You Telecom's timely overhaul of its Disaster Recovery Systems averted the devastation caused by a perfect storm.

The disaster was so consummate that it took a discharge of 9 lakh cusecs of gushing water from the Ukai dam in Gujarat, 15 feet of water clogging at most places, ruthless torrential rains and three days of blackout to threaten the fortunes of Surat-based You Telecom in the second week of August this year.

The tarantula dance of the storm clouds was definitely thwarted because of adequate disaster recovery (DR) systems of data in place. "When the Internet data center (IDC) power was switched off, the DR site at Mumbai was automatically activated. All our services ran without any disturbance," says EVS Chakravarthy, CEO and Customer Service Associate, YOU Telecom, a former British Gas subsidiary and an upcoming broadband Internet service provider (ISP).

To perdition and back
The disaster situation had put to test the systems and men at helm, and the emphasis on better preparedness has grown multifold since then. A specialized DR team in Mumbai monitors changes between the primary and secondary data sites i.e. between the main data center at Surat and the DR site in Mumbai to ensure that both are synchronized at all times.

Even two months after the washout, the walls of Millennium Arcade building, which houses You Telecom, are still wet and peeled off at places. The only relief for the company then was that its corporate office and IDC were located on the second floor of the building.

Set up in 2001 with an investment of Rs 400 crore, the company started operations under the name Iqara Telecoms India Private Limited. It was renamed YOU Telecom after Citi Ventures Capital International bought out the entire stake of British Gas.

The company offers connectivity solutions to residential customers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It has presence across 11 cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Vizag.

As all-time connectivity is crucial to Internet business, YOU invested Rs 30 crore in setting up an IDC during its inception by roping in Wipro as a system integrator.

Corridors of power
The electrical room of YOU presently hosts two APC uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Each UPS has the power to provide six hours back up under full load with a capacity of 80KVA. So, even if one fails, the other can act as a back up. But can these systems ensure uninterrupted services?

"If both the UPS fail, the IDC is equipped with a diesel generator back up that can be used as an uninterrupted power supply," points out GR Sridhar, VP, Technology and Customer Service Associate while accompanying this correspondent through the electric room.

To prevent temperature inconsistencies in the data center, the company has opted for high velocity air conditioning. By this method, the hot air is sucked out, filtered and reintroduced as cool air. There are two precision air-conditioners installed in the room.

The room also has inlets for the flow of Energen gas, which acts as a fire-fighting alternative. "The gas ensures that the fire is extinguished without causing any damage to the IT infrastructure such as racks, servers, cables and other equipments," says Sridhar.

Connectivity check
One of the interesting aspects of You Telecom is its preference of the economic alternative to DSL networks. The company connects all of its 11 locations through Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network. "We chose HFC network because DSL modems delivery is expensive and cannot prove viable to our residential customers," points out Sridhar while adding that cable technology also supports more bandwidth than DSL. The HFC network was laid out in partnership with Motorola, Avaya, Commscope, Cisco and others.

All 11 cities are connected to the main data center in Surat by two links. The connection is gathered through a ring orbit. Since each of the two links from each of the 11 cities offers redundancy, if one link fails the other takes control of the system. These cities are also connected to the international gateways thereby completing the
network architecture.

The company doesn't own any gateways due to the government FDI restrictions, so it has tied up with players like Reach Telecom, Bharti, Tata and others to provide high quality international Internet bandwidth.

"The other reason that we have gone with so many players is to ensure that our customers are connected at
all times. It's all about having a redundant architecture," says Sridhar.

Systems and standards
The network is logically divided into two main components viz. the head-end and the Customer Serving Area (CSA). The communication between the head-end and the CSA takes place through the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) standard, which has become the de facto standard for data transmission on cable.

The main components of the head-end in a HFC network include a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), Cisco Network Registrar (CNR)/ DHCP/ DNS Server, Time of Day (ToD) server and the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

The Cisco CMTS is used for termination of a cable modem at cable ISP network. CNR or the intelligent
DHCP server is responsible for dynamic IP addressing to network devices based on predefined set of policies viz. class of service.

The TFTP server is used to register and download cable modem configuration files for individual customer service. The configurations include quality of service, baseline privacy implementation, operating frequency assignments, and a number of host devices. The signals are taken on a fiber network up to a node where they get converted from an optical signal to a RF signal.

"After every 300 hundred meters, an amplifier is used to ensure that the signal is not reduced when it reaches the customer modem. Where the cables cannot be installed, we have ensured wireless connectivity by tying up with Rail Tel Corporation, Bharti and others," says Sridhar.

A cable modem from the customer's premises is connected to the nearest fiber point called as node, which is then terminated to the optical transmitter and receiver in the data center.

The data center is also host to more than 40 servers - all of them manufactured by Sun Microsystems. The network equipments are all Cisco brands and caching is achieved by a NetApp appliance. The back up facility is a combination of Quantum and Veritas products. The primary and secondary devices are connected in a 'hot beat', which implies that each of the devices talk and monitor each other's activities.

"The back ups are programmed on a monthly, daily or even on an hourly basis depending upon the criticality of applications," says Sridhar.

How you got served?
The IT team at YOU is divided into three groups. One of them manages the IDC operations; the second carries out research and development of its products and services. The third team addresses the customer-related issues and solves the queries.

YOU uses Open Source for many of internal development programs. Currently, it supports an application called as Multi Router Traffic Grapher - a tool that monitors the traffic load on network-links.

"We try to avoid buying applications from vendors and all applications for internal and external customers are developed in-house using various technologies," says Sridhar.

Employees use an Intranet to connect with each other across 11 cities that has been developed in-house. The front-end is a JSP program, while the back-end is Java. Access rights are provided depending on the designation and usage. YOU has also deployed VoIP and video-conferencing facilities using their existing network infrastructure.

"The IT team has provided us with an enormous support internally. Systems such as online indent system have made life easy for us," says Rajiv Lal, Corporate Manager, Procurement and Customer Service Associate.

The indent system manages the inventory of the company. It gathers all hardware and software requirements at a centralized place. The daily stock availability at all locations can also be traced.

"It is good to see that all manual processes have been converted into automated processes by our IT team. We as users give inputs to the team so that they deliver applications as per our satisfaction," says Arvind Agarwal, Financial Controller, Company Secretary and Customer Support Associate.

Agarwal adds that the only internal application that YOU has outsourced is their payroll and HR processing related activities which is carried out by Chennai-based company management consultancy company Mai Foi.

Getting a grip
The company has built a team to check for network and system vulnerabilities. For example, the team carries out server-hardening process which checks for the security of the server. The ports of the server are checked to find the types of ports that are open and whether any port is vulnerable.

An internally build outage management system (OMS) helps in identifying the occurrence of outage in all the cities of operation. The moment an outage is detected, it is updated on the OMS. 

"So when a customer calls the YOU customer care they are updated on the outage occurrence and are also given a time period within which it would be rectified," says Sridhar.

YOU has outsourced its customer care support to Accenture. While YOU owns the IT assets, the staffing and management is taken care by Accenture.

"The telecom business globally can be easily commoditized. What differentiates players is expertise and commitment to service delivery," says Chakravarthy for choosing Accenture.

ISPs on mobility
A prospective customer can send an SMS query to YOU through the company?s SMS gateway. This SMS is integrated into the lead management system and appears as a ?live? sales lead. So when the company?s sales team logs into this system, they could pick the lead and touch base with the prospective customer.

?We launched this service in the last week of August and have got 1000 leads since then. This cuts across the scrap of all the routine procedures required to get connected,? says Chakravarthy.

The SMS gateway is also used to alert the 11 branches inter alia about impending problems like a possible network failure. This SMS is auto generated from the data center and reaches all officials, right up to the CEO within a minute and works 24x7.

Future perfect
Currently, YOU is evaluating a high-end customer service application, which will completely automate customer issues and responses. This would be integrated with the call center application called as trouble ticket management system (TTMS).

"We will pilot this in another ten days time. This would cater to the customer services in a better way and help resolves issues in quick time," says Chakravarthy. The company also plans to migrate from the existing NAS to a SAN infrastructure. The current offering to SMEs is high-speed data connectivity. YOU plans to expand it to other services like messaging, hosting, security and remote back-ups.

"Large enterprises have already made investments in their IT infrastructure. It is the SMEs who find it difficult in terms of expertise and costs to have such resources. So we plan to equip them with our capabilities," says Sridhar.
With a subscriber base of 25,000 two years ago, YOU has risen to 1,30,000 customers today. The company registered a turnover of Rs 70 crore during FY06 and continues to target the second and third tiers of ISP business: the SMEs and the residential customers.

Sometimes, moving a kilometre is only as good as moving an inch. As in the case of broadband services that private telecom operators want to offer us at our doorstep. A status scan.
With BSNL and MTNL not willing to share their last mile, private players are left with two choices: fork out a colossal amount and lay a fresh last mile network or haggle with the local cable operators.
Seen a nice advertisement for broadband connectivity from Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and called up one of its sales agents or filled in your details on their Web site?

There is a good chance that you will be called up and told that they are still talking to your local cable operator and that as soon as they are able to hammer out a deal with him, they will call you up again.

Heard about Reliance Communications' broadband plans? Well, they don't have a service for homes yet. But what about all the fibre they were laying, cutting ducts all across the city? They are for enterprises, you will be told, eventually they may reach you too.

The incumbents, public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have connected almost 200 districts with broadband and have their own last mile network, having over 4 crore fixed line customers (of which only 10 per cent of the network is capable of carrying broadband). They refuse to unbundle their last mile network for private players. `Unbundling' means allowing the last mile to be used by private players.

India had over 1.3 million broadband subscribers as on March 31, 2006 (still well behind the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's target of 3 million by December 2005) out of which 4 lakh belonged to private players. BSNL had 5.86 lakh broadband subscribers and MTNL over 2 lakh. As of July 2006, TRAI figures show 1.70 million broadband subscribers; analysts say the private-public sector proportion must be roughly the same as in March.

Bharti, VSNL plans

With BSNL and MTNL not willing to share their last mile, private corporates in the broadband business are now left with two choices: to fork out a colossal amount in capital expenditure and lay a fresh last mile network (the final leg of connectivity that actually connects to the customer's home); or, to struggle and haggle with the local cable operators.

Bharti Airtel has decided to lay its own network. It provides DSL broadband and fixed telephone services in 92 cities across the country, with an aggregate of over 1.59 million customers and 3.97 lakh broadband customers as of end of August 2006. (This, according to sources, includes a component of SME customers as well, and not just residential customers).

The rollout of the last mile being expensive, it is selective as well. "We have looked at rolling out our network in high-yielding segments and our focus is on providing world-class services for a rich broadband experience, backed by a host of value-added services such as gaming, music downloads and video postcards," says a spokesperson.

According to its results statement for the first quarter of the current fiscal, Bharti Airtel has spent Rs 4,003 crore on broadband and fixed line services so far. In the quarter ended July 2006, its investments in this area were Rs 304 crore in existing circles and Rs 92 crore in new circles. VSNL might also go for an expensive option. Its capital expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore for the current fiscal might go up by another Rs 1,000 crore depending on how its retail broadband plans pan out, says an official.

These are huge investments that VSNL and Bharti will take time to recover, notes an analyst. For now, VSNL has tied up with 2,000 cable operators across the country and has over 1 lakh retail broadband customers. (Reliance Communications also, at one time, considered the cable option, currently its exact plans are not known.)
`Not a sustained model'

Tying up with cable operators means augmenting their technology, laying one's own network over or along the operators', and working out a contract on how revenues will be shared.

"Although many local cable operators have consolidated under Multi-Service Operators, they don't function as one when it comes to broadband, and agreements have to be made with each Local Cable Operator (LCO) separately," says E.V.S. Chakravarthy, CEO of YOU Telecom (earlier Iqara Telecoms India), a unit of British Gas. "This can't be a sustained model for a large pan-India company," says a senior official with one of the two largest telecom companies in India. "The building society may say we don't want your switch located here. Another cable operator says this building is my area. Then a dispute arises." To have only 1.7 million broadband connections in a country where there are 300 million young people `is pathetic,' he says. And we are nowhere close to any of the targets which themselves are highly conservative (3 million customers by December 2005).

No dearth of fibre

The sad matter is that India is not lacking in fibre otherwise. Internationally, Reliance and the Tatas, with their global acquisitions, are in control of massive bandwidths. Nationally, Reliance Communications, Bharti, BSNL, Gail, Railtel and PowerGrid and VSNL have their fibre networks. Reliance Comm says it has a 60,000-km network and VSNL over 40,000, both owned and leased. There are even 15 to 20 major cities where more than one intra-city backbone exists. Bharti, Reliance and VSNL have laid a lot of intra-city networks and metro-rings. "Now let us say we have got to the suburb Andheri in Mumbai, how do we get to the homes in Andheri?" asks a senior official with one of these companies. This is the expensive part.

In Mumbai, for instance, digging of roads, acquiring right of way, relaying roads, society permissions could make for expenditure of Rs 20-25 lakh.

Mumbai would require about 1,000 such km of network, that would mean Rs 250 crore. And, how many multiples of Rs 250 crore would a pan-India operator such as Reliance, VSNL or Bharti have to spend if it wants to be present in even 20 to 30 cities, asks a telecom analyst.

An isolated instance

Worldwide there is no instance where creation of new wireline networks drives broadband and each interested operator is laying his own last mile, says Srinivas Addepalli, head of Corporate Strategy at VSNL. "Most countries that have high broadband penetration have either unbundled the local loop and/or have an organised, robust cable infrastructure. Unfortunately in India, we have neither. Our partnership with cable operators has been reasonably successful because it is enabling us to reach end customers in some territories. However, there is a lot that needs to be done before we can achieve desired milestones and benchmarks." So the irony is that with 500 km of fibre in Mumbai alone, a company such as VSNL is not able to reach its customer easily.

`Cable strategy working'

Strangely, it is those players who are not in the telecom access space (mobile, fixed line, long distance) who say their cable strategy has been successful. Sify, with the largest private broadband subscriber base of over 2 lakh in 90 cities, is one company that says that its cable strategy is working. "I think we understand this business best because our specialisation is Internet Protocol, we are not a telecom operator whose primary business is voice," says a senior official with the company. Broadly, cable operators do observe `gentlemen's agreements', he says.

Where the network is not good enough, Sify does the network itself, but with the help of the cable operators. Sify has networked over 171 cities, and is adding broadband 20,000 subscribers every quarter. Chakravarthy of YOU Telecom also says that the cable strategy is reasonably successful. YOU has 1.3 lakh connections in 10 cities and wants to expand to the top 22 cities and is adding at 8,000 a month. YOU, with the cable operator, lays a hybrid fibre and coaxial network and is already offering Internet telephony, gaming and other value-added services. It is investing Rs 90 crore this year. Hathway also claims to be reasonably successful.

Singapore model

Almost every operator in the country is also experimenting with WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) standards technology for delivering last mile as an alternative to cable and DSL.

"But for us this can only supplement our wireline broadband because it cannot deliver those speeds," says said Mr. Addepalli of VSNL.

Reliance Communications is keeping its plans close to its chest. Sources said something might come up `some time next year.' something the company has said every year for a couple of years now. Technology experts said it is experimenting with Canopy, part of Motorola's MOTO wi4 wirless access solution that enables cable operators to quickly deploy wireless extensions to their existing networks, that integrates a `hardened modem' and a pre-WiMax access point hat can perform in all outdoor conditions.

Operators say that the Government should do what Singapore is doing. Call bids for one entity to lay the most modern and scaleable infrastructure available and allow other operators to ride on that infrastructure.

kripram@thehindu.co.in

Iqara Telecoms India henceforth will be known as YOU Telecom India. The ISO 9001:2000 Company has unveiled its new identity along with its new products and services.
By ZDNET Staff, September 01, 2006

YOU has introduced the YOU Call Broadband Telephony products for individuals and organizations, particularly those with International calling. YOU launched the YOU Call service. With this service a customer can call many countries with discounted rates of over 75 percent in comparison to regular calling rates, the company claims. For commonly called countries like US, UK, Canada the YOU Call rate is as economical as Rs1.25/- per minute.

It has also launched its Turbo Broadband Services. With YOU Turbo, customers can get Broadband speeds of upto 512 Kbps for a monthly fee of Rs 650.

EVS Chakravarthy, CEO, YOU Telecom India, said, "Applications of Broadband are yet to reach the masses. Broadband Telephony and Online Gaming are two areas with enormous potential we will tap in a big way in the months to come.

We will also explore other avenues to enhance the users' Broadband experience. We firmly believe that in the coming months, Broadband Internet will change the way Internet is seen and used in India."
Location: http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/communication/stories/152905.html.

Iqara Rebrands Itself as YOU Telecom
Thursday August 31st 2006, 8:30 pm
By: Priyanka Pradhan

Iqara Telecoms India Pvt has rebranded itself after partnering with YOU Telecom to unveil a new identity and products for residences, small to medium size enterprises and corporations. The new brand, YOU Telecom India Pvt Ltd will now be present in 11 Indian cities and a service support centre with Accenture, in Mumbai.

E.V.S.Chakravarthy, CEO of YOU Telecoms announced the new brand name at a press conference in Mumbai today and introduced three new plans offered by the company. He introduced the company saying, “YOU is a fast, powerful, dependable and fun connection to the world. It is reflective of consumer needs today, for people who want to be ‘empowered' with a virtual assistant. YOU will empower consumers with high speed, hassle free internet access, ultra low cost VoIP calls and access to new online games every month.”

The three plans introduced are YOU Explore, including different tariff plans for high speed internet connectivity, starting from Rs 100 per month, YOU Call, which is a VoIP service at 75% lesser tariff than normal rates and YOU PLAY which offers high speed downloads of the latest games for 199 per month, in association with IndiaGames. Mr Chakravarthy mentioned that the game service is eco friendly and convenient, with prepaid and postpaid plans.
Chakravarthy also announced that YOU is planning on introducing an online directory of half a million YOU users to communicate with each other, at a flat rate.

A Nice and Impressive Restart/Rebirth of the company for achieving heights and it will create a good impression to the people under and out side ‘YOU'. Comment by Nagaraj Poduval 09.01.06 @ 10:40 am