Dishnet DSL ropes in new backbone ally

DishnetDSL, the Chennai-based broadband service provider, has tied up with Media Ring of Singapore as its new infrastructure support partner.

The company, until recently was offering long distance internet telephony service, Hello World, with Net2Phone as its partner.

Trade sources also confirmed that the deal to sell the company's broadband service to Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd for Rs 309 crore is in the final stages. DishnetDSL officials, however, refused to confirm the sale price or name of the firm that did the valuation.

According the DishnetDSL sources, the company on an average sold about 100,000 minutes a month of its internet telephony offering. Satyam Infoway, which offers similar services under the brand, way2talk, on a broadband network, sells around two million minutes a month.

DishnetDSL has changed its infrastructure partner since Media Ring service is available on an open platform and, therefore, works with a range of equipment at the user end. The rates offered by Media Ring, according to DishnetDSL sources, is also better than those offered by Net2Phone.

According to DishnetDSL's website, the calling rates to the US, UK, Canada and Singapore will Rs 4.75 a minute and Rs 7.35 a minute for Malaysia. Chennai-based Sify Ltd offers similar services to the US and UK at Rs 6 a minute.

A Sify spokesperson said, "To use Sify's 'way2talk' internet telephony services, you don't need a calling card. You can walk into any of the Sify I-ways and make a call. Moreover, the voice travels over our own broadband backbone and, hence, the quality is superior."

The Sify spokesperson also said that multi protocol label switching technology identifies voice packets on network and prioritise them over video and data enabling unbroken conversation.

DishnetDSL official said this cannot be strictly called as a re-launch. "Our contract with Net2Phone has expired and we preferred a new service provider at a more competitive rate. The tariff agreement between the two companies is a 40-page document and varies from location to location," the source said.

The officials said the calling rates were not the cheapest in the market. "There are internet telephony service providers which offer long distance services at Rs 1 or Rs 1.5 a minute. The quality of these services are doubtful. We cannot offer at these rates."

Helloworld calling cards are available in denominations of Rs 100, Rs 250, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.