India - BPL Sells ISP Business To Data Access
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 2001 NOV 2 (NB) -- By Staff, Computers Today. The BPL Innovision Group has sold its Internet service provider (ISP) business to Delhi-based Data Access, which operates the Now.com portal.
Data Access is an associate company of Hong-Kong-based Richard Li-promoted Pacific Century Cyberworks. The development comes close on the heels of Satyam Computers' plans to sell its stake, partly or wholly, in Satyam Infoway, the country's largest private Internet service provider.
An official announcement will be made shortly, a BPL Spokesperson said. Bplnet.com has about 700 corporate clients and around 30,000 retail clients.
Siddhartha Ray, managing director of Data Access, said that the deal was signed recently between BPL Innovision and Data Access. "We have acquired BPL's ISP business with a commitment to continue servicing the customers but as per Data Access terms and conditions," Ray said.
BPL Innovision has invested about $20 million in its ISP business and has a "category-A" ISP license. Presently, BPL has decided to focus on its cellular business.
Ray said Data Access "has not acquired BPL's ISP company, but the ISP business. The brand name of BPLnet and the company, BPLnet.com Ltd., are not part of the deal and the rights over the name remain with the BPL group."
"The deal will add to Now's strategic presence in Hyderabad, a city which we have been looking at to start our services, and Cochin and Coimbatore," Ray said.
The migration of customers from BPLnet.com to Now has already started and is expected to be completed by month's end. The BPL customers are being serviced by Now bandwidth.
According to sources, the BPL Innovision group earlier made an abortive attempt to sell its ISP business to Tata Nova. At the time of the launch of BPLnet.com in April 2000, BPL officials announced that around $60 million would be spent on Internet infrastructure. Most of the funding had been generated through internal resources and around $15 million had been earmarked for investing in e-services or "vortals."
But early this year, in a major restructuring of its Internet operations, BPL Innovision had merged both its broadband and internet operations, appointed new CEOs and was in talks with France Telecom to jointly fund the new venture.
The restructuring of the operations had led to bplnet.com becoming a subsidiary of BPL Internetworks Ltd. There were also plans to acquire regional Internet service providers to expand its customer base.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com
11:00 CST
(20011102/WIRES ONLINE, TELECOM, BUSINESS, ASIA/) |
