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Delta investing Rs 180 cr in satellite mail services

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Feb. 25

THE Chennai-based Delta Innovative Enterprises Ltd (DIEL) is planning to invest Rs. 180 crores in setting up infrastructure for offering satellite mail and Internet services, a top company official has said.

Launching DIEL's satellite mail facility, `Deltagram', here, the company's Managing Director, Mr. R. Kothandaraman, said the proposed investment would be raised through private placement of equity, borrowings and fee from franchisees.

While Rs. 20 crores would go towards the planned Internet services (the company would go in for an `A' category ISP licence), Rs. 100 crores would be invested in creating the necessary infrastructure as collection centres for Deltagram.

The rest of the planned investment would go towards

setting up 65 earth stations in major towns (at Rs. 50 crores) and establishing a development centre, Mr. Kothandaraman said.

The company has already set up 35 earth stations connecting 200 towns. It has also set up 3,000 collection centres.

The earth stations would be connected through satellite to a large number of other towns and villages.

Mr. Kothandaraman said about 3,000 towns and 40,000 villages in the country would be connected over a three-year period. The company is also planning to have about one lakh message collection centres in `every street all over the country'.

Anyone can send messages using Deltagram anywhere in the country at any time at economical rates. For instance, using a phone-to-phone messaging service called `Spacegram', messages can be sent anywhere in the country within 15 minutes for just Rs. 10 (p lus local call charges). All that the user has to do is hand over the message and the recipient's phone number to the nearest Deltagram collection centre.

Pic.: Mr. R. Kothandaraman, Managing Director, Delta Innovative Enterprises Ltd., at the launch of satellite mail in the Capital.