The Hindu Business Line : YOU Telecom to expand broadband network

Advertisement

Hyderabad Feb. 19 Broadband and value-added telecom services provider, YOU Telecom (formerly Iqara Broadband of British Gas), is set to expand its broadband footprint from 11 to 20 cities across the country, and has begun to roll out Internet Protocol (IP) based Video Phones.

Promoted by British Gas, Iqara became YOU Telecom, after Citigroup Venture Capital International (CVCI) invested in 2006.

Beginning 2007, YOU Telecom rolled out a slew of innovative value-added offerings along with broadband connections and is offering quadruple play (voice, video, data and mobile service).

The Chief Executive Officer of YOU Telecom, Mr E.V.S. Chakravarthy, said that the company has launched 2 MB service for home broadband and is now looking at rapidly expanding to new cities in the country, while rolling out Video IP phone.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Chakravarthy said, "British Gas (BG) formed Iqara in 2001 and owned it till 2006. When the BG management decided to concentrate on gas business and exit other businesses, CVCI acquired the company stake. We now draw upon from CVCI expertise from other markets in broadband and value-added telecom services."

Video phone roll-out

The company completed beta roll out of IP-based Video Phone. The video version costs about Rs 17,000 and enables people to make calls over the Internet and allows them to view each other.

While some may consider the cost high, there is latent demand out there for such service. As more and more users take to these phones, the cost would come down like mobile phones.

Explaining the advantages IP phones (now priced at about Rs 3,000) bring to users, Mr Chakravarthy said they allow users to make calls to the US for Rs 1.25 per minute and likewise the advantage of viewing the person while talking over video phone.

Broadband as a category is poised for growth. YOU telecom now has a subscriber base of about 1,40,000 users (70 per cent retail and 30 per cent small and medium enterprises) and sees this expanding rapidly.

There are three key segment drivers — young India tech savvy wanting to be connected always, second relates to gaming and the third the interactivity over the Internet, be it through voice or video phones, he said.

More Stories on : Convergence | Broadband

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
TCS' defence, aerospace designs set for takeoff

Personalised messages soon on billboards in US freeways

Cognizant expands to Kochi

Ybrant buys AdDynamix for $10 m

Teledata buys majority stake in eSys

Cleartrip, Jet, Futurebazaar in pact

Singareni e-booking facility

YOU Telecom to expand broadband network

Aksh Optifibre to make set top boxes for IPTV service