Satyam Info Internet gateways operational

CHENNAI: Indian diversified Internet firm Satyam Infoway Ltd. has recently

started operations at two of its private Internet gateways and hopes to launch

two more within a week, a top firm official said on Tuesday.

"We have the approvals for four of our gateways so far and while two, in

Mumbai and Ahmedabad, are already in operation, the other two should be

operational within the next one week," the firm's managing director R

Ramaraj told Reuters.

He said all four satellite gateways would have 9.0Mbps (megabits per second)

capacity, with the international communications bandwidth being provided by

Singapore Telecom (SingTel).

The launch of Satyam Infoway's privately owned gateways is expected to boost

the quality of service the country's largest private Internet service provider

(ISP) offers to over 320,000 dial-up Internet subscribers across the country.

State-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., the country's biggest ISP, enjoyed a

monopoly as India's overseas telecommunications access provider until June 1999,

when the government allowed private ISPs to set up their own gateways.

Earlier on Tuesday, the NASDAQ listed Satyam Infoway announced its results

for the second quarter of 2000-01 (April-March) and said revenues for the

quarter had jumped three-fold to Rs 435.16 million ($9.42 million).

It had posted revenues of Rs 127.42 million in the year-ago quarter.

The firm's net loss in the quarter ended June 30 also jumped to Rs 614.89

million ($13.32 million), compared to a net loss of Rs 76.91 million in the same

quarter last year.

The Satyam Infoway ADR was trading at $10 and is one of the three Indian

companies listed on the Nasdaq.

The firm's portal property, www.sify.com,

logged 105 million page views during September 2000.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.