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New IT firm to market 3G technologies globally

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Entitysoft Corporation Ltd, the UK-based leading telecom company set up by an Indian technocrat, has joined hands with two Bangalore-based start-ups to form a joint venture for marketing the third generation technologies and applications globally from next year.

Floated with a seed capital of $2 million, the Bangalore-based 3G Telecommunications Ltd, will raise another $8-million by this year-end for setting up a state-of-the software facility to develop a prototype model for providing 3G end-to-end operations, catering to the next generation mobile communication systems, using hand held devices.

Touted to be first of its kind in Asia, the new venture will encompass research and development, solutions and services under one umbrella for developing products, applications, and services using 3G technologies.

"3G Technologies signify the convergence of communications, commerce, multimedia, entertainment, sport, messaging, and e-learning," declared T Niranjan, CEO of £6.5-million Entitysoft.

The two start-ups, Manvish Infotech Ltd and Krishna H M Integral Softec, will eventually merge along with Entitysoft to function as a consortium under 3G Telecommunications Ltd in the near future.

"The promoters are bringing in 51 per cent of the equity stake with the remaining 49 per cent being raised from individual investors, located in India and the overseas. As we go on, we will be diluting the stake in subsequent rounds to raise a total of $50 million in the next 5 years," Niranjnan told rediff.com.

Unlike majority of Indian software companies, 3G Telecommunications will be focusing largely in Europe, which is set to emerge as a main market for m-commerce applications and services. "Our next target will be the US, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific in that order," Niranjan stated.

With a few patents to his credit in 3G technologies, Niranjan, an UK-based NRI, will be the driving force behind the venture, as he will be bringing the technologies being developed by his company's subsidiary, 3Gelligent, also based in London, to India for the prototype model.

"Besides technology transfer, Entitysoft will also handle international corporate relationship for getting orders from global customers. We have already implemented over 120 projects in Europe and the US in the areas of billing, ERP, CRM, and distributed database with a variety of mobile applications," Niranjan affirmed.

According to Manvish chairman and managing director A S Manjunatha, the new venture will initially focus on infrastructure development, resource identification and management identification, and prototype building, testing and quality assurance.

"The resource vision of 3G as part of its societal goal is to generate an employment opportunity for about 5,000 techies in the next 5 years. The requirement will be met with both in-house training in 3G technologies for captive use and outsourcing," Manjunatha asserted.

Since the constituent companies are already generating revenues, their core competencies will be leveraged to make the joint venture adopt an innovative revenue stream for growth and expansion.

"On an investment of $10-million during the current year of operations, we are projecting a revenue of $4 million at the end of March 2002, and $10 million for the subsequent period, which will be the company's first fiscal year. Our target for the 5th year of operations is $100 million," Niranjan claimed.

Various international studies have projected a revenue generation of $1 trillion worldwide from 3G services by 2010. The operator-retained annual revenues for service providers are expected to be in the region of $300 billion at the end of the current decade.

It is estimated that the Asia-Pacific region alone will account for around $120-billion revenues from 3G and 4G services by 2010, while Europe and North America will generate higher annual revenues of $150-200 billion per point of person.

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