HCL Comnet, the Rs 50 crore V-SAT (very small aperture terminal) services company and a subsidiary of HCL Corp, plans to provide faster and cheaper access to Internet in the country through V-SATs.
We want to become a significant player in the Internet services provider market. Our proposal to provide low-cost technology is lying with the department of telecommunications (DoT). Their stance is very favourable towards us, HCL Comnet vice-president (satellite communications) Sanjeev Nikore told Business Standard yesterday. The company hopes to get the DoT approval soon and begin the services in three to four months. The company will work in tandem with other HCL group companies like HCL-HP, NIIT, HCL-Deluxe, and their foreign marketing and technology partners like GE, and Gilat of Israel, to come up with an Internet content and infrastructure service package. This package will involve a V-SAT card to be integrated with personal computers, a small satellite dish and a connectivity circuit called Skysurfer technology.
However, this V-SAT Internet access system will have to be connected to the VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd) gateway. The leased lines connectivity is inefficient, so we believe the higher bandwidth we offer will make data and picture transmission faster, pointed out Nikore.
HCL-Comnet, which has cornered 60 per cent of the V-SAT market, has installed 1,800 VSATs to date. Some of their complex networks have been the National Stock Exchange, which boasts of 1,400 VSATs, and a multi-tech hub in Noida. The companys customers include Johnson & Johnson, Ashok Leyland, Unit Trust of India, Mico Bosch and the Sanmar group. The company has projected a turnover of Rs 100 crore for 1997-98. Their business plans include becoming a global services provider by moving into South Asian markets like Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, and setting up a 2,000 V-SAT-based country-wide data network to cater to the electronic fund transfer and processing transaction needs of banks and financial institutions.
Meanwhile, in an inaugural address at a seminar on V-SAT technology in Bangalore yesterday, Space Commission member U R Rao and Vikram Sarabhai, academician, praised the V-SAT technology for its features like distance independence, easy transportability, short implementation, immunity to disaster, multiple access and low cost. The number of V-SATs in the world has crossed 250,000; eighty per cent of them are deployed in North America.
In India, the number has crossed 3,000.
