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FIIs invest $70m in Dishnet

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: Dishnet DSL, the Chennai-based ISP has announced that a number of

US and international investors which include Covad Communications Inc and

CenturyTel Inc have invested a total of $70 million in the company.

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In addition to Covad and CenturyTel, the list of investors includes HSBC

Private Equity Fund, Citicorp International Finance Corp and IQ Investments.

Dishnet offers dial-up Internet access in 25 cities across India and claims a

subscriber base of nearly 62,000. This round of investments is a prelude to

Dishnet’s planned ADR issue that is expected to be floated some time over the

next couple of months.

Dishnet DSL proposes to offer 161,50,000 shares representing 40.37 per cent

of the company's fully paid-up capital in its initial public offer to raise a

whopping $350 m. Dishnet has obtained the nod from the Union government for

induction of foreign equity and its proposed ADR issue a month ago. Dishnet is

planning huge investments to boost content on its Web sites. The company, which

now has Web sites in English and Tamil, recently unveiled its ambitious plans to

invest about Rs 400 crore to boost up content.

It is also planning to acquire content providers in English and most of the

Indian languages and it is also planning to have strategic alliances (for

content) with international and domestic players. Dishnet DSL recently tied up

with Mpath, an international on-line games content provider. The company also

announced that it has entered into an agreement with Covad to license Covad’s

proprietary operational support system for Dishnet’s use in India. Based on

web interfaces, the automated operational support system eliminates many manual

processes such as line testing and network path configuration

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