Emerging Cos: Five Network Solution

Not many of us will be familiar with Five Network Solution (India) Ltd, a cable broadband service provider based in Mumbai. Established in 2002, the company operates through numerous franchisees in the financial capital and offers services in the neighboring city of Pune as well. (See IndiaWatch: RIL Set To Launch Broadband Services, and India Records 25% Wireline Broadband Growth.)

Five Network currently serves around 50,000 customers and recorded a revenue of INR 90 million (US$1.6 million) in the financial year 2011-12. Founded by Anand Mehta, who also serves as the current managing director of the company, it leverages the 1000-kilometer of fiber-optic cables spread across the functional area. It has 65-67 Points of Presence (PoP), the last PoP being in Pune.

{Table 1}

The company offers various plans tailored to meet the customer requirements of all segments, with bandwidth ranging from 512 Kbps to 10Mbps. (See IndiaWatch: ISD, Broadband Tariffs May Reduce and Broadband Penetration To Get More Revenue: GSMA.)

Five Networks entered the cable broadband industry as it was confident of providing sophisticated connectivity to the last mile of subscribers. It claims to be the only non-telecom company to have created its own network. This is also the key unique selling proposition of the company.

The company, however, faces investment challenges since it requires huge capital to build its own fiber-optic network.

"Unlike other telecom giants, we have to focus on keeping our expenditure as low as possible without compromising on the quality of service. This is our biggest challenge today," Anand Mehta, Managing Director, Five Network Solutions told Light Reading India.

The challenge is understandable as the company operates with only 22 core employees. That, however, does not merit it to compromise on quality.

"We are in the process of investing about INR 60 million ($1.09 million) in upgrading our overall network capacity from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps" adds Mehta.

The company also plans to provide service in Surat, Gujarat, but says it can't disclose any details. It has partnered with the American giant Google in order to help customers stream videos from YouTube Inc. at a speed of 2000 Mbps.

On the VAS front, Five Network provides Direct Connection (file sharing) at an additional price of INR 100, as well as the IPTV service.

Rimit Singh, Correspondent, Light Reading India