commissioned with the help of SingTel as the company wasplanning to provide assured level of bandwidth, says M Someswara Rao.

It is planning to invest Rs 80 crore for the expansion of itsISP services. Also planned is the NASDAQ listing by the end of this fiscal.

Aponline.net to Expand
Solstice Networks Pvt Ltd, the promoter of aponline.net isplanning to expand its services from Hyderabad to other cities in Andhra Pradesh.To begin with, the company isplanning to start its services in Vijaywada and Vishakhapatnam by January andthen would launch itsservices in Guntur, Rajmundry, and Tirupati. Plans are also for serverco-location facilities and the company plans to market that aggressively.

Southern Online to Expand
Southern Online, a category "B" ISP for AndhraPradesh is expanding its services from the present eight cities to another sixcities of Vishakhapatnam, Nellore, Anantpur, Kurnool, Tirupati, and Cuddapah.The company will start its services once they get the analog lines from DTS asgetting E1 line is a problem in smaller cities, says N Satish Kumar, executivedirector, Southern Online Services Ltd.

The company is planning for a gateway in Hyderabad inassociation with Interpacket Group for 40 Mbps to cater to the huge demand ofbandwidth by software technology parks, SME, cyber cafes, and traininginstitutes. Once the gateway is in place, the company plans to achieve theprojected Rs 9 crore target in this fiscal at a faster rate says N Satish Kumar.

The company is very strong in billing solutions and hasreplaced its radius billing with the in-house billing software.

Nettlinx Ties Up with Skytiger
Nettlinx is planning to expand its services in Rajmundry,East Godavari, West Godavari, Karim Nagar, Sangha Reddy, and Medak. It is alsoplanning for a gateway in Hyderabad along with two other sub gateways inVishakhapatnam and Vijaywada. The gateways will initially have satelliteconnectivity through Skytiger and later it will be connected to fibre links fromExatt Communications, according to Dr Manohar Loka Reddy, managing director,Nettlinx. Gateway would be operational by October and plans are to procure 34Mbps bandwidth over one year.

The company is planning to upgrade from category"B" to category "A". To provide wireless connectivity to itsclients, the company has zeroed on three players–Wi-Lan, RAD, and Spanco.

The company has already pumped in about Rs 7.7 crore and islooking for investing another Rs 15 crore through a local or global partner orthrough a strategic investor. Nettlinx revenue model is based on providingInternet access, online trading services, hosting services, and ASP services.

Veda Online Goes Live on 1 October
Veda Online, the Internet arm of Arm India, is planning tostart its ISP services in Hyderabad on 1 October. Vishakhapatnam, Vijaywada, andGuntur are next target cities, according to B Srinivas Rao, head (Operations),ARM Internet Services.

The company has already invested Rs 10 crore and plans are toinvest around Rs 40 crore in next three years. The company is planning for threegateways in Hyderabad, Vijaywada, and Vishakhapatnam. On the portal front, thecompany is focussing on an Andhra portal called andhrabiz.com that will focus onpeople living in Andhra Pradesh and Indians living abroad. Initially the portalwould be in English but in three months it would also be in Telugu. Also plannedis a goodwill and utility portal.

City Online Enters Bangalore
City Online, an ISP operational in Vijaywada and Hyderabad,is planning to start services in Bangalore within a fortnight. The company hasgot licence to operate ISP services in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Pondicherry. It is tying up with NewSkies for its gateways planned inBangalore and Hyderabad.

Sigma Online Plans to Expand to 44 Cities
Operational in 24 cities, Sigma Online is planning to go allout and launch ISP services in another 44 cities by October end.

The company has achieved a customer base of one lakh. It isplanning to commission all its eight gateways in a week’s time. For gateways,the company has tied up with Panamsat as its partner. Plans are for procuring abandwidth of 80 Mbps.

The company has already invested Rs 100 crore and plans areto invest another Rs 400 crore.

Pravin Prashant

KMR to Expand in Other Cities
KMR Online, the Chennai-based ISP, is planning to launchservices in Coimbatore, Madurai, and Trichy by February 2001. The company hasgot the licence for the gateway and plans to commission it within 6-8 months. Inorder to expand its services in other cities and for its gateway plan, it islooking for a foreign partner for faster rollout ofservices.

Netcom Targets Chennai, Ahmedabad, Delhi
Netcom Solutions, an Ahmedabad-based ISP is planning to startits services in Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Delhi in the first phase. Trial runs areon in Chennai and Ahmedabad where the service is planned to start on 15September, whereas Delhi launch will be done after two months. In the secondphase, the company plans to start services in Baroda, Surat, and Hyderabad, saidSR Narendra of NetcomSolutions.

Cyberwave Scouting for Franchisees
The first cable-based ISP in Chennai, Cyberwave, plans tolaunch its services in Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh by taking thefranchisee route. Presently, operational in South Chennai, the company isplanning to launch services in other part of the city within three months. Forthat it is looking for alliance partners who will do the cabling on whichInternet traffic will flow. Cyberwave will provide the infrastructure and alsothe technical support. The company has 1,000 subscribers presently and plans toincrease it to 20,000 customers by the end of this fiscal year.

Pravin Prashant