PCCW unit takes over Bplnet.com

BANGALORE: The Indian unit of Hong Kong's Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW)

group has taken over the loss-making Internet service business of BPL Innovision

group, company officials said on Thursday.

Data Access (India) Ltd., PCCW's Indian unit, will take the 12,000 odd

dial-up and 100 corporate leased-line subscribers of BPL Innovision, which

operates cellular, Internet and broadband services, company officials said.

Siddhartha Ray, managing director of Data Access, said the company would pay

nothing to take the subscribers of Bplnet.com, although the deal would generate

cost savings for BPL Innovision. "BPL had a fixed cost of running the

business, which it can now save, while this gives us a presence in key markets

which we had not explored," Ray told Reuters by telephone from New Delhi.

BPL's exit from the Internet business comes after cut-throat competition

between the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) has more than halved

Internet access charges in the last two years.

Data Access, a venture of Hong Kong's dominant telecoms carrier PCCW and

Delhi-based SPA Enterprises, which Ray controls, launched Internet access

services in India under the NOW (Network of the World) brand name a year ago.

Besides giving it access to some markets in southern India, the acquisition will

also provide Data Access a ready-made market to sell bandwidth to corporate

customers, Ray said.

A late entrant in the Indian market, Data Access offers services in four main

cities and currently has about 145,000 subscribers, Ray said. "We are still

losing money but not as badly as many of the other players, Ray said, adding

that the firm expected to break even shortly.

For BPL Innovision, "the retail Internet business is getting very, very

commoditised and we have decided to focus on offering value-added services to

our mobile customers," said R Ramesh, head of marketing at Bplnet.com.

State-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Satyam Infoway Ltd. are among a

handful of companies that account for the lion's share of the country's

fast-growing ISP business, which has an estimated three million subscribers.

Data Access has already invested about Rs 1.4 billion in India. It has set up 12

Internet gateways in four cities and supplies bandwidth to about 12 ISPs, Ray

said.

(C) Reuters Limited