India's first training centre for cable broadband technicians

YOU Telecom sets up YOU Academy in Pune to revolutionize the Cable Industry.

Takes a significant step to educate and train cable operators’ staff across the country

The Academy is set up in the backgroud of the cable broadband sector taking a quantum jump in its service dimension. Apart from high-speed data, analogue & digital video and Voice over IP, the industry will soon witness emergence of ‘On Demand’ services in the digital format. Customers will embrace interactivity, just in time, any time you want kind of services, breaking the current trend of linear delivery. All this will require upgrading the skill set of employees, franchisees and their technicians on an on going basis. YOU Academy will play a crucial role in equipping our employees and partners in the value chain to finally deliver a world class service to our consumers.

YOU Academy will not only train the candidates in technical proficiency, it will also focus on enhancing the softer skills by educating the cable operator and his team about their critical role in customer interaction.

The centre will initially cater to YOU Telecom’s in house teams, but will soon expand to reach out to the other operators and technicians as well.

VoIP Lab in Chennai

YOU Telecom has set up a VoIP lab in Chennai to cater to its research and development needs and provide technology support to its on-field engineers. This is a first of its kind in India.

YOU Telecom enhanced its VoIP offerrings by acquiring the Ahmedabad-based internet services provider IceNet in 2007, which had strong VoIP solutions.

The lab will test new VoIP applications; the company currently has around seven projects in the pipeline, including one on Mobile VoIP

The lab is also equipped with all the equipment that different ISPs use to install VoIP connections at their customer premises. To simulate real life scenario, connections from all leading ISPs are taken at the lab.

If the engineer is not able to solve the customers problem at his premise, he could call up the lab. The team in Chennai would then work on a pre set VoIP configuration (which would closely resemble the configuration at the customer’s premises) and come up with the solution.

Why are we smitten by 3G?

3G has been in vogue since 2001 when it was for the first time auctioned in Europe and other countries. Today, after spending over $ 300 billion....billion, the people in these countries have yet to realise the promised benefits of 3G technology. Why then is India and its cellular establishment so gung-ho about 3G, which has failed to deliver? What is that the 3G can do what the current 2.5 G cannot do in India...realistically nothing much. Though there is a lot of talk about speed etc...

Moreover its expensive...on the contrary WiMax and WiFi are better options for broadband penetration...certainly not 3G.

When do our learned politicians and business savvy telco giants realise that its a national waste?

WiFi is the flavour of the season

Indian broadband market is witnessing a heightened interest in wireless technolgies, especially WiFi. Even Government of India is contemplating deploying these technologies to enable broadband penetration in rural areas...

Meanwhile, YOU Snapper, the JV entity of YOU Telecom and Red Snapper has made plans to deploy its WiFi infrastructure in all the 10 cities where YOU Telecom has its optic fibre network. The initial cost is estimated to be around Rs 80 crore....

When rolled out, YOU Telecom's customer base and revenues are expected to double up in the next 2 years....

Currently, YOU has an active customer base of over 100,000 and a registered susbcriber base of over 1, 75,000.....

WiFi deployment

A mix of wire and wireless infrastructure will help increase broadband penetration in India...huge costs prevent service providers from laying new cable lines thereby unable to reach a large portion of the addressable market. Also with a plethora of issues like cable cuts and building permissions plaguing the operations, wireless seems to be a viable option.

Malaysia has followed a similar strategy and it has worked wonders to their broadband penetration......will it succeed in India? we need to wait and watch as YOUSnapper continues its WiFi deployment in Navi Mumbai and Pune....good luck..

YOUSnapper

YOUSnapper commissions WiFi pilot in Mumbai. Results encouraging

Plans nationwide implementation

YOU Telecom forms JV with Red Snapper

Citigroup Venture Capital International-owned YOU Telecom, one of India’s largest private broadband service providers, has entered into a Joint Venture agreement with Malaysia’s wireless technology & VoIP major Red Snapper (M) Sdn Bhd. The joint venture, named YOUSnapper, will focus on providing wide area wireless connectivity on the edge of the YOU Telecom network.

YOU is a cable company with converged services ambition. While the world is moving towards adding Mobility to Voice, Video, Data services, very soon customers will look for nomadic and mobile options to access high-speed data and IP voice services. In this context, YOUSnapper’s WiFi access options assume significance.

Interestingly, India and Malaysia are both looking at wireless technologies to increase broadband penetration.