Satyam Infoway In Talks For Internet Gateways

Satyam Infoway, a subsidiary of Satyam Computer Services, is in dialogue with a major US-based service provider to set up Internet gateways in partnership.

The company is already setting up five gateways in strategic cities in India in partnership with SingTel.

According to the company, these Internet gateways will enable the company to meet growing bandwidth requirements, and provide faster internet access to surfers.

Satyam Infoway is also planning to set up a wide variety of e-commerce portals. The company has already entered into a joint venture with Bank of Madura to set up an e-commerce portal offering products and services to Indians living abroad.

The joint venture will operate out of India in the beginning, and later also out of the US.

The portal will offer shopping, property management, investments, depository and travel services. The portal will also offer an escrow account mechanism that will hold payments on behalf of the customer until the product is delivered to the customer and also until the money-back period is over.

Satyam Infoway has joined hands with Technology Net to launch a technology channel on Satyamonline.com to provide a global marketplace for buyers and suppliers of Indian information technology solutions, and has entered into a joint venture with Singapore based e-commerce company, Plasticscommerce.com, to launch the country's first plastic industry portal.

To augment its e-commerce services, the company has tied up with Citibank to build a secure payment gateway for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. The gateway, now under construction, will be based on the personal identification number given by Citibank to all its cardholders and customers of other banking services.

Meanwhile, the company is planning to expand its online shopping channel, BargainBazar@SatyamOnline, in different cities in India.

It has already launched one in Delhi, which contains more than 1,000 product categories, and some 7,500 retailers of Delhi showcasing their products.

An e-procurement portal, seekandsource.com built on the `seek-source-strategy' business model of the e-procurement marketplace has been already launched by Satyam Infoway.

The portal enablesfirms to showcase their industrial products on the net and complete business transactions from sending out purchase enquiries to placing orders, as well as track the status of supply.