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Saturday, April 28, 2007
Net4, provider of IP communications in the Indian market, plans to launch an integrated messaging solution for its corporate customers. With many players offering Internet telephony service is the country, Jasjit Sawhney, chief executive officer, Net4 in an interaction with Bhaskar Hazarika from CyberMedia News, spoke about challenges being faced by the company and the launch of the “One India” Plan. Net4 is a licensed Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) and started this technology in India for the retail market. In April 2002 Net4 launched the Internet telephony service under the brand name Phonewala.com. Phonewala.com connects the PC to any telephone (fixed line as well as mobile) around the world.
What is the integrated messaging solution that you are planning to launch? When are you planning to launch it?
This is a solution in which voice, email and web runs on a single platform. Through this solution customers can access the three applications without starting the applications individually. This becomes convenient for the customers as they find everything in an integrated format. We are currently offering it to five email customers on pilot basis. We have a corporate email customer base of one million, which will be our target customers. We are planning to launch it within a short time, within this year.
You have recently launched ‘One World’ plan. How is the response from the Indian market? Who are your target customers?
Our One World plan offers calls to more than 40 countries worldwide in one rupee. We are the first ISP to offer calls at this price, which is a breakthrough in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market. This has boosted our voice market in India. We have one-lakh subscribers in India currently subscribing to the One World plan. We are expecting a steady increase in new additions in the coming months.
Our customers include the homes users, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the BPO segment. Now the common man will be able to connect much more by shelling less. This will also help corporate, SMEs and the BPOs to make economical international calls, resulting in reducing their ISD bills up to 95 per cent.
How do you see the Indian VoIP market? Which are the emerging markets that would yield business for you?
IP telephony had a tough time in the beginning with players being skeptical about its growth. But in the last five years networking and telecommunication companies started refocusing on IP telephony. Now IP phones are making serious inroads in to business telephony over the world. India has also witnessed a similar change in the last couple of years. We have customers across 270 countries worldwide. India is one of important markets for us. As a major call center destination, India stands to gain a lot of voice communication over Internet. If the Middle-East countries are de-regulated it will be the key markets for the voice. In the Asia-Pacific region most of the SAARC countries are emerging. Bangladesh is also an emerging market, but the market is unable to grow much due to the existence of illegal VoIP phones.
With three licensed ITSPs offering Internet telephony in the country, what are the challenges that you face?
We are the first Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) to launch calls at one rupee which is helping us to add more customers. We are the largest corporate email service provider in India.
The challenge for any service provider is the quality and support. In the home user segment penetration and go-to-market strategy is a challenge.
© CyberMedia News
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