The Hindu Business Line : IP Unity sets up facility in India

WITH the decline in average revenue per user and prices for basic voice and data services, telecom service providers are using enhanced service offerings such as messaging and conferencing to sustain profitability.

US-based Intelligent Peripherals Unity, an IP-enabled service provider is looking to cash in on the $9-billion enhanced services market through its Indian facility.

Announcing the facility launch at a media briefing here today, Dr Arun Sobti, CEO and Chair of IP Unity, said the Indian development centre would "not only build products but also provide customer support and customisation for our customers in the South-East Asian region. We will also utilise the Indian centre as a launch pad for products targeted at this market," he said.

The company's India development centre would create applications for the enhanced services space like Web-based conferencing, interactive voice responses and security functions.

With initial investments of Rs 10 crore, the IP Unity proposes to ramp up its existing team of 20 developers to 100 people by next year.

And along with expected customer wins in the Indian market, the company is also looking to increase its investments to Rs 150 crore over a five-year time-frame.

While IP Unity's HMS media\applications server system is already facing trial runs in the Punjab circle of BSNL and Reliance, the company is yet to get any "revenues".

"However, we are bullish on the Indian market and are in talks with the all the major telecom players including Bharti," Dr Sobti said.

Even though company officials were reticent on revenues recorded by IP Unity, they said the company "is tripling growth every year. Besides India, we are looking at Bangladesh and we expect South East Asia and SAARC to be the growth engines for the company over the next two years," they said.