The company has also received orders worth approximately Rs 2 crore from the Space Application Center (SAC), department of space, Ahmedabad, and orders worth Rs 4 crore from many public sector undertakings and defence establishments, Mr A Vidyasagar, managing director told The Financial Express.

Avantel is the first company in India to have developed an Insat-based mobile services (MSS) reporting terminal with technology from Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad. This MS terminal is a hand-held service which can transfer textual information from any remote location to the headquarters. This application finds tremendous use in the armed forces, meteorological department, forest departments, etc, Mr KJ Tilak, director of India operations said.

Another product launched by the company, in its R&D facility in Hyderabad, is the ODU, a part of the digital talkback system used for distance education through satellite. This unit transmits audio from the remote classrooms to the teacher, Mr Tilak added.

The company has opened an office in Boston with an investment of Rs 1 crore which is likely to be operational by March 2001. The main focus of the US subsidiary will be software services and solutions and e-consultancy, Mr Tilak said. Avantel is negotiating with a San Jose-based company for offshore department centre, he said.

Avantel proposes to offer ERP solutions for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and has developed an ERP package called Funwork for the SME segment.Meanwhile, the company recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Massachusetts-based Nisus Inc engaged in development of wireless application enabling technologies. As per the MoU, Avantel will help Nisus build value-added m-commerce applications and platforms for a wide range of mobile devices. Nisus, in turn, will help in developing next generation application for 3G network, Mr Tilak said.

For the first half the fiscal, the company has earned Rs 4.5 crore and has set a target of Rs 16 crore through its Indian operations and $2 million through its US operations, Mr Vidyasagar added.