On V-Sat services in India

Hughes began V-Sat operations here, and they have got a headstart. But in terms of growth, we have seen a jump of 150 per cent in revenue. Today, the department of telecommunications (DoT), which provides telecommunication facilities in rural and urban areas, is spending a lot on basic infrastructure, backbone, etc. It takes at least two years to begin services in most circles on an average, making the return on investments pretty low. Still, as of today, more than 4,000 villages are left uncovered. Here V-Sat gains importance as it is cheaper, efficient,and economical. In fact, only India and China have incomparable economies of scale in this case.

I, however, find that DoT has not given a thought to this. V-Sats are the best bet for rural telephony, given the high and difficult terrain across the country.

On various technologies in use

We were the first to bring Dama technology to the country, but this was after much persuasion with DoT, after we won the V-Sat licence. The advantage of this technology is that you have a point-to-point connection, and it avoids the operator hub. Companies doing millions of transactions and also using voice mode can benefit from this technology as it is highly flexible. Moreover, the initial investment here is relatively low, and the return on investment can be higher. It has advantages over the TDMA technology, which DoT preferred.

DoT has now become quite flexible about technology, and allows any type to be used. Earlier, it insisted on extended C-band transponder on the Insat satellites. Here, the problemwas that nobody in the world uses it. Manufacturers have to make it India-specific, and the service part is even more difficult. There are, however, more than 45 satellites using KU band with many transponders. KU band is cheap and ideal for hooking Internet connections.

On Telstra-V-Comm's strengths

We are a network provider. Be it Lan, Wan, national, or international, we have the expertise. We are also hardware-independent, and develop the one required. Telstra provides complete turnkey solutions to our partners. We also have the best pedigree of parentage - Telstra Corporation, a A$16- billion corporation focusing on Asia-Pacific and India. VSNL and IL&FS are giants, and IL&FS is helping us start large telecom projects involving wiring-up states. All this will help us in the next few years to become one of the biggest network-service providers in the country.

On target customers.

We look at companies, either information technology (IT)-matured, or fresh. We will have the ease ofimplementation, but in the second case, we get to play the role of consultants also. Fast-growing companies like Nicholas Piramal pose a tremendous challenge as we always have new tasks.

On diversification projects

We want to become an Internet service provider. We also plan to begin facilities management, wiring-up states and providing services. In fact, we will soon start a small state's wiring-up. Internet services is another key area for Telstra. We are also strong in long-distance service as it runs the lifeline between Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines to an extent. In Indo-China, we run satellite services. So all in all, there is tremendous world-class expertise with us to undertake any kind of project. In February, national elections provided us with an opportunity to diversify into broadcasting. With VSNL, we imported mobile V-sats and covered live Zee, ATN, Sun, and other channels for the elections. We covered the budget successfully for Zee. In December, we will cover some sportsevents in the country.

We also plan to provide uplinking facilities for a group of broadcasters from the country on a low scale for the time being.

On e-commerce

E-commerce is a tremendous opportunity for everybody. But since interconnectivity is not allowed, it is bound to be illegal. E-commerce, which is the convergence of technologies, is also high on our agenda, and as and when rules are prepared and it takes off, we will be there.