Mumbai : Sumitomo Corporation India Limited, the Indian subsidiary of the $103 billion Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, is talking to major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in India to sell WALKair, a point-to-multipoint system for broadband solutions in urban and suburban areas."It is not proper at this juncture to give you the names, but we are talking to most private ISPs in India. In fact, we might sign deals with some of them soon," said Mr Vasant Kallola, head, telecommunications business (India), Sumitomo Corp India. The company has already got trial orders from Estel Communications, a Delhi-based ISP about two weeks back and is looking for more such orders before it goes the whole hog.
The company, according to Mr Kallola, is aiming at a turn over of $10 million (about Rs 45 crore) from WALKair alone between March 2001 and March 2002.
According to the company, the central component to the WALKair system is its patented Airlink Protocol which provides communication between the base station and terminal station units via a multi-carrier TDMA/FDD radio access method.
Other benefits of WALKair are speedier installation, low cost of deployment and scalability, added Mr. Kollola. Manufactured by Israel's Floware Wireless Systems Ltd, WALKair was globally launched about a year back and has today more than a hundred installations in countries like Germany, Spain and the UK. Though Sumitomo Corporation has had deep interest in the telecom business globally, in India however, it is apparently eyeing the Internet market more than telecom.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
