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VSNL to roll out WiMAX in 12 cities next year
The
Hindu Business Line — February 1, 2008
After the successful launch of
its WiMAX services in Bangalore, VSNL intends to roll
out the product in 11 more cities by March 2009. Chennai,
Delhi and Hyderabad will be the first three among them,
Mr Srinivasa Addepalli, Senior Vice President-Corporate
Strategy, said on Thursday.
WiMAX, a wireless broadband technology, will bring
internet to homes. With WiMAX, you get a little box
fastened to your window (because the spectrum allocated
is not enough for the box to be next to the computer).
The box is connected to the PC either by wire or by
Wi-Fi and you start browsing the Internet. VSNL promises
speeds of 1 mbps, good enough to download pictures and
video, but still not enough to watch a cricket match
on the PC.
Huge demand
Speaking to journalists here, Mr Addepalli said
that VSNL, which proposes to spend Rs 2,000 crore on
WiMAX, sees a customer potential of close to 30 million
for these services. In Bangalore, the company did not
even have to market. It had a huge list of customers
who had asked for broadband but had not got it - it
was a simple task to sell WiMAX-based broadband to these
customers.
The offering is slightly more expensive, because, "wireless
is more reliable". But Mr Addepalli is not worried
about competition because of the huge demand for broadband,
which he feels the current broadband suppliers are not
able to meet. He notes that there are 10 million people
with personal computers, but only 3 million with broadband.
"There is no reason to believe those with PCs do
not want broadband," Mr Addepalli said, adding
that with devices such as smart phones coming in, demand
for broadband would only go up.
Data centres
VSNL is also expanding its other services - remote
management of telecom networks, data centres to host
servers and optic-fibre cable infrastructure across
continents. It is putting up data centres at Mumbai,
Chennai and Hyderabad. Mr Addepalli pointed out that
companies like Google and Yahoo are giving their customers
huge space, where pictures and videos are stored. "All
these have to be hosted somewhere," he observed.
The company is further investing $600 million (Rs 2,200
crore) on adding to its existing submarine cable network.
It also manages network for global telecom companies.
This 'managed services' business was launched just a
year ago is offered through a subsidiary, VSNL Global
Services Ltd. So far, it has won four contracts, including
one from the US-based Global Capacity.
Mr V.S. Shridhar, Chief Operating Officer, VSNL Global
Services Ltd, said that about 650 engineers, sitting
in Chennai and Pune, would manage networks for clients.
Since this fledgling business is growing, VSNL Global
would hire 2,000 more people by March 2009, Mr Shridhar
said.
Mr Addepalli said that VSNL wanted to enter China and
was studying the market for opportunities.
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