HCL Infinet to cover 42 cities with aggressive pricing
walletwatch.com
Shiv Nadar stable's latest baby is set for a big splash in the Internet service world. Two-month-old HCL Infinet is gearing up to roll out its services across 42 cities by August.
In the first phase, the services will be launched in 12 cities by July. The cities include Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Within a month, the company will be launched across 30 more cities.
This will catapult the HCL Infosystems subsidiary among the top league of national ISPs with coverage across maximum cities. At present; Satyam Infoway offers its services in 40 cities, followed by VSNL in 27 cities.
"We are working to have a near simultaneous launch in these cities and will be able to offer a complete range of services including dial up and leased line access, virtual private networks, hosting, networking and a vast range of value-added services," HCL Infosystems Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ajai Chowdhry said.
The company is set to match the best pricing offers introduced by rivals like Dishnet, Satyam and ZeeNext in the market. "We will not necessarily strive to be the cheapest on the block or offer free access as we will be offering a lot of value-added services. But our pricing will be competitive and match the lowest in the industry," said a company source.
The company is setting up its backbone on ATM frame relay network 'to make it reliable and robust'. Networks of almost all other ISPs are based on Internet protocol and this is where we hope to be able to make a substantial difference," he added.
Infinet is in an advanced stage of talks with content providers and existing portals for thrashing out at least 8 to 10 alliances before the launch, as it is not seeking to enter content development by itself. Chowdhry also rejected buyout of any portals. The home page, however, is ready and undergoing testing right now.
These tie-ups could see HCL Infinet picking up stakes in these portals, enter joint ventures for further development. With some, it is also discussing an exclusive marketing alliance based on revenue-sharing.
Though it will offer services for retail as well as the corporate market, it is the latter segment which it is eyeing particularly in view of its 100,000 PCs a year sale base. "We have expertise and a full suite of product offering for integration of corporate systems with front-end and Internet and we will bundle those solutions amidst other value-added services," added Chowdhry.
HCL Infinet will also act as an application service provider to tap the corporate market further. The company will be the first to launch most such services in many category B and category C cities, unlike other ISPs, Chowdhry claimed.
Earlier, at a press conference Chowdhry announced that HCL Insys was extending partnership with data/video projection products and services company, InFocus, to bring in information appliances into the country.
As part of the partnership, HCL Insys has launched what it claims is the world's first ultra-portable projector with digital video interface.
Targeted at a cross-section of sectors ranging from education, dot.com ventures, banking, including public sector units and the government, these products will meet the high quality presentation needs of mobile presenters and notebook users.
Source : FE
May 20, 2000 |
