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Technology Stocks : Satyam Infoway Ltd-(Nasdaq:SIFY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (818)	2/22/2000 7:33:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1471

Larsen & Toubro arm to set up nationwide Net backbone larsentoubro.com Tamal Bandyopadhyay MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 22: Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is ready totake a big leap into the business of Internet infrastructure. L&T Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of L&T, is building up the first-ever private sector-controlled IP (internet protocol) backbone across the country. To start with, the company is launching a pilot optical fibre-cable projectin Delhi soon which will be followed up by projects in southern and western India over the next few months, sources close to the company said. L&T Communications chief executive Naveen Sood confirmed that the company is in giving final touches to the technical and business models of the Internetinfrastructure project. It plans to build an across-the-country broadband network services for Net and convergent communications. L&T announced its plan to become a major Internet services provider (ISP)and network services provider (NSP) on January 14. To achieve this the company has set up L&T Netcom - the ISP arm - and L&T Communications forthe NSP business. L&T expects a Rs 2,000-crore (($435 mil) turnover from its IT-related business by 2006.The company plans to invest Rs 450 crore ($98 mil) in these businesses in phases depending on market and business needs. However, according to industry sources, the IP backbone project will call for huge investments which thecompany may raise through collaborations. At present, state-run MTNL and DoT are the only players in the Internet infrastructure businesses while Indian Railways, Powergrid Corporation and Gas Authority of India have been laying communications pipelines for their in-house use. The new L&T venture will not eat into DoT and MTNL revenues as"the cake is too large and can be shared by new players," said industry analysts. Moreover, MTNL and DoT are into voice networks primarily for telephony while L&T Communications' network will primarily be for data movement. In India, the UN-backed WorldTel, run by Sam Pitroda, was the first off the block into Internet infrastructure. WorldTel has tied up with seven state governments to set up an IP backbone across the country as part of its plan to provide Internet infrastructure in the Third World and emerging markets. Reliance Industries has tied up with WorldTel for the IP backbone in Tamil Nadu. The petrochem major is sewing upsimilar deals in some of the other states as well where WorldTel intends tobuild up the communication network. L&T's foray into this area is, however, on a larger scale, sources said. The engineering giant is also gearing up to cover the application part of it through the ISP arm - L&T Netcom. This will be necessary for vertical integration. "Both WorldTel-RIL combine and L&T can share the business here as worldwidewe see more than one player dominating the Internet infrastructure businessin a country. For instance, in the US, MCI Worldcom and AT&T are the twomain players in this business," an industry analyst said. Silicon Valleycompany Sycamore competes with Lucent and Nortel Networks in providing solutions in Internet infrastructure. L&T CEO AM Naik had ealier said that considering the large scope for growthin the infotech and communications business, the company plans to give an additional thrust to this area. The company's board approved its plans for IT services in the second week of January. "We may invest more in the telecom sector as and when opportunities arise. "We have made only a start with the ISP and NSP forays," Naik had pointed out. The company has a wholly owned information technology subsidiary called LTITL which has identified five thrust areas to compete in the globalmarket. -Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.