ACT to invest Rs 700 cr to expand wireline broadband infra

Atria Convergence Technologies, which offers wired broadband services under the 'ACT' brand, today said it will invest up to Rs 700 crore this year to expand its infrastructure and presence across the country.
The Bengaluru-based firm, which is present in 11 Indian cities, is looking to enter 3-4 new cities and expand presence in regions like Delhi-NCR.
"We will invest Rs 600-700 crore this year to expand our infrastructure. It is not about just setting up base in a city... The investment would include setting up infrastructure and maintenance," ACT Chief Executive Officer Bala Malladi told PTI.
This will be funded through internal accruals and debt, he added.

The company, which commenced operations in Delhi a few months ago, has significant scale in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.
It clocked a turnover of Rs 1,300 crore at the end of March 2017. At the end of May 2017, it had 1.2 million subscribers.

The company had started its operations in 2000 as a cable TV service provider. Backed by investments from private equity firms True North and TA Associates, the company has now become India's third largest wired broadband services firm after BSNL (9.80 million subscribers) and Bharti Airtel (2.09 million).
The total number of wired broadband subscribers in the country stood at 18.23 million at the end of May, 2017.

"We are looking at strengthening our presence in the Delhi market and will also expanding to Gurugram as there are significant opportunities in these geographies," he said, adding that average data consumption on its network in Delhi is already higher compared to other cities.
Malladi added that ACT will spend Rs 100 crore over the next 24 months to expand its presence in the Delhi region.
It has launched a new Rs 999 plan, under which users will get unlimited data at 10 Mbps speed. The Rs 1,499 plan will offer 200 GB data (upload and download each) at 75 Mbps.

Asked how entry of players like Reliance Jio, which offer affordable data plans, had affected the company, Malladi stressed that there has been no impact.
"Wired broadband users typically have high consumption and they want really high data speeds which wired networks can provide. The lowest speed we offer is 20 Mbps. Our focus is on offering reliable, efficient services at affordable prices," he added.