India's ISP Market
Part 3: The Competitors

As India's ISP market matures, the competitors are beginning to emerge. From government-owned fragments such as MTNL to innovators like Dishnet DSL, India's ISP biosphere sports ever-increasing diversity.

by Puneet Gupta
[November 30, 2000]

We cover three ISPs:

• Satyam Infoway (below)
• Dishnet DSL
• Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

Satyam Infoway

Background
Satyam Infoway, a subsidiary of Satyam Computer Services Limited, established the country's first nationwide private TCP/IP network.

It became the first private ISP in India in December 1998, thus ending VSNL's monopoly. Its network presently serves around 38 cities across India. Like many other major private ISPs, Satyam Infoway has a poartal (Satyam Online portal). The company also launched www.serwiz.com, a virtual marketplace for services.

The company acquired IndiaWorld Communications Pvt. Ltd, ownder of such popular websites as www.samachar.com (covering India related news), www.khel.com (covering cricket), www.khoj.com (the Indian search engine), www.bawarchi.com (providing thousands of Indian recipes), and various other sites, for amazing US$ 115 M (according to IDC's India ISP market and strategy Assesment, IDC Bulletin # AP25215G).

Satyam online was the first to introduce a sign-on CD, and also built the first 24x7 help desk for its customers.

Infrastructure
Satyam has a total available bandwidth of 60 Mbps. Satyam infoway is a category 'A' ISP. It currently has a customer base of more than 150,000 subscribers in over 40 cities.

Satyam was the first to offer Frame Relay Internet services on the ATM backbone to run mission critical applications. It also provides VPN and B2B services.

Satyam's portal has over 51 million hits per month.

Plans and projections
Satyam infoway is branching out into the following services: Internet access services, Web consulting, network services, and portal services.

Satyam offers customized Internet access packages called Discover. Each program comes with a personalized e-mail account and a personalized homepage. Different programs vary based on the hours of Internet access involved.

Satyam's commerce initiatives include joint ventures with Refco Group for online trading of securities, with AFL Travels for online travel services, with Bank of Madura to set e-commerce services aimed at persons of Indian origin, with Citibank for secure payment systems. It also launched major e-procurement portal seekandsource.com (according to Voice & Data's ISP@Corporate, an extensive report on building an ISP business in India).

Satyam Infoway plans to launch a total of 17 cyber cafes in Mumbai and New Delhi over the next couple of months. The company is planning to franchise cyber cafes. The company will offer branding and marketing support to franchisees.

The company announced that it would soon be launching its private International Gateway to the Net in partnership with SingTel. SingTel is a major bandwidth provider in Asia and currently provides bandwidth services to ISPs in the Asia pacific region. Stayam is planning to offer a bandwidth in excess of 100 Mbps across these planned gateways (according to ISP@Corporate).

Summary

Strengths

• Early bird advantage
• Portal and vortal business
• First to offer Frame Relay Internet services on the ATM backbone

Weaknesses

• Weak in cable

Opportunities

• VoIP
• VPN

Threats

• Increasing competition in the ISP market
• Free ISP concept gaining credibility

[back to top]

[Go to page 2]