By Bijoy Ghosh on The Hindu Business Line on June 15, 2009
Our Bureau
Chennai, June 14 To ramp up its operation in the e-governance segment, Zylog Systems plans to acquire two overseas companies by the year-end.
On the sidelines of launching the ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services, Mr Ramanujam Sesharathnam, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Zylog Systems, said that the company was in talks with a couple of companies with revenues of less than $10 million (about Rs 50 crore) in the e-governance and managed governance space.
The company had acquired PEQ Consulting, an infrastructure management company, and Fairfax Consulting in November 2008.
Zylog Systems India, a subsidiary of Zylog Systems, will invest about Rs 200 crore in expanding its ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services in five metropolitan cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata – in two years.
With 250 wireless nodes installed across Chennai, 4,000 more nodes are expected to be operational in the city in 12-15 months.
On why the company chose Wi5 technology and not the more advanced Wi-Max technology, Mr J. Shivkumar, Chief Technology Officer, Zylog Systems India, said most handheld devices such as mobiles, laptops and notebooks were only Wi5-enabled.
In terms of cost, coverage and capacity ‘Wi5’ was competitive, while the Wi-Max technology was expensive. The newly launched ‘Wi5’ retail packages are available at 1 mbps, 2 mbps and 4 mbps at Rs 550, Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,750.
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Ramanujam Sesharathnam, managing director and chief operating officer, Zylog Systems, said, “We are delighted to launch Wi5 services in Chennai, as it is a city with high laptop and mobile internet population, familiarity with working online is implausible. Due to Wi5’s inherent technological superiority, the speed will be many times faster than conventional broadband and offers a minimum data speeds of 1 mbps.”
Zylog’s Wi5 services works by creating a Wi5 mesh network, which is done by setting up intelligent Wi-Fi nodes on roof tops in select buildings across the city, making the area a Wi5 zone. The company offers a pre-paid connection to its customers and to access the Wi5 services, users need a Wi-Fi enabled laptop personal computer or a mobile device or a separate Wi-Fi card. Called as the ‘metro wi-fi’, Zylog’s wi-fi model will work like the mobile telephony network.
Zylog Systems has also implemented Wi-Fi in Ripon Building (Chennai Corporation) and a trial run is in progress.
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