Chennai:

It queered the pitch for other Internet service providers (ISP) and mainly Satyam Infoway (Sify) selling dialup access at very attractive rates. The company also opened a chain of cyber cafes under the brand Dishnet Hub Centre and stocked them with 17-inch flat screen monitors. The company also hired a couple of expatriates at the top management level.

The company got $70-million funding from international investors like Century Tel, Inc, HSBC Private Equity Funds, Citicorp International Finance Corporation, IQ Investments and Covad Communications. A total of $350 million has gone into the venture till date.

But today all its ambitious plans are put on hold. According to an industry official, Dishnet, after ramping up a dialup subscriber base of 2 lakh in a quick time, lost the customer mind space. It also closed down some of its cyber cafes.

While officials are cagey about talking numbers and business strategies, the one service they are pinning their hopes on is broadband DSL, delivered to subscribers over a copper cable.

The company is the largest broadband ISP in the country, with a subscriber base of 25,000. According to them, the delivery of broadband efficiently to their subscribers and other services like dialup net access, virtual private network (VPN) has made them the largest bandwidth purchasers — 300 MB — in the country.

Dishnet officials say Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are the major markets for the company. Nearly 14,000 Dishnet subscribers are from the three major southern cities.

“The awareness in these cities is high,” says a company spokesman. The company offers its services in major states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The company will soon roll out in Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat.

Focused on the corporate sector till recently, Dishnet has started looking at the residential segment. It closed an attractive subscription scheme, and going by its success, similar offers are likely to come. When queried about competition from Sify, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Bharti Telenet, which offer broadband connectivity, and competition from cable ISPs, Dishnet officials cite their national footprint as their strength.

“When others were talking about dialup access, we introduced DSL broadband, a relatively new technology at that time. In the case of cable net, it is a shared network and hence security is a major concern for the subscribers. On the other hand, we take a dedicated copper cable to each subscriber’s premises. Wireless Internet has some restrictions,” says a marketing executive.

According to officials, the company is looking at various options and will soon come out with a pioneering strategy. At present, a copper cable is taken to the subscriber’s premises from the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (D-Slam) located at hub centres or franchisees’ premises. A D-Slam can connect subscribers within a radius of 2.5 km.

In the case of apartment or commercial complexes where there are eight or more customers, the company wires them a router, avoiding the need for individual modems.

Apart from selling on its own, DishnetDSL operates through franchisee network. In Tamil Nadu, the company has around 150 franchisees. While the company supplies the necessary hardware, the franchisee has to rope in subscribers.