Connect Broadband to expand its network in Himachal

Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 28

Connect Broadband will soon expand its fixed line and broadband services in the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh. It will offer a complete bouquet of applications, including voice and data services.

Initially, the company will launch its service in the industrial hubs across the state. The company will offer firewalls, UTMs for network security and video conferencing solutions in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh belt, Una and Paonta Sahib.

Arvind Bali, CEO and Director, Connect Broadband, said the company was looking at investing Rs 160 crore in the state. “Since we already have our optical fiber network in Punjab, for industrial belts in Himachal, which are right next to Punjab, the network will be extended to these industrial hubs. In case of other industrial belts that are far from Punjab, we will lease out the network of other companies,” he said, adding the investment will be done in a phased manner.

Bali said since Himachal was a major industrial destination and SMEs there had been looking at ERP solutions, they were offering a base price of Rs 750 for 15 GB data at 5Mbps speed. “Once we stabilise our operations in industrial hubs, we will move to individual consumers across various cities of the state,” he said. In the beginning, the company will reach out to individual customers in Shimla, Solan and Kullu.

He said they hope to reach a breakeven point in Himachal in five years. “We expect that Himachal operations will give us a profit of Rs 200 crore by 2020,” he added.