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Cybercity opens amidst ISP fever

The air-conditioners whirred, the huge computer screen glowed, sometimes in error, while a tuxedo-clad (and the occasional saree-clad) audience of over 250 attended the inauguration of the third Cybercity Internet Conference organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies.

The mega event, to be hosted for four days till Saturday, September 27, is actually a set of two: a Cybercity Conference at the Windsor Manor Hotel till Friday and a Cybercity Exhibition till Saturday at the Taj Residency.

T O D A Y

• ISP players await rules • Cybercity opens • DoT, DoE still feuding • NASSCOM's tips

The conference covers topics like opportunities and issues for ISPs, Internet commerce, developing Web sites, security on the Internet, intranets and new technologies. The exhibition hosts an array of leading edge companies, exhibiting Internet, intranet and related products and services.

The Regency at the Windsor Manor, however, is packed with Indian delegates and a few from Singapore, UK and the US. They are mostly from software companies, Internet service providers, Internet content developers, Web site designers and the VSNL. Then there are the blue chip CEOs, CIOs, cybercafe owners (who are planning to set up nearly six cybercafes in Bangalore over the next quarter) computer science students, software engineers, media persons.

This time round the lectures seemed to be more focused than last year. However, a few speakers did waste time explaining the popularly known concepts about the Web.

While software experts stressed that a national information backbone would take India "from the information footpath to the information superhighway", Telecom Commission Chairman A V Gokak promised that an information infrastructure, costing Rs 7 billion, will be in place by 2000.

The government last week permitted private industries to enter the Internet market which, till recently, was controlled by the government-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited.

The government has waived the licence fee for ISPs for two years.

VSNL chairman B K Syngal said India should bag at least 6 to 8 per cent of the global $200 billion software market in the next couple of years. He added that that the decision to allow private Internet service providers to operate in India would help increase competition and improve work quality.

Syngal envisaged an Internet facility in every school, even in remote corners of the country.

Lunch thereafter was an informal affair set by the pool-side. A few participants tucked in an array of salads, cottage cheese, fillet fish, chicken and blackforest cake.

Sudha Narayan, wife of the Infosys chief and a computer teacher at the Christ Church College, felt that the government must realise that if they do not concentrate on a policy suited to make Internet more viable to users in India, the Chinese, who are a hardworking race and our rivals in the industry, will win.

The post-lunch sessions was wowed by Bob Gaugham, director, Engineering Bay Networks, Boston. He spoke animatedly, despite a long flight, on the hottest thing in the US: virtual private networks.

He also touched upon the magic of cable modems on behalf of Louis Chan, systems engineer, Internet and telecom business group, Bay Networks, who could not make it to the conference in time.

Atul Sareen, product manager of Apple Computers, revealed an interesting chart which depicted that while technologies such as fax, pager, telephone etc took over 20 years to reach the 10 million users mark, the World Wide Web has got there in less than five years.

Currently, India does not have over 43,000 Internet connections with about 150,000 users. A study revealed by NASSCOM says that the Internet business is likely to fetch an annual revenue of over Rs 100 billion by 2000 AD. India is expected to have 1.5 million Internet connections and over 5 million users by that time.

ISPs

The late afternoon session focused on strategies to facilitate proliferation of the Internet and the role of private ISPs which could give value-added services and be niche-driven and thus offered at a premium price to users.

Sundar Iyer, general manager, Silicon Graphics Systems Private Limited, spoke about the investment required to start an ISP. If you want one that would take care of regional services at a place like Madurai or Comibatore, it could cost Rs 2-2.5 million. However, if you wanted one located in the capital city or Bangalore, the cost could go up to Rs 20 million. The questions he raised were on the kind of remuneration that could mustered and how would one be able to gauge that.

T Gopinath of Digital Equipments India Limited answered the query with a presentation which stressed the need for value-added services, thereby making it possible to ask for a premium price from user. Some of the points he listed are:

1. E-commerce. Provide people with virtual reality. Set up a site for shirts where buying and selling is possible, payment could be made via credit cards.
2. Along with just providing email addresses, allow user to store material on disk space.
3. ISPs can go to regional areas, providing lease lines to companies who want to be linked only to that particular area.
4. News groups are available on the Web. ISPs could categorise information and send dedicated feeds to say pharmaceutical companies or the automobile industry and thereby charge them a premium price for the service.
5. Relay chats. A pastime for the young so much so that it chokes the lines. Be choosy about your subscribers and arrange for costly bandwidth lines that won't be used for chatting.
6. Internet roaming. If I travel and I have an account at Bangalore, I should be able to access it even in Delhi. It could be a virtual private network and ISPs could provide security for access.
7. Catalogue and mailing systems could be organised.
8. CDs could be purchased with no extra cost at inventory, floor space, investment.
9. Advertising, is still being channeled mostly through the print media. It could be targeted at sites where there are a maximum number of hits.
10. News and politics. The Washington Post went live to cover the US presidential elections, the same opportunities could be found here.

Cable modems

Bob Gaugham has a cable modem in Boston, his hometown, for which he pays a monthly bill of $40. A steal, yes, and a possible reality that will hit India by 2000.

Cable television operators in India could definitely carry Internet signals which could be split when they reached homes. The Web would go to the PC and the soaps to the TV.

Then there's Web TV which seems to be another future reality: you can access Internet via your television set. The wireless modem, says Gaugham, does not carry much bandwidth compared to the cable modem and therefore cannot be used to transmit Internet signals.

Virtual private networking is a big deal in the US, he explains. Basically, a boon for corporate companies who want to conduct business transactions with their branch offices set around the world by accessing the public system of the Internet. A survey conducted on Fortune 1000 companies revealed that 45 per cent of them would consider opting for VPN.

But how safe would it be? The family jewels (read corporate secrets) would be there for all to see. Bob says: "Tunnelling is a system that wraps your material with yet another IP address, making it inaccessible to the general public." There are two-layered and three-layered tunnelling technologies, both of which take into consideration encrypting the material too.

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