Bpl Innovision Broadband Push On Backburner

The BPL Innovision Business Group is planning to put on ice its broadband investments.

"We are holding back our investments in the optic fibre backbone project owing to changes in the investment climate and other regulatory things. Since we have not yet roped in partners for making additional investments, we do not want to make further commitments," Deepak Varma, deputy CEO, BPL Mobile, said.

Apart from the lack of response from foreign telecom companies on investing in the Indian telecom market, matters relating to interconnectivity and other issues have prompted the BPL group to take a decision to this effect. The company's total investment in the project is not known.

The group's recent decision to merge BPL Communications, the holding firm of BPL Mobile and BPL Cellular, with Birla-Tata-AT&T, had never influenced its broadband plans, BPL executives maintained. The Tatas are also putting up a mega broadband project in select parts of the country.

The BPL group, which had earlier planned to put up a national backbone, has already invested huge funds to lay around 210 km of optic fibre in Bangalore and another 70 km in Mumbai. It had also held talks with the New Delhi-based Spectranet to buy the latter's broadband.

According to Varma, the company will soon utilise its existing backbone network by leasing it to other telecom players and through other options.

"We evaluate all options. We completed the network in Bangalore and the Mumbai network is at present incomplete," he added.

The group was planning to talk to France Telecom to invite the foreign company to become a strategic partner in its Internet and broadband businesses.

Early last year, BPL Innovision had merged both its broadband and Internet operations and appointed new CEOs. Later last year, it sold the ISP users of the group to Delhi-based Data Access.