Rel Broadband gets stiff competition

[city02 63]

MTNL plans broadband network to take on Reliance

MANOJ GAIROLA | NEW DELHI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [sATURDAY, JULY 31, 2004 12:48:45 AM]

Economic Times

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has completely changed its strategy to compete with Reliance Infocomm in the lucrative (Delhi-Mumbai) broadband market.

It has now done away with the franchisee model of providing broadband services. Flush with cash reserves, it has instead decided to set up its own network.

The network installation will be complete by November. Reliance had announced that it would provide broadband services by next year. MTNL wants to capture the broadband market before Reliance does so.

“Incumbent operators throughout the world set up their own broadband networks. We have also realised that in the long run this model will be more beneficial than the franchisee model,” said RSP Sinha, chairman and managing director of MTNL.

The company has cash reserves of Rs 2,600 crore. The total investment in the broadband project would be over Rs 250 crore. Therefore, its funds would be utilised properly, Mr Sinha said. MTNL has already floated a tender for procurement of the equipment. The tender will be opened on August 20.

Earlier, the company had invited expressions of interest (EOI) from potential franchisees. In the franchisee model, MTNL was supposed to get 30% of the revenue share without much investment. It was a good bargain compared to the 29% revenue share that BSNL was getting under a similar franchisee model.

However, MTNL officials realised that in the long run this would not be beneficial. The only reason in favour of a franchisee model was speedy implementation of the project. MTNL would also have benefited from the marketing skills of the franchisee.

Nonetheless, MTNL has set up an internal committee for speedy implementation of the project as it is running short of time. It wants to grab the market before the entry of Reliance Infocomm, which has already announced its plans to provide broadband services throughout the country. MTNL is expected to launch the services by next year.

MTNL will be able to offer 100,000 broadband connections by the end of November and 2,78,000 connections by the financial year end. The customers will be able to receive all the broadband services such as virtual private network, video multicast, cable TV, and video on demand over the network.

MTNL will install additional capacity on the basis of the initial response. However, the company has not yet finalised the prices of broadband services. “I can only say that the prices would be very attractive,” said Mr Sinha.

Edited August 3, 2004 by Chirag

[Chirag 5]

High-speed cable Net at Rs 750/month

August 04, 2004 14:27 IST

Rediff.com

Hathway Cable Internet, one of the largest broadband cable ISPs in India introduced its new broadband package providing high speed Internet through cable for Rs 750 per month.

Branded as 'Hathway 256 kbps,' this new package is designed to give an enhanced online experience where the user will be able to access the Internet and its applications, much faster than ever.

The annual fee for the package will be Rs 7,500.

This new initiative will expose the residential Internet users to high-speed broadband experience at an affordable rate, said a Hathway media release on Wednesday.

K Jayaraman, MD and CEO, Hathway, said: "It has been always our endeavour to make broadband Internet affordable for the masses and encourage usage of broadband services. Till now speeds like 256 kbps were only targeted at the corporate and small medium businesses. However with this price slash, 256 kbps broadband speeds will be well within the reach of the residential users."

Hathway has also recently announced free Net filtering solutions called 'Site Police' for its annual subscribers in order to prevent Internet abuse.

Site Police, the Internet filtering software stops pornography, chatting, games and other applications as per the subscriber's wish.

Hathway Cable Internet is one of the largest broadband Cable Internet service providers in the country offering broadband Internet services in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik and Ludhiana.

[eskay 0]

Hathway has a 500MB per month download limit on this 750 bucks package. For a heavy user it still doesn't make sense.

[biosbhai 0]

Since almost all ISP's have download limits, it would be good to start an info thread in this forum on ISP's which have plans with NO download limits. Only such connection makes sense for heavy surfers / download3rs........

[ajitanand 0]

Some more info:

1. Hathway's plan - 256 kbps, Rs 750/- p.m. (isn't this unlimited?) And Hathway's commitment is to provide the promised throughput, even if the user base reaches too much (unlike other ISPs in India, as we have seen during past few years).

2. Tata indicom launched DSL, 512kbps at Rs. 500/- p.m.* (there is a star with this offer, I believe some 100/200 hours package). But still, at this speed this is something heavy, and from good old INDIAN - TATA uncle!! - So my best bet!!!

3. Hotwire - Rs. 1000 p.m. - unlimited @ 64kbps (thruput - around 7 KiloBytes/s, I can tell you its average thruput since I have this connection )

4. Then our poor R-Connect - - 128kbps, that gives thruput no more than a traditional 56 kbps modem connection

[unwantedmails 0]

Sify is also Good. EXCELLENT would be the right word.

DisnetDSL is a complete SCAM. They Sell what they call 512k Open Pipe and

First Their Modems itself are 256kbps Plus I never got more than 100kbps.

I paid them 30 grands for my CyberCafe Connection in Andheri/Mumbai which turned out to be a total failure.

B-a-s-t-a-r-d-s are Cheaters. Scamsters.

Now that TATA has taken over them - They have become even worse... Now They blame the merger process on their INCAPABILITIES.

I have also used Willnet in Ahemdabad. They Are Good.

Any Comments On Speed Melon ?

-PCOGuy

[eskay 0]

1. Hathway's plan - 256 kbps, Rs 750/- p.m. (isn't this unlimited?)

Hathway Rs 750/- pm is not unlimited. There is a limit of 500 MB.

Tata indicom launched DSL, 512kbps at Rs. 500/- p.m.

This has a 250 MB limit. At least what they told me here in New Delhi.

[dapoedbyreliance 0]

where is this Hotwire internet available??

What about tata indicom dsl?

is it there in Bangalore - the silicon city of india??

[eskay 0]

British Gas to invest $25 million in Indian broadband venture

Venkatachari Jagannathan

23 June 2004

Chennai: British Gas, the UK based energy major will be investing around $25 million in expanding its broadband Internet business in India. The UK company's 100 per cent subsidiary BG Broadband India Pvt Limited, currently offers Internet over cable in 10 cities riding on Railtel's backbone (intercity) and its own inside a city.

"The fresh investments will be for consolidating our existing operations/infrastructure and our planned expansion. The investments will be made over a span of two years," discloses CEO EVS Chakravarthy.

According to him, British Gas has already invested a similar amount in India since it started the broadband operations here in 2001.

Offering its Iqara Broadband brand net over cable service in Mumbai, Surat, Baroda, Ahemadabad, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Vishakapatnam and Gurgoan, BG Broadband India plans to expand its operations to 8/10 more cities.

"This would include B class business cities/towns like Mysore, Coimbatore and Tiruppur. We are present in cities that commands nearly 70 per cent of the broadband market," he adds. The company - a category A Internet service provider (ISP) and Infrastructure Provider 1 licence holder- is fast ramping up its subscriber base in the cities where it operates.

According to Chakravarthy, from a subscriber base of 6,000 at the end of 2002, BG Broadband India grew its base to 25,000 in 2003 to 50,000 currently.

"We hope to close this calendar/financial year with a subscriber base of 80,000-1 lakh." In terms of revenue, this would translate to Rs80 crore, a jump of Rs60 crore from 2003's turnover of Rs20 crore.

Broadband in India is a much misused term. Anything over the dial up speed of 36 kpbs was termed as broadband whereas overseas a minimum speed of 128 kbps was considered as broadband.

With the entry of net over cable players broadband was defined here as access speed of 64 kbps (actual delivery is around 50 kbps) and above.

Curiously the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its consultation paper has termed broadband service as the one that offers access speed of 256 kbps and above.

Given this position, a new term `wideband' is now coming in vogue to denote ISPs offering net access speed between 36 kbps and 256 kbps.

Netting the subscribers at high speed

Meanwhile Chakravarthy claims that BG Broadband India is the only company in the country that offers a dedicated speed of 256 kbps to each of its subscribers. "The ramping up of our subscriber base and the voice quality of our Internet telephony service is the proof of our pudding. We have one fibre node for every 1,000 homes and the maximum distance between two amplifiers is 600 metres," he adds.

Within four months of its silent entry into select areas of the Chennai market, BG Broadband India claims to have enlisted around 600 subscribers, some migrating from Hathway Cable and Datacom Pvt Limited, the incumbent service provider.

Speaking about BG Broadband India's pricing strategy Chakravarthy says that traditionally broadband in India was started at a price point of Rs1,000 per month targeting on those who spent more than that sum.

"As per our study 38 per cent of the dial up subscriber did not spend more than Rs400 per month towards net access. Another thirty per cent spent around Rs800-the middle segment- and only 32 per cent of the dial up subscribers spent over Rs1,200-1,500 per month."

In order to attract the middle segment — deterred by the fixed rate plan and modem cost/rent- BG Broadband India came out with its aggressive pricing plans. "We were the first in the country to introduce data transfer/usage based tariff," he remarks.

Further the subscribers were allowed to carry forward their unused entitlement, a facility denied by others to their subscribers. Unlike its competitors, the company provides the cable modem free on receipt of a refundable security deposit.

"Eighty per cent of our subscribers have gone for data usage based plans." Apart from poaching customers from other net over cable players, BG Broadband India poses a serious threat to the digital subscriber line (DSL) service providers like Bharti, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.

As the till box rings with cash (average revenue per user Rs1,000 per month) due to prepaid connections, the default and cost of collection is really very low for BG Broadband India.

"We are also trying to match Trai's expectation of offering broadband service for a monthly charge of Rs600. However that is possible only when the bandwidth prices come down further," Chakravarthy remarks. The company sources around 45MB from the Hong Kong based Reach and plans to increase the bandwidth purchase to 155MB by the end of this year.

Agreeing that the competition is severe now Hathway Cable's head (sales, marketing and customer services: south India) Karthik Bhaskaran says, "It is we who brought down the prices by passing on the reduction in bandwidth prices. It should be remembered that we are the number three ISP in the country and continue to add subscribers at a faster clip." According to him, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai are the four fast growing cable net market.

Facing the competitive heat in terms of employee and subscriber poaching Hathway Cable is now roping up subscribers offering modem free of rent.

Adds Chennai branch manager Ranjith Menon, "More than pricing subscribers look out for post sales service and with our round the clock call centre and online resolution of problems, we will retain our subscriber base."

With Internet business becoming more or less like a commodity business, the only differentiating factor is the post sales customer experience, Menon adds. Hathway Cable indeed has an efficient call centre and is backed by prompt service engineers.

On the after sales service aspect Chakravarthy remarks, "Our churn ratio is less than two per cent. Presently post sales service is taken care of by the company staff. We are in the process of centralising the call centre operations in Mumbai to be managed by Accenture."

Apart from the residential segment, BG Broadband India is looking at small and medium enterprises. "We have control over the infrastructure end to end unlike some of the stand alone ISPs."

The company has set up disaster recovery centres in Surat and Mumbai and is targeting software and other companies. Referring to setting up of Internet cafés he adds, "The dynamics has changed send this article to a friend now. So we will look at that at a suitable time." However the company does offer connectivity to individual Internet café operators.