YOU to lease broadband capacity

The Hindu Business Line, February 26, 2010

The Citigroup-owned YOU Broadband & Cable has ventured into leasing out broadband capacity on its fibre infrastructure.

The company is targeting telecom operators, telecom tower companies and other cable service providers who require intra-city connectivity in 12 of the top 20 cities, Mr E.V.S. Chakravarthy, Chief Executive Officer of YOU Broadband, told Business Line.

"We can also provide fibre-based backhauling to telcos so that they can conserve spectrum which is a scarce commodity in any case," he added.

YOU Broadband uses around 15 per cent of the 5,000-route km of optical fibre infrastructure, originally established to support its broadband and cable businesses. By end 2010-11, it intends to add 2,400-route km of underground optical fibre as well as 1,000 more route km of overhead optical fibre.

YOU Broadband, which has an Internet Service Provider (Category A) licence, has already leased out part of the excess broadband capacity to Tata Communications, Vodafone and Tulip, said Mr Chakravarthy.