Private ISPs gear up to take on BSNL

At a time when the state-owned Bidesh Sanchar Nigam Ltd is slashing internet service rates and offering high-speed broadband services, the private sector players are gearing up to take on the competition.

The major private players offering broadband services in Ahmedabad are IceNet, Sify, and Reliance.

David Appasamy, chief commercial officer, Sify, said from Chennai that BSNL's slashing of prices for broadband services doesn't affect Sify as its rates are still lower than BSNL's.

"Their (BSNL's) Rs 500 package is more dependent on how much data one can download where as our Rs 330 package is more flexible," he said.

Chirag Mehta, chief executive officer and managing director, IceNet, also echoed a similar view. BSNL charges Rs 6,000 per year for a net connection but does not provide unlimited usage. However, IceNet subscribers have the option of unlimited usage, he said.

"We welcome competition and more the players enter in the market its better for consumers as they have more options to choose from," Mehta said.

"IceNet provides 100-hour broadband packages, which no other ISP gives in Gujarat," he added.

He said that, even after the introduction of broadband by several large players in India, dial-up users still constitute 99.4 per cent of total internet users in India. Even in the USA, 84 per cent of Net users use dial-up and only 16 per cent use broadband.

He explained that dial-up services are popular because most subscribers use the internet to just check e-mails. Subscribers to broadband connections are mainly businessmen doing internet-related businesses.

IceNet is the largest Internet service provider in Gujarat and has 10,000 connections, which includes 5,000 connections in Ahmedabad, 2,000 in Baroda, 1,000 in Rajkot and almost 2,000 in the small towns and cities in the state.