Kerala set to become the next IT destination

Aswathy Sreekumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the establishment of a landing point for South Africa
Far East (SAFE) optic fiber cable at Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala by
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) and the resultant scramble for establishing
gateways by internet service providers (ISPs) have thrown up huge opportunities
for telecom, small ISP's and cable operators for providing last mile
connectivity. Kochi is the only landing point for $600 million SAFE submarine
fiber optic project in the subcontinent.

Reliance (500 km of cable) and Bharti-Telecom Asianet combine (350 km) have
already started laying optic fiber network in the state as a prelude to setting
up their own gateways. They have indicated that their landing points would be at
the district headquarters alone. This means another service provider will have
to provide last mile connectivity to the customer's premises in the case of
leased lines. Here, both Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Software Technology
Parks India (STPI), small ISP's and cable operators such as Siticable and
Asianet will have tremendous potential to generate business, according to former
CEO of Technopark and president of Venture Management Associates, G
Vijayaraghavan. Vsplash.com, Exact Communications, Satyam Infoway are also
reportedly planning to set up gateways in Kochi for bandwidth as well as payment
gateways for financial institutions. Among the private players keen to tap the
last mile connectivity boom include BPLNET.com, NetDDL, a Kerala based ISP.

"We have applied for getting IP addresses and IP pool as a prelude to
providing leased line connectivity, " according to NETDDL vice president,
operations Mathew Varghese,. There will be a huge demand for providing last mile
connectivity, he added. At present, it is only BSNL that is able to provide
connectivity throughout the state, he added.

Meanwhile, the joint venture proposal of STPI with IT firms to provide last
mile connectivity to firms within Technopark has not been received well by
either the State IT Department or the government. STPI claims that it could
provide last mile connectivity at a cheaper cost and provide adequate
maintenance support. STPI has the limitation of providing connectivity to only
export oriented software units. Kerala Circle of BSNL which has a lot of unused
bandwidth along its fiber optic network in the state may also find the demand
for providing last mile connectivity go up towards the year-end when SAFE
project is commissioned in Kochi.

With VSNL effecting a tariff reduction of 70 per cent for leased line
connections in Kochi , the commercial capital of Kerala is set to become the
next major IT destination in South India.