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Billjunction to expand operations to other cities

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Riding on the success of its online venture despite the dot.com bust, Billjunction Payments Ltd, a network company of ICICI Venture Ltd, is drawing plans to expand its operations across the country for offering its utility services in more metros and other cities.

Having roped in a combined customer base of 55,000 in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, and Pune over the year, the company has launched its services in the hi-tech state capital of Bangalore on Tuesday to provide its universal online bill presentment and payment service at billjunction.com.

"Our next three destinations are Hyderabad, Madras, and Cochin in south India in the next couple of months. Following these, fast-growing cities like Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow will join our nationwide network to provide a range of online services to their netizens.

We are waiting for a greater computer penetration and expansion of Internet connectivity in these state capitals so that the cost of our operations is leveraged with the volume of transactions' traffic expected to be generated gradually," declared company's chief operating officer Bikramjit Sen here.

With an investment of Rs 60 million till date, the company is focusing on e-commerce initiatives in the business of consumer segment, B2B segment, and enabling technologies. Billjunction is targeting a customer base of 100,000 by this year-end to break-even.

"As part of ICICI group's Internet strategy, the company has tied up with a plethora of major service providers, mainly in utility areas such as telecom, cellular, electricity, water, banking, and insurance. We are in discussions with many other utility players to include more value-added services.

The game plan is to free the upward-mobile customers in these major cities from the hassles of paying their recurring bills by using a simple, secure, and convenient way paying them up over the Internet at a nominal fee of Rs 5-10 per transaction, thus saving on their precious time and labor," Sen stated.

In Bangalore, Billjunction has tied up with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd which has a phone subscriber base of 800,000 and growing at a rate of 15-20 per cent annually; the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation for payment of electricity bills; cellular operators like Airtel and Spice; the Life Insurance Corporation for payment of insurance policy premium, and the Internet service providers such as Satyam Infoway and NOW-India.

Using the Reserve Bank of India's electronic clearing service mechanism to enable bill payments, the company brings together various banks and utility service providers on a single platform for transacting business.

"We have also tied up with billers for sending customers bill details electronically. They are compiled and posted in the customer's personal Bill Inbox," Sen added.

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