Midas upgrades corDECT to offer broadband, chat, SMS, 'call meter'

Chennai: India''s only telecom technology company, Midas Communication Technologies P Ltd, has upgraded its product corDECT wireless in the local loop incorporating several new features.

The next generation corDECT will increase the capacity per node to 5,000 lines from the present 1,000; enable 100 / 200 upstream / downstream broadband internet connectivity on a dedicated basis. The upgraded version will also enable video conferencing facility, multi lingual interface, content portals and others.

What is more interesting is that the telephone instrument comes with a built-in messaging terminal at the subscriber''s end.

The instrument, with a slip under instrument keyboard and 40 character 4 line display screen enables a person to send / receive emails, chat, message, et al, without the necessity for a personal computer (PC). It should be noted that nearly 80 per cent of the internet users go to the net to check their mailbox. The instrument also enables call metering and caller line identification facility.

Says chief executive officer Shirish Purohit, "We are working with another TeNet group company NextG that has soft switch expertise. Midas'' wireless expertise and NextG''s switching skills will form the crux of our next generation platform."

Meanwhile the merger of Banyan Networks Limited with Midas went off smoothly without creating any integration issues. "Both the companies are from the same stable, share similar vision and mission and hence there were no human relations problems."

Midas has scaled up its wireline broadband technology DIAS to 256 kbps speed from 128 kbps and it is now a full fledged ''asymmetric digital subscriber line 2 plus'' (ADSL 2+) service.

According to him, Midas will close this fiscal with a turnover of Rs400 crore, Rs50 crore lower than its earlier target. "Telecom technology sales are long cycle. Some of the orders got postponed to the next year. Our order book position is around five lakh lines worth $60 million," says Purohit.

Continuing further he adds, "Nearly 50 per cent of the new business is done directly by Midas and the balance is through our licencees. We enter the new geographies directly."

Midas is also growing its router manufacturing business for others. Last year the company sold 4,000 routers. Midas is now working with an ''internet service provider'' (ISP) for branding the enterprise routers.