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— G.R.N. Somashekar

Mr Prakash Bajpai, President and CEO, Reliance Communications (left), and Mr Pramodh Menon, Senior Vice-President, Commercial, Cisco India and SAARC, at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Our Bureau

Bangalore, July 4 After Pune, Reliance Communications and Cisco hit Bangalore with their package of Internet services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They plan to add One Office Duo, a private voice network, to the package soon. Customers will be able to use Reliance’s broadband network for voice over IP calls, between branches and within the office.

Reliance plans to roll out Business Internet Services in the top 10 cities in the next two months, and 200-odd tier-II cities thereafter.

“Most offices have a PABX (Private Automatic Branch eXchange) in their offices but use mobiles as well for business communication. One office Duo will leverage our existing network infrastructure to provide fixed-to-mobile convergence, ensuring a single phone service with the same experience whether you are on the move or at your cabin in the office,” said Mr Prakash Bajpai, President & CEO, Enterprise, Reliance Communications.

The company, in collaboration with Cisco, is targeting India’s seven million SMEs for the Business Internet Services - a sack of services consisting of broadband Internet, antivirus, firewall, e-mail (SMTP set up), a professional Web site, wireless local area network. It is being offered for zero capex and is available from Rs 1,199 per month to Rs 2 lakh per month.

Cisco provides the hardware (routers) and support. Security firm F-Secure’s software is being bundled.

“Penetration of IT is in less than 10 per cent of this market, and network adoption is even lower at 5 per cent. Cisco has barely scratched the surface of the SME market in India,” informed Mr Pramodh Menon, Senior Vice-President, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems India, on this venture. He said that the routers were built to take voice traffic (voice over IP). “Reliance’s focus has been on large enterprises. We realised that small enterprises need ubiquitous technology. We now hope to crack the SME market,” said Mr Bajpai.

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