India Broadband

• ‘MTNL Landline Connection’ – Having an MTNL landline connection is a must, before applying for MTNL Triband. In case you don’t have a landline connection, then apply for it first.

• A PC, with following minimum recommended hardware – 128 MB RAM, 500 MB free space on Hard Disk, USB port for ADSL Modem/Router or LAN card for ADSL Router and CD ROM drive.

• ADSL Modem/Router, which can either be rented from MTNL,or can be bought from the market. Compatible CPEs may be ascertained from MTNL Call Centre – 1500.

• List of ADSL2+ CPE Compatible Vendors

1. D Link 502 T

2. Comtrend CT-564

3. Westell A -90-630199-07

4. Zyxel Prestige 660 H -61

5. Erricsson HM410

6. Xavi(7722+)

7. Surecom EP-4704SX

8. A-LINK

Ordering Information and Queries for Surecom E P-4704SX:

Ace Microelectronics Pvt. Ltd,

B 120 Kalkaji,

Mr. Uday/ Ms. Mercy: 011-26214304, 011-26227054 09350230905

MTNL shall not be responsible for any complications arising from non compatibility of the CPE Software & Hardware procured from market. Any parallel wiring other than one telephone in the Broadband/ADSL line would lead to reduced download speed & frequent disconnection.

I recently read somewhere talking about these new packages mentioned in a local newspaper. We cannot confirm the accuracy of these packages though:

The plans according to a local paper from 1st January 2007 are -
Home 250 – 1GB limit, 90 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 500 – 2.5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1000 – 5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1800 – 10GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 3300 – 20GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Night Unlimited on all Home plans except Home 250 is from 8 PM to 8 AM now.
There is no mention of the Home 900 UL plan.

Business 700 – 4GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 1200 – 8GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 3000 – 20GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 5000 – 35GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 9000 – 75GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.

Users are now more interested in knowing the status of Home 900 UL package. However, getting over 1mbps speeds on these cheap packages at night time is still a very good deal.

Chennai, India, November 21, 2006: Sify Communications Limited (SifyComm), a subsidiary of Sify Limited (Nasdaq National Market: SIFY), a leader in consumer Internet and Enterprise Services in India with global delivery capabilities, today received licenses to operate and offer NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) Services from the Department of Telecommunication.

Following this, Sify has, with immediate effect, transferred its VPN business to SifyComm. Both the companies had signed a MoU earlier this year to this effect. The licenses were applied for as they became a condition for the provisioning of IP VPN services in which Sify is the market leader.

Mr Raju Vegesna, CEO and Managing Director, Sify Limited, said “Sify is the leader in IP VPN services in India with best in class services to a wide range of customers spanning Indian corporates, multi-nationals and Government. I am confident that these licenses, along with our expertise, knowledge and infrastructure will help further strengthen our leadership in converged services over our data network.”

Mr. Bhaskar Sayyaparaju, Chief Technology Officer, Sify added, “With the NLD and ILD licenses in place, SifyComm will be able to enhance the portfolio of connectivity services to customers to build on our leadership in this space. These approvals will enable us to provide additional services over the robust, state-of-the-art meshed network infrastructure that Sify has developed.”

The licenses will enable SifyComm to offer Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs) and International Private Leased Circuits (IPLCs) in addition to Long Distance Subscriber Telephony services. Many VPN customers, especially multi-nationals and the Information technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT / ITES) companies, subscribe to DLCs and IPLCs. The ability to offer these services together will give Sify an advantage, particularly with the company’s technical expertise in data services over IP (Internet Protocol) networks.

Sify has alliances with leading International carriers to offer end-to-end IP-MPLS solutions for VPN services, and constantly invests in bandwidth on both its sophisticated national and international network to offer redundant, reliable, secure, scalable and efficient traffic routing.

About Sify Communications

Sifycomm carries expertise in the Data Security and Trust Solutions and services space. Sifycomm’s areas of specialization include Cryptography, PKI & Digital Signature based solutions; Data protection and privacy solutions, Strong Authentication solutions, Digital Rights Management solutions, etc. Sifycomm created history in India by becoming India’s first licensed Certifying Authority (CA) under the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 and is today India’s largest Certifying Authority, providing services across India via a network of over 80 business partners.

In order to bring the “best of breed” technology to the Indian market, Sifycomm has tie-ups with leading vendors in this domain including VeriSign, SafeBoot, Swivel, Seclore, ElOck, Alladin, etc.

About Sify Limited:

Sify is among the largest Internet, network and e-Commerce services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common Internet backbone infrastructure. This Internet backbone reaches 183 cities and towns in India. A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services and hosting. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s corporate service offerings. Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the iWay cyber café chain across 154 cities and towns. The company’s network services, Data Center operations and customer relationship management are accredited ISO 9001:2000.

For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify’s business, please see the discussion under the caption “Risks Related to Our Business” in the company’s report on Form 6-K for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.

The Financial Times has said in a news report that U.S. private equity groups Blackstone and Carlyle are currently talking with Indian telecom giants Reliance Communications.

The two groups are planning to invest as much as USD 1 billion in a new unit, which would work on telecoms tower business for Reliance.

This new entity is rumored to be called TowerCo and it might also receive investments from Singapore state investment agency Temasek and American Tower.

The report also said that Reliance is spinning off its wireless tower business to separate the heavy cost of building telecoms infrastructure from the parent company.

Defense Public Sector Enterprise Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has said in a statement that they have received an order to supply two lakh set top boxes (STBs) to Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL).

WWIL is a unit of the Zee Group and these set top boxes might be provided to the customers of CAS Service.

These boxes would be loaded with embedded conditional access software. It would allow the subscriber of the service to pick the channels of his choice and view them through this system. The deliveries are expected to begin from next month.

BEL said in a statement that they are in a position to meet the high volume requirements of service providers such as WWIL.

Telecom giants Reliance Communications has now announced the availability of a STD call card, which allows the subscriber to make STD calls at night for free.

This card costs around Rs. 675 and comes with a calling value of Rs. 601. Reliance said that people buying this card would be able to make free calls to any Reliance phone anywhere in India between 11 pm and 6 am.

For other calls made during the daytime, consumers would be required to pay Rs. 1 per minute. Reliance added that they believe that this card would be popular amongst couples staying apart or students in hostel wanting to keep in touch with their families.

Reliance said that this card could be used all Reliance post-paid, pre-paid phones.

After MTNL, it is the turn of the other government owned telecom giant BSNL to test launch their triple play service, which would offer voice, internet and television broadcasting facilities through a single connection.

BSNL’s director of planning and new services Ram Lakhan Dubey said that the tests of this service would last around a fortnight and after that, they would make it ready for a launch on a wider scale. They plan to offer this service to the subscribers of their internet services around the country.

The company plans to lay fresh copper cables to offer this multi-play network. And it would enable the customers to use television, internet and voice service at once. BSNL added that interested customers would have to pay the initial cost of the set-top box, installation. After that, he would be required to pay for the services he chose to receive.

This service is being tested in the Pune city in Maharashtra. BSNL said that it would remain free for the testing customers until it is commercially launched or up to 31 December, whichever is earlier.

German based automaker DaimlerChrysler has said that they are planning to expand into the Indian market. The company now is aiming to establish a second plant in India.

This new plant is expected to be located in or around the Pune city in Maharashtra. DaimlerChrysler believes that India has the potential to become a huge market for high end products from their stables.

DaimlerChrysler India Managing Director and CEO Wilfried Aulbur spoke about their plans for the Indian market: “We have plans to set up a new plant in India which could come up in and around Pune, as we have a good supplier network in the area.”

The company’s existing plant is based in Pune. Aulbur added: “We plan to manufacture products from our existing offerings in India in the proposed new plant. Also, it will give us the possibility to expand in the future.”

DaimlerChrysler entered the Indian market way back in 1995 and has been profitable in their Indian operations. The company sells Mercedes Benz branded cars in India and they had sold 1,915 cars in 2005. They are aiming to sell more than 2000 cars this year.

Aulbur added that they expect India to become a major market for them in the near future. However, they have no current plans to launch their other brands in India. He said: “The way forward is just going up… India is a very important part of our Asia strategy.”

Tata Motors is working on the ambitious Rs. 1 lakh rupee car since quite some time. The company now expects to launch it in the Indian market by 2008.

Interestingly, the company has now said that they might introduce this car in other markets around the world.

Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said in a statement on possible ventures with other companies: “It’s heartening to tell you that even before the world can see the dream car, whose prototype has been developed, we have proposals from several global original equipment manufacturers for collaboration with us to make this car in their own countries.”

He however declined to name the companies, which have contacted Tata for a possible collaboration in the future. He added that Tata Motors has already finalized 50% of the vendors for the project and the rest will be selected shortly.

Japanese tech giant Toshiba has announced the availability of their eco-efficient consumer and business notebooks in India in collaboration with HCL Infosystems.

These products are complaint with the European Union (EU) RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive and are the result of Toshiba’s Corporate Environment Management Division’s efforts.

Toshiba said that the laptops in the business category would feature products including the thin and light Portege M500 ultraportables with 12.1-inch diagonal XGA display and swappable optical drive. The consumer segment would get Qosmio next-generation “four-in-one” audio-video notebook series with HD DVD drive.

Ivan Kam, manager, Distributor Business South Asia, Computer Systems Division, Toshiba Singapore Pte Ltd. spoke on this new development: “Continuing on our promise of creating new technology benchmarks in mobile computing, Toshiba is proud to present our planet Earth friendly range of notebooks. Further, strengthening the commitment to our esteemed Indian patrons and taking them to a new level in digital lifestyle, beyond just mobile computing, we are also glad to unveil our newest campaign – beyond freedom.”

He further said: “Going further in this direction, we are also presenting a revolutionary new range of MP3 players – a first-of-its-kind foray for Toshiba – with a clear messaging that whenever our customers want the best of mobile digital technology – Toshiba is with them.”

Koushik Chatterjee, general manager, Toshiba Mobile Computing, HCL Infosystems Ltd. added: “We are glad to note that our relationship with Toshiba, which spans over years together, is once again going toward a new symbiotic high of enabling digital lifestyle in the nation. We assure our complete support to Toshiba in setting new benchmarks of technological innovation and would optimally leverage the growing opportunities; the Indian mobile computing market has to offer.”