The Hindu Business Line : Net4 mulls foray into ILD business

WITH the Government recently announcing easier entry norms for long distance services, Internet company Net4 (formerly Net4India) said it is considering getting into the International Long Distance (ILD) business.

"We are considering getting into ILD operations as it would mean an additional line of business for the company. We already have the basic core infrastructure for Internet telephony and access business such as network, billing systems and customer support, which we can leverage on," Mr Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4, said.

Last week, the Government announced that the entry fee in the ILD segment would be reduced to Rs 2.5 crore from Rs 25 crore, while the revenue share would be lowered to 6 per cent from 15 per cent earlier. There is no need to have a mandatory rollout obligation for ILD service licensees,except for having one switch in India. The net worth and paid-up capital of the applicant company for the ILD service licence will now be Rs 2.5 crore and the new norms will come into effect from January 1, 2006.

Net4 believes it willbe able to leverage its existing base of customers for foraying into the ILD business. "For Internet telephony, we have significant volumes. Overall, it generates traffic of 6-8 million minutes per month, while India-specific traffic is pegged at 4-5 million minutes per month," he said, adding the company also offered services in overseas deregulated markets.

Mr Sawhney, however, said the company would take a call on the proposal to get into the ILD business by next month.

The company, which clocked a turnover of Rs 42.5 crore in 2004-05, currently offers Internet telephony services in the corporate and PCO space; Internet access through leased line and wireless; broadband services via cable operator partners; and hosting and data centre services.

It has its headquarters in New Delhi and has business offices in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kochi and Coimbatore.

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