Sify targets voice telecom pie via VoIP

On 25 Aug 2009, 1909 hrs IST, Niranjana Ramesh, ET Bureau at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Sify-targets-voice-telecom-pie-via-VoIP/articleshow/4933615.cms

CHENNAI: Sify Technologies, a pioneer among private internet service providers (ISP) in India with 5.7 lakh subscribers and a 5.8% market share, is now targeting yet another area of telecommunications for a first mover advantage – Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), for the mass consumer market, as and when government regulation permits it within the country.

“It is a foregone conclusion that we would have a tremendous edge in the VoIP space, technically, when such telephony is allowed in India,” said Sify chief architect (CTO) Arvind Mathur. “Sify’s ISP network is spread across India covering all states with 900 points of presence.” A point of presence (POP) in internet protocol is analogous to a base station or a telecom tower in mobile telephony. But, the capacity of a POP is expandable based on the nodes attached to it.

Sify also holds significant spectrum in the 2.4 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands. 2.4 GHz has, recently, been chosen for the purpose of Wimax services in India, and is yet to be auctioned off. “We will comply by whatever regulation that the government stipulates for the usage of such spectrum,” Mr.Mathur said. “But, we hold enough spectrum to be able to effectively provide last mile connectivity as well as POP to POP connectivity through the wireless mode. We have also invested in buying or leasing cable from carriers for long distance connectivity.”

The company has, in the past few years, ramped up its data centre capacity to augment its core competency of internet protocol based communication. It has invested Rs.100 crore in building data centers in different locations with a total capacity of 2 lakh square feet, to process and store all the transactions – voice or text – that goes via Sify’s IP network.

Presently, the company’s revenues are more leveraged from the managed network and ICT services that it provides to its corporate and enterprise customers. The share of corporate services in the company’s revenues has gone up from 55% to 70% over the past three years, while that of retail service has gone down from 39% to 21% in the same period of time.

“But, when triple play (voice, video, data) is allowed using internet protocol, as it is using mobile telephony today, we will have our network and data centers all ready to expand operations in the consumer market,” Mr.Mathur said. The company has been providing VoIP services for international calls as well as the BPO industry. It presently has 150 BPO customers, doing 100 million minutes of voice calls annually. It also provides virtualisation, cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) applications and solutions to its clients.

BSNL opts for franchisee route to reduce costs

Thomas K Thomas on The Hindu Business Line on June 16, 2009

New Delhi, June 15 In a bid to save on capital expenditure and to roll out services faster, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is taking the franchisee route in a big way for new projects.

The PSU has invited bids from private players for at least five of its projects, including for offering WiMax services, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and setting up Internet Data Services.

According to BSNL officials, the company may be saving more than Rs 10,000 crore of capital investment by adopting the franchisee model. Take for example the controversial WiMax project wherein the company is planning to allow a private player in each circle to utilise its spectrum and back haul infrastructure to offer high-speed broadband on a revenue share basis. The franchisee will make all the investments required to set up the network and also undertake marketing and sales on behalf of BSNL. It is following a similar business model for IPTV services.

Risks minimised

According to BSNL officials, this model also minimises risks for the state-owned company especially in areas where the technology or the service being offered is relatively new and untested.

“While we are offering our traditional businesses like mobile ,fixed line and long distance telephony on our own we are seeking private participation for new services like IPTV and WiMax-based services where we are yet to see an uptake in demand across the world. In the franchisee model, we let private entrepreneurs take the risk,” said a BSNL official.

Most of the deals being worked out by BSNL include transfer of business operation to the PSU after a certain period of time which means that if the service does succeed then BSNL gets to run the show at a later date.

BSNL is also now slowly beginning to use private players in marketing and sales activities. It has recently sought expression of interest from large retail chains to sell BSNL products and services over their counters.

Private operators

The trend is in line with what private telecom operators are doing. Most big players such as Bharti Airtel have outsourced most of their operations to third party vendors. While BSNL being a Government-run company cannot outsource its operations to a private player, it is using the franchisee model to create efficiency in its operations.

BSNL officials said that depending on the successes of these projects which have been launched the PSU will evaluate further opportunities to partner private players on a franchisee model.

WiMax services: BSNL invites bids afresh

Thomas K Thomas on The Hindu Business Line on June 6, 2009

New Delhi, June 5 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Friday invited bids afresh from private players to roll out WiMax services on a franchisee basis.

The PSU floated a new tender after it scrapped the earlier one to rope in a strategic partner.

The earlier tender ran into rough weather after it was discovered that five of the six bidders shortlisted by the PSU existed only on paper. The five companies had identical corporate information including contact address, contact person, e-mail id, and lawyer.

BSNL’s technical committee had disqualified global companies including Cisco and Soma Networks even as it chose to keep the bids of the five firms.

Political parties, including the BJP, had alleged corruption at the highest level. The issue had also caught the attention of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Tender norms

BSNL has now invited bids in 16 circles giving another opportunity to the international companies. The tender documents will be available from June 12. The technical bids will be opened on August 4. Companies with a turnover of over Rs 100 crore for two consecutive financial years can apply. The franchisee company will have to invest in setting up the WiMax network. The company offering the highest revenue share to BSNL will be selected.

BSNL had earlier selected Soma Network on a pilot basis for Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Therefore there will be no competitive bidding in these three circles. The PSU is also in the process of issuing another tender for buying 7000 WiMax base stations to set up community service centres in the rural areas.

Cost reduction

The State-owned company is increasingly adopting the franchisee model to reduce costs. It is already offering IPTV services with HFCL on revenue-sharing basis. The PSU has invited bids from private players to set up Internet Data Centres (IDC) in various parts of the country on a revenue share basis.

The centres are expected to be set up over the next six months after which the PSU will go after outsourcing contracts for services such as web hosting, co-location, data warehousing and Internet managed services.

IBM to build (Green) data centres for MTS

From The Hindu Business Line on 02 June, 2009

Bangalore, June 1

IBM said on Monday that it will design and build two green data centres – one each in Chennai and Gurgaon for MTS India, the mobile telephony services brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd, a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and Shyam Group. The green data centres will help achieve 20 per cent energy savings for SSTL that is expanding operations across the country. IBM will also build a network operations centre (NOC) to help SSTL monitor and manage applicat ions and network. The Chennai site will serve as the main data centre for SSTL, while the data centre in Gurgaon will serve as the disaster recovery site.

 Story on www.ciol.com on June 5, 2009

GURGAON, INDIA: MTS India, the mobile telephony services brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd.(SSTL) today announced that it has entered into an IT services agreement with IBM for building green data centers in India.

Further to the deal IBM will design and build green data centres for SSTL, one each in Chennai and Gurgaon. The move is integral to supporting SSTL’s pan India expansion plans for offering telephony services. The green data centres will help to achieve 20 percent of energy savings for SSTL.

Speaking on the need to adopt energy-efficient IT infrastructure in an enterprise, Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd., said, “As a global telecom player with ambitious expansion plans for the Indian market, we are aware of the advantage of adopting energy-efficient operational measures and in the process will work proactively to reduce global energy emissions. We are glad to partner with a technology leader like IBM in making our IT infrastructure – Green Friendly.”

The data centre solution being deployed by IBM provides the facility to scale the benefits of power and cooling automatically, depending on the load. IBM will also build a Network Operations Center (NOC) to help the SSTL team monitor and manage applications and network in a 24/7 environment.

SSTL is currently in an expansion phase with plans to launch Pan-India telecom services in the coming months. The scalability and dynamic nature of the solution provided by IBM will ensure that SSTL‘s expansion plans are well-supported by a robust, resilient and Green IT infrastructure.

Shanker Annaswamy, MD, IBM India Pvt. Ltd., said, “IBM’s association with Shyam Sistema TeleServices Ltd is aimed at helping them take advantage of leading IT infrastructure solutions and assets. IBM has proven technologies, as well as a wide range of capabilities and skills across industries, to help clients achieve their business objectives. Moreover, SSTL’s adoption of green and energy-efficient technologies can help them optimize their resources while serving their growing customer base across India.”

The Chennai site will serve as the main data centre for SSTL, while the data center in Gurgaon will serve as the disaster recovery site. IBM has deployed cooling solution at these data centres, which will result in substantial operational savings for SSTL.

Similar story in The Hindu Business Line at

•  http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/06/02/stories/2009060251450400.htm