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France Telecom to enter Indian Net space

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

NEW DELHI: GlobeCast, the broadcasting and IP services arm of France Telecom

has set up its office in India and will offer services targeted at the corporate

segment. The thrust of the services will be at increasing access speed although

the form of services may be packaged differently.

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While initially the services will be restricted to caching services, later

the company will move into providing Internet services on a VSAT-based closed

user group environment. With its satellite footprints covering the Indian

subcontinent, GlobeCast’s Europe Star satellite is in a position to provide

direct satellite access from Europe.

Says GlobeCast Asia CEO Doug Triblehorn, "Initially, we shall offer

customized caching services to corporates and thematic caching services to ISPs

and corporates. Later, we plan to offer hi-speed access to corporates through

dedicated networks."

Caching services will be essentially predictive in nature and will be

particularly beneficial to companies that need to track competitors’ Web sites

or access news feeds on a dynamic basis. Thematic caching will help ISPs and

corporates to utilize bandwidth more efficiently and significantly increase

access speeds. Based on the customer’s thematic preference, specific sites

will be cached at the central servers in London and then pushed to the local

servers at the client’s end.

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The company is already in talks with various ISPs and corporates for its

services. Convinced about the huge opportunity in the Indian market, GlobeCast

has recently set up its liaison office in the country and appointed a country

manger as well as a marketing and technical team for support services. "The

major USP of our business will be to listen to our customers and offer more and

more customized solutions," he said.

With the recent announcement of the DTH guidelines, the company is also

upbeat about its prospects in providing integrated services to DTH service

providers. It plans to provide end-to-end solutions to broadcasters right from

enabling alliances with foreign broadcasters to providing transponder space on

its satellite.

Its foray into DTH is expected to complement its ISP initiative when

customers with dish antennas as small as 80 cm will be able to receive both the

Internet and broadcast channels on the same platform through a set-top box.

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