British Gas to invest $25 million in Indian broadband venture

Venkatachari Jagannathan
23 June 2004

"The fresh investments will be for consolidating our existing operations/infrastructure and our planned expansion. The investments will be made over a span of two years," discloses CEO EVS Chakravarthy.

According to him, British Gas has already invested a similar amount in India since it started the broadband operations here in 2001.

Offering its Iqara Broadband brand net over cable service in Mumbai, Surat, Baroda, Ahemadabad, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Vishakapatnam and Gurgoan, BG Broadband India plans to expand its operations to 8/10 more cities.

"This would include B class business cities/towns like Mysore, Coimbatore and Tiruppur. We are present in cities that commands nearly 70 per cent of the broadband market," he adds. The company - a category A Internet service provider (ISP) and Infrastructure Provider 1 licence holder- is fast ramping up its subscriber base in the cities where it operates.

According to Chakravarthy, from a subscriber base of 6,000 at the end of 2002, BG Broadband India grew its base to 25,000 in 2003 to 50,000 currently.

"We hope to close this calendar/financial year with a subscriber base of 80,000-1 lakh." In terms of revenue, this would translate to Rs80 crore, a jump of Rs60 crore from 2003''s turnover of Rs20 crore.