Microsoft, BSNL up sales pitch

May offer PC, software & broadband connection for Rs 499/month.

Microsoft Corporation India and Bharat Sanchar Nigam may join hands to offer a personal computer, software and broadband connection for Rs 499 a month in league with a hardware company, possibly HCL Infosystems.

The offer is also likely to bring a new technology called "subscription computing" into India. It ensures that subscribers are not able to use the service if they do not pay.

"We have spoken to the government as well as industry about an EMI- and subscription-based model, bundling all the three things. We have spoken to the ministry (of information technology and telecommunications) about how we can partner BSNL," Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India, told Business Standard, on Thursday.

BSNL, he pointed out, offered obvious advantages, because of its huge reach as well as the large number of government employees using its services.

Venkatesan was less categorical about the hardware partner. He said it could by any of the reputed PC vendors, hastening to add that Microsoft had had a long-standing OEM (original equipment manufacturer) relationship with HCL.

Under the plan, the monthly payments will go on for about 30 months, after which the consumer will be given the option to either reduce the monthly outgo and pay only for the broadband, or have the hardware and software upgraded.

The initiative is borne out of Microsoft's finding that low Internet connectivity in India is the highest obstacle in the way of increasing PC penetration. The other factors are affordability, localisation and familiarity.

The use of cellular phones, according to Venkatesan, burgeoned not only because they became affordable but also because cell phones have a "killer application" in voice which everyone wanted to have. That is why even the not-so-rich have cellular phones. On the other hand, due to low Internet spread, many computers in households remain idle for long periods.

"The killer application for PCs is Internet. It is what can make people say, 'I must have that',"' said Venkatesan.