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he Internet and broadband market continues to shine as the total market size reaches Rs 5,359 crore in FY 2007-08 as compared to Rs 2,040 crore in FY 2006-07. However, considering India's large population and increasing purchasing power of the people, there is a huge potential market that needs to be tapped in order to strengthen broadband penetration in the country. The country is standing at mere 39 lakh broadband subscribers at present.

According to VOICE&DATA estimates, Bharti has emerged as the crown winner with total revenue of Rs 1,628 crore. The company is currently operating in ninety-four cities with plans to expand to other exciting areas.

With total revenue estimates of Rs 1,367 crore, Reliance managed to grab the second spot in broadband market, whereas BSNL attained the third place, despite the largest subscriber base of an estimated 20 lakh in the broadband segment. The incumbent operator, which primarily focused on rural India, garnered total revenue of Rs 850 crore.

The other prominent players that eclipse the industry were Tata Communications, MTNL, Sify, and YOU Telecom.

According to VOICE&DATA estimates, total broadband subscribers in India reached 3.92 mn in FY 2007-08, as compared to 2.60 mn in the previous year. Total number of Internet subscribers is also estimated to be around 11 mn, a majority of which represent the home user segment.

Market Movements
Bharti Airtel, which emerged as a top player in terms of broadband revenue, is looking at options to take the broadband initiative to rural areas through alternate technologies like Wi-Fi and WiMax. This is because of the unique demand and challenges of rural India like lack of power supply, low network reach, limited availability of vernacular and relevant local content, training issues, etc

The total broadband subscriber base of Airtel stood at 7.95 lakh in FY 2007-08, as compared to 5.98 lakh in FY 2006-07. The company is looking for more fixed line investments to achieve broadband penetration in SME's and high-rise apartments. Additionally, they are also looking at strategic tie-ups with ISP's to launch SaaS, delivered through broadband in order to hieghten its broadband penetration among SME's.

Out of the 39 lakh broadband connections in the country, BSNL owns an estimated 20 lakh. And further this year, BSNL is planning to add more than 10 lakh new broadband subscribers. The company is also providing low-cost PCs in bundled packages with different broadband plans.

Continuing its efforts to connect rural India, BSNL aims to add 1.5 mn users from rural India by the year-end. For that they have 38,000 exchanges in the country out of which 23,500 are being connected.

In addition to rural areas, the state run incumbent tied-up with a company for WiMax rollouts in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, to provide WiMax services on franchise model. In the WiMax space, BSNL will provide the 802.16e version of mobile WiMax, which no other operator has provided so far. The broadband market is encouraging for the company, and the expectations lie largely on BSNL to meet the target of 20 mn broadband connections by 2010.

Another prominent player, Reliance Communications, is currently operating in forty-four cities in India, with over 787,000 buildings connected directly to their network, serving over 1 mn access lines. The company's Metro Ethernet LAN technology gives them a significant edge in delivering high bandwidth data services. The company has also augmented building connectivity programs in the top eight cities of India through the deployment of WiMax 802.16d technology. The company has around one million retail subscribers (both narro band and broadband).

In cities where they are currently not providing wire line direct building connectivity, Reliance Communication has selectively deployed wireless LMDS to access targeted buildings in accordance with customer requirements. The company is proposing to further augment its building connectivity programs through deployment of more WiMax stations in more cities in FY 2008-09.

YOU Telecom, the emerging broadband player, has also increased its total subscriber base to over 175,000 across twelve cities of its operations. Furthermore, it plans to expand to fourteen more cities, to double its customer base and revenue. The main challenge for the company is to maintain its existing customer base and remain an independent ISP against big players in the market.

Among its new services, the company has already deployed Wi-Fi, and toward the end of the fiscal, in January, it made a strategic move to get into the digital cable business as part of its triple play aspirations. The primary customers of YOU Telecom belong to the residential segment, but 30% of company's revenue comes from the corporate and SME segment through the enterprise solution group. The company garnered total revenue of Rs 100 crore in FY 2007-08.