Business Today Net Special

The Clubonnet Juggernaut

Welcome to Clubonnet---the land of unlimited bandwidth and high- speed access. And discover a new meaning to the word 'reliable'.

By Rakhi Mazumdar

The internet, they say, is the ultimate democracy. Not much longer, it seems. Soon there will be some users more equal than others, courtesy the emergence of ISPs offering exclusive premier services to their users.

Welcome to clubonnet.com, a premium internet service from Vedanth Worldwide, launched on September 21, 2000. It will cater to a niche segment of customers (a maximum of 1,000, to be precise) as its clientele. These are, typically, people who are not prepared to compromise on the quality of their internet experience. Following its launch in Calcutta, clubonnet will roll out its services in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

Explains Rajendra Sahay, CEO, Vedanth.com Worldwide: ''The concept of clubonnet grew out of the obvious need for connectivity, reliability, and speed among internet users. A host of ISPs today offer connectivity both paid for and free, but no assurances of speed and uninterrupted access.''

So, what are the service features that the premier ISP plans to provide? Apart from high-speed internet access, it will also offer the IMAP system, touted as the next generation e-mail standard. The IMAP system allows a browser to view the header of all the messages that are already there on the server and then lets a user decide which ones to download. In the process, one saves valuable internet time by not downloading junk. Incidentally, it claims to be the first ISP in the country to offer IMAP. Also, there is special emphasis on extra firewall protection to take care of privacy issues.

Fundamentally though, Vedanth is planning to differentiate itself from other ISPs in three main areas of operations, namely:

Speed of Connectivity: For every 2 Mbps link at its disposal, it will limit membership to a maximum of 1,000 members.

Ease of Connectivity: With membership restricted to a maximum of 1,000, a 120-line dial-up capacity ensures a phone line per customer ratio of 8.3:1 (against an international standard of 10:1).

Stable Connectivity: Vedanth has obtained leased lines from different telephone exchanges in the city. This ensures less congestion in the dial-up lines since customers can connect to Clubonnet from their own exchanges.

No wonder, the service comes at a, well, premium. A customer, or client if you will, has to pay a membership fee of Rs 3,000 per annum and Rs 5,000 per annum for a 500-hour connection.

To ensure an additional revenue-stream, the company is also planning to offer web-hosting services on an Oracle base to large corporate clients. An Oracle-certified database administrator would serve as a real-time trouble- shooter. These services typically cost Rs 4 lakh a month if they are maintained on an Oracle platform in the US. Vedanth plans to offer it at a somewhat lower cost. It expects to break even by March, 2003.

By that time, it will have rolled out its services to 30 locations (including six metros, each with 5 satellite centres). In metros like Delhi, it will take in 4 Mbps links and allow a membership of 5,000 initially. Each metro hub, consisting of five-to-six satellite centres, will call for an investment of Rs 7 crore.

The virtual club will extend its presence to the real world too. Its community- building efforts include providing value-added services like the Tuesday Club. This is Clubonnet's tie-up with the 'Tantra' nightclub at The Park and will bring together software professionals and venture capitalists where they can exchange information and simply socialize. More such alliances with restaurants and clubs will follow.

There's no doubt that the service provided by VSNL, MTNL, and the private ISPs leave much to be desired. This has opened up the space for premium ISPs, like BPLnet, Wipro, and Now! By capitalising on connectivity shortcomings and fulfilling the need for a good service, Vedanth may have just hit upon a winning strategy.

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