For the corporates, Data Access has started providing leased line connectivity through shared port, leased line connectivity through dedicated port, dedicated ISDN access (both 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps), special night access through leased line, and ISDN line. The company is providing a committed quality of service with a guaranteed uptime of 99.95, which is a good sign for corporates. They do not have to worry as the company provides guaranteed circuit availability and redundancy at each level. "To check on the service, the corporates can either monitor it online by logging to the monitoring reports or can have a look at the reports which are sent through e-mail" says Sarvesh Goorha, director, Data Access (India) Ltd.

As local loop is a major problem, Data Access is working with both (incumbent as well as the private basic operator) to provide DSL and wireless solutions for the corporates. The company is deploying point to multipoint solution for the corporates on the wireless front. With 131 corporate customers under its fold, Data Access is presently utilizing 66 Mbps of bandwidth and is in the process of increasing it to 100 Mbps by September. With multiple gateways in all the locations, Data Access also has the flexibility to provide alternate circuits to ensure 99.95 percent uptime.

Satyam Infoway, the only private ISP in the country with a subscriber base of 500,000 started by offering connectivity solutions to the corporates but today, the company offers solutions like mail, messaging, electronic data interchange, and VPN. The company is also offering wireless Internet solutions to corporates thereby providing options for accessing Internet.

On the datacenter front, both Data Access and Bharti Broadband are offering or planning to offer co-location centers as corporates do have the flexibility of putting their own servers rather than renting the servers. Bharti Broadband has 8 co-location centers and plans are on to further expand in the future whereas Data Access is planning to have four co-location centers.

Though ISPs have not been paying more attention on the content front, Siddhartha Ray, managing director, Data Access (India) Limited feels that content and access have to be combined to make money. Strong on the content front, Data Access has plans to generate 50 percent of its revenue from its content division. The company is working towards this by placing TV plus content or interactive content on the web which is entertainment and information based.

According to IDC, value added Internet services will fuel ISP growth and the market is expected to be US $634 million by 2004. The corporate ISPs have to focus on this market aggressively with solutions like VPN, unified messaging, IP telephony, video-conferencing, and application services to increase its revenue in future.

Pravin Prashant