Netway Paves Way For Diwali Debut

[Chirag 5]

Reliance Info to make set-top-box redundant

RAJESH CHANDRAMOULI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2004 04:59:12 PM ]

CHENNAI: Finally the residents of Chennai and South Delhi can heave a sigh of relief due to imposition of conditional access system (CAS). Reliance Infocomm, which stormed the mobile telephony market is now training its guns at the set-top-box (STBs) segment with its ‘NetWay’.

Top Reliance Infocomm officials told The Times of India on Saturday that the company was beta testing its STB. “With NetWay, it will be one pipe for all purposes. The pipe will have optical fibres which will carry voice, data, video, chat and games,” Raja Vaidyanathan, COO, Tamil Nadu Circle, Reliance Infocomm said added that the company will launch NetWay in four to five months time.

Detailing the course of action, he said, the company will launch ‘Wired’ services by February end. “Across India, we have identified 50,000 to 60,000 buildings of interest (BoI). In Chennai, there will be 6,000 BoIs of which 1,000 will become operational in the first phase,” Vaidyanathan added.

A BoI is a building cluster which has significant commercial activity under one roof. Typically major commercial complexes will be called a BoI. “The first phase will see mainly commercial connections. Key BoIs will be wired wherein one conduit will be enough to connect voice, data and video,” he said. The wired-line business for Reliance is being termed as “equally big, if not bigger than mobile business.”

“What you are seeing with Reliance Info is just 25 per cent of the services. The balance 75 per cent which includes video, data, gaming, chat and the like will be rolled out in a phased manner,” he added.

Srinivasan Padmanabhan, COO, Reliance WebWorld, while inaugurating the Anna Nagar store said that Reliance will have 450 such stores across the country. 250 of these will be in the top 100 cities while the balance will be distributed to “next level” towns.

[Arun 795]

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2004

MUMBAI: A Broadband Bharat is likely to be a reality within the next 12-24 months, said Reliance Industries’ chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, while speaking at the annual entertainment meet, Ficci Frames 2004.

In his valedictory address, Mr Ambani said Reliance Infocomm had finished alpha testing for their broadband connectivity and are now in the beta testing phase. “We are testing it in around 5,000 houses and will be scaling it up,” he said.

An audio-video presentation spoke about connecting 80 million households. Earlier in the day, Prakash Bajpai, who heads the enterprise division of Reliance Infocomm said: “Around 2 lakh buildings will be fiberised during the next two weeks.”

Regarding the launch of the NetWay project in March, he said we would like to do proper testing before we launch the project. “We had not given any dates before and we are not going to do so now either,” he said.

“In a digital age, the consumer will come first, the content creator second and the content carrier third,” he added, while underlining the need to “forge partnerships with content creators.”

Presenting his vision of digital entertainment, Mr Ambani said: “Digital entertainment will give consumers the opportunity to be part of the action.

Thus, viewers will be able to participate in quiz contests, judge beauty pageants, join election debates and even actively alter the course of the story the way they want.” Subhash Chandra, chairman, Zee Telefilms, said the size of the entertainment industry was around Rs 20,000 crore currently. He made a case for minimal regulation for the industry saying that “the unregulated regime led to exponential growth. If they leave us alone, we will do much better.” He spoke about the need for copyright protection and the need to adopt a liberal programming code which would be aired at proper timings.

“The pirates in India and Malaysia are currently making about Rs 2,000 crore a year. If we can control them, then the industry will have revenues of around Rs 20,000 crore,” pointed out Mr Chandra.

Amit Khanna, head of the Ficci convergence committee, said Indian films create a brand for Indian culture. “A study shows that 3.4 billion people watch Bollywood films while 2.8 billion watch Hollywood films,” he said referring to the market for Indian films.

MUMBAI: "If you want to dream, dare to dream big." Thus Reliance Industries' chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani, paraphrasing his father Dhirubhai, described the plans he had for the rollout of Reliance Infocomm's broadband initiative.

Called Broadband Bharat, it is almost ready to roll out across 1,100 towns and cities and covers a total of 80,000 kms of optic fibre cable. The only remaining link in the chain is the last mile, that is the customer. Speaking earlier in another session, Reliance Infocomm president Prakash Bajpai had said that 2,00,000 buildings would be connected within the next

few weeks.

This is the scale that Reliance has envisioned. It has also covered the international gateway by the recent acquisition of the US based Flag Telecom, said Ambani, in his keynote address at the valedictory session of Ficci Frames 2004 on Wednesday. This will link up Reliance's national network to four continents through 75,000 kms of under sea cable.

"Digital technology will become as ubiquitous as electricity," Ambani said, giving an idea of the scale of the project. Ambani stressed that the broadband project would not eliminate television, movies or any of the present entertainment platforms but would only enhance the media experience. The future, according to Ambani, is interactive television, electronic newspapers, music delivery. The list goes on.

The potential is huge, said Ambani, who sees the revenues from the Indian media and entertainment industry alone growing from $ two billion in aggregate terms to $ 200 billion in the next 20 years. "I believe India is the land of a billion opportunities," just about sums up Ambani's vision for Reliance's Broadband Bharat.

The Reliance Group, which is emerging as an important stakeholder in the Indian entertainment industry, should be rolling out its digital distribution platform - the broadband network - in 12 to 24 months.

"We are in an intensive phase of testing. We have completed the alpha testing and are now at beta stage," Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, said at the concluding session of the three-day conference, FICCI-Frames 2004.

He spoke of setting up a `Broadband Bharat'. In the process of installing a digital distribution platform, the Reliance Group will look at partnership with content creators, Ambani said on the sidelines of the conference.

The recent acquisition of the US-based Flag Telecom will boost its broadband efforts. Reliance Infocomm Ltd, mandated to realise the Group's broadband plans, is setting up a high capacity optic fibre network that will be 80,000 kilometres long and covering over 1,100 towns and cities.

"It is evolving as a platform for repositories of knowledge and tools for collaboration available to all Indians," Ambani said.

According to him, the country's entertainment industry has before it a wealth creating-opportunity. He estimates the global media and entertainment industry at $1 trillion. "Although, India has the most depth and diversity in entertainment today, we are nowhere in dollar terms," he said.

Of the $1 trillion, US accounts for about half the market. The US makes about 450 movies a year and earns $32 billion (around Rs 1,44,704 crore). In contrast, India makes 800 movies a year but earns $0.5 billion (around Rs 2,261 crore). A similar scenario exists in other segments of the entertainment industry. Ambani feels that digital technology will drive the Indian entertainment industry to grow almost 100 times to $200 billion in 20 years time.

Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Telefilms Ltd, invited for the special address at the valedictory session of FICCI-Frames 2004, said that elimination of piracy could result in Rs 20,000 crore increase to the industry's revenues. "Currently, pirates of Indian content make about Rs 2,000 crore every year," he said.

Chandra maintained that addressability would become a reality when consumers demand it. "The cable industry will be forced to go digital with competing technologies and that will drive addressability," he said.

Though conditional access system (CAS) did not take off, television viewing will continue to be an integral part of Indian homes. "My belief is, there won't be another war fought on territorial disputes but there will be, on who controls mindspace," Chandra said.

[Greens 21]

What does broadband offers??????

[Arun 795]

Quoting from another post in this forum...

This network will carry voice, data, interactive services, television material and videostreaming, and offer the end-user a minimum capacity of 1 Gbps that can go up to tens of Gbps, said Mr Bajpai. Should the project go according to expectations, other Reliance officials felt it could squeeze out all other television cable, Internet access, videoconferencing and such businesses. As part of its broadband offerings, the company plans to offer leased line and virtual private network (VPN) among others, said Mr Bajpai.

[Arun 795]

The Telegraph, March 23, 2004

With private telecom major Reliance Infocomm gearing up to roll out NetWay, the bugle has been sounded for the broadband battle in town.

The market is being “tested” and the headhunt has kicked off, but market sources indicate that while the launch in some other metros can be expected by end-April, Calcutta will have to wait till Diwali for NetWay.

Reliance officials, when contacted, declined to comment on their plans for Calcutta.

NetWay is the broadband solution from Reliance Infocomm, providing cable television, high-speed Internet access and telephony through a single cable and on a single platform, using the high-speed fibre optic network.

The final stretch to the consumer’s home would still be through the local cablewallah.

And in true Reliance style, price war will be a prime focus. Currently, the likes of MTNL and Bharti are offering broadband services at around Rs 3,500 a month, with a deposit of Rs 15,000. Though Reliance officials wouldn’t say, sources spoke of a monthly rate of Rs 1,200.

The key to the NetWay technology lies in a set-top box being developed indigenously by Reliance. Billed to provide TV channels, high-speed Internet access and value-added services like pay TV, audio and video on demand and video-conferencing, it will also have “significant storage capacity” for recording television programmes.

According to plans, the box will initially be given free to cable operators and subscribers, to push the product and address the under-declaration issue.

The local competition, however, didn’t sound too flustered by Reliance’s imminent entry. A spokesperson for BSNL, coming up with its own broadband solutions, felt more players can only open up the market.

“Talks are on at the highest level and we are coming into broadband in a big way,” the spokesperson revealed on Monday. BSNL will first concentrate on high-speed Internet services.

The mood in the cable fraternity is also one of wait-and-watch. “Their project is at the testing stage currently. They have to formulate a viable business plan, streamline the marketing aspects and make it affordable for the common man,” said the spokesperson for a multi-system operator.

[Morpheus 0]

Just for ur info guys..

I heard that the broadband service might be called something like BBC (Broad Band C----- )

not sure

[Arun 795]

TIMES NEWS NETWORK WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2004

NEW DELHI : High speed Internet prices are beginning to crash with cable service providers reducing 24-hour Net access rates to Rs 300 a month, half of what they have been charging so far.

The reason: Impending onslaught from Reliance Infocomm that is preparing to launch Internet, cable TV and local telephone on a single platform at Rs 500 a month, although it is 6-12 months away.

Rajan Raheja’s Hathway has taken the lead by allowing consumers to download 300 MB data at 128 Kbps for Rs 300 a month. Sify still charges Rs 750 for the same service.

Industry observers said broadband prices were set to further crash with a sharp fall in global bandwidth prices. ‘‘Broadband spread is gathering pace in India, driven by lower access fees, high download speeds and higher return on investment,’’ said Marcel Fenez, head of PwC’s media and entertainment practice.

While SitiCable offers unlimited downloads at Rs 750, Hinduja’s InCablenet net service begins at Rs 400. Besides, BSNL and MTNL are offering discounts on telephone charges and allow consumers to buy broadband directly from ISPs.

ISPs like Bharti and Sify are collaborating with cable operators to enter consumer homes. VSNL, which recently bought Dishnet, is all set to usher in Tata broadband for home and office users in the coming months.

While dial-up Internet connections dominate Net access for now, telecom and broadcast regulator Trai has predicted a broadband revolution in the country

‘‘We are going to see a revolution in broadband very similar to mobile telephony when prices crashed,’’ said Trai chairman Pradeep Baijal. Trai — which is finalising its view on the broadband sector — is confident of enabling a broadband push. Currently, dial-up net penetration in India is 4 per thousand, while broadband penetration is 2 per 10,000 people. China has 50 times more broadband penetration than India .

Industry experts say that US broadband took off only when the monthly access charges were slashed from $100 to $20. ‘‘We have to keep Net access prices between Rs 450 to Rs 600 for ensuring mass market penetration and subscriber usage,’’ said Sujit Kumar, chairman, CII’s National Broadband Committee.

But all eyes are now on Reliance. ‘‘We are set to connect millions of Indians from villages and towns to each other and to the world in a seamless manner,’’ said Reliance CMD Mukesh Ambani. Reliance is likely to be ready with its converged broadband service in six to twelve months.

BSNL is also not far behind. It has signed an agreement with Korea Telecom for promoting broadband on its copper cables spanning the country.