Spectranet: Think Broad? … Then Sell!

The proposed deal between Bharti and Sepctranet for the sale of latter’s 500 km-long OFC network in Delhi and Bangalore has created ripples in the telecom circles which could be a pointer of shape of things to follow in the era of new networks, which are being laid by many prominent players. The total value of the deal is expected to be around Rs 250 crore. Bharti was desperate to buy the off-the-shelf OFC network of Spectranet as the latter is trying to enter into basic services in Delhi and Karnataka. The deal, if struck, will be the first in the broadband space, which is likely to see more consolidation.

Spectranet, the Punj Lloyd Group subsidiary, claims to be the only company in the whole of South East Asia with a "commissioned" network of optic fibre cables (OFC) providing broadband Internet connectivity to corporates, SOHO’s, SME’s, and households. 

What made Spectranet vulnerable? The answer, perhaps, lies in the way the project went ahead, the way it was launched, and the tepid response to its services. Somewhere, something went wrong after the company commissioned its network with much fanfare on September 28, 2000. Though Spectranet, being the only true broadband player, was the Indian benchmark by itself, corporate customers complained about the lack of service guarantees and the subscriber numbers did not exactly measure up to market expectations. To make matters worse, it did a poor job of selling the broadband concept. Industry experts say it was not able to create an awareness about its products in a systematic manner. Its advertising campaign, which was outright abstract, was a major failure which hardly elicited the response it should have generated. 

Sudesh Prasad