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Dishnet to offer free Net access in two years

Dishnet will be commissioning its Maharashtra operations this month and Tamil Nadu operations next month.

In Tamil Nadu, the company is currently offering subscribers an hour of free access every day. It plans an initial charge Rs 3,300 for five years. Even this would be offered at a concession to students and women Rs 1,800. During the five years, a subscriber would get free access for one hour every day, which is an effective rate of Rs 1.73 per hour.

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In Bombay, Dishnet proposes to offer 50 hours for less than Rs 1,000, which is about 25 per cent cheaper than the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited rate.

Incidentally, Satyam Infoway recently launched a new Internet product for Rs 990, which offers access for 25 hours.

Dishnet plans to infuse Rs 2.5-4 billion in building infrastructure across the country in the next five years.

An investment of Rs 250 million has already been made in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. "The equipment chosen are the best available today," said J Vijay, director, Dishnet.

"Internet access will cease to be a commercial transaction. We expect our revenue to shift from Internet access to inflows from e-commerce. Two years from now, we are hoping to offer free Internet access," said A Subramanian, director-finance, Sterling Gorup.

"Full-fledged e-commerce transactions involving payment over the Internet haven't taken off yet. But they will start soon," Subramanian said.

"We can have commerce on the Internet even when actual payment is not online," Vijay said.

The company has already applied to the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited for 34MB of Internet access bandwidth in Tamil Nadu.

"We are realistic and we know that we may not get the entire 34MB from VSNL. We will start with a lower bandwidth. We are also looking at other sources," Vijay added.

The company also has the advantage to use infrastructure of gorup company Srinivas Cellcom, which holds the cellular licence for the non-Madras circle in Tamil Nadu.

"Srinivas Cellcom has five switches in the state and 130 MB of bandwidth. We have the option of leveraging this infrastructure. This is one reason for our low access rates in the state," Vijay said.

In the first full year of operations, Dishnet has targeted a base of 100,000 subscribers from Tamil Nadu alone. It also hopes to indirectly tap half a million subscribers by setting up 100 Internet cafés across the state for those who do not have access to personal computers.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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