The Hindujas
are setting up a new company that will provide backbone services like
international leased circuits to the Internet to private sector Internet
Service Providers (ISPs), according to sources.
The group is planning to invest an estimated Rs 100 crore over a two-year period in the venture which will also provide gateway services to
private ISPs to route their traffic to the Internet, sources pointed
out.
The firm is keeping in step with the National Task Force on
Information Technology recommendations.
In its 108-point IT Action Plan, the Task Force had recommended that
private ISPs be allowed to set up their own international gateways
subject to security clearances.
The gateway services had till now been a monopoly of Videsh Sanchar
Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), which still retains the status for all other
applications except Internet services.
While the Indian government has resolved to make India a global
superpower and a front runner in the age of Information Revolution, it
has made several revisions and additions to the policy and procedures
for removing bottlenecks and achieving such pre-eminent status for the
country, sources maintained.
The info-infrastructure drive of the government is to accelerate the
drive for setting up a world class info infrastructure with an
extensive spread of fibre optic networks, Sitcom networks and wireless
networks for seamlessly interconnecting the Local Informatics
Infrastructure, National Informatics Infrastructure and the Global
Informatics Infrastructure to ensure a fast nation-wide onset of the
Internet, extranets and intranets.
This is where players like the Hindujas can invest and reap rich
dividends, sources said adding that tie ups were more the order of
the day in this particular segment.
Hinduja’s new firm will initially lease 50 mega bits per second (MBPS)
of international circuit to the Internet which will subsequently be
increased to 100 MBPS in two years, the sources said.
However, these circuits will be on satellite, instead of cables which
the VSNL uses for its Internet services, For this purpose, the company
is planning to lease a full C-band transponder, sources added.
The company currently has offers from about three satellite companies
and is to take a decision shortly in this regard, sources maintained.
The new-found company will not only lease the bandwidth to the other
private ISPs but will also provide the necessary bandwidth to In
CableNet, the Hinduja-owned cable TV distribution company.