Videocon Telecom to expand ISP venture

Videocon Telecom plans to invest over Rs340 crore in its internet services venture, Connect Broadband, in the next one year to expand services to six or seven circles.

On 6 January the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) granted the company a Unified License-ISP (Category-A).

''We are an integrated telecom player and are expanding our footprint" said Arvind Bali, director and CEO at Videocon Telecom.

"Internet is the next big thing in India, and the opportunity is immense. Our strategy was to enter this marketing at the right time, and all indications suggest that there could have not been a better time than this to enter the market,'' he added.

Connect Broadband already provides broadband services in Punjab and is the market leader in internet broadband segment in the state.

The company plans start its ISP rollout from its existing GSM mobility circles including Haryana, Gujrat, MP including Chhattisgarh, and then move to Metros.

Videocon Telecom is also seeing a lot of synergy and merit in prioritising rollout of ISP in its operational mobility circles. Among some of the benefits are in terms of infrastructure sharing, synergy on its existing and strong sales and distribution network, cost factor and value addition for customers in terms of 4G off load to Wi-Fi for its Mobility subscribers eventually.

The company is also looking at extending its fibre to the endpoint (FTTX) services, which it now provides in Punjab, to the rest of the country.

The company will extend other services like internet leased lines, point-to-point leased circuits, hosted and cloud services and data networks among others.