Sify iWays Cross 3000 Cyber Cafes in 149 Cities & Towns in India; For Over a Million Indians, iWays Are Now a Way of Life
Sify Limited, a leader in Consumer Internet and Enterprise Services in India with global delivery capabilities (Nasdaq: SIFY), announced today that its unique ‘iWay’ cyber cafe chain now numbers over 3100 cafes at 149 cities & towns across India, opening at the rate of about two a day. Of these, 34 are company owned, with the rest being franchised operations.
Sify’s iWays were used by over a million Indians during the last quarter for a variety of services that include broadband Internet access, Net telephony, online games and video conferencing. The Indian Market Research Bureau, in a 2004 report, estimates that about 70% of all Internet users access it from cyber cafes. Sify’s iWays provides a branded service that is unique, and enables users to enjoy broadband access and a rich media experience that the vast majority of stand alone cyber cafes cannot match. In fact, iWays are an innovative delivery platform for Internet access, scalable to deliver services to millions of users, in India or elsewhere.
Shrikant Joshi, President of Access Media, Sify, said, “With less than 5% of India’s population online, and home PCs at 3.5 million out of a total of about 210 million homes, cyber cafes are going to be the primary means of accessing the Net for some time to come. According to IDC, India has the fastest growing Internet user base in the Asia Pacific Region. In fact, the Internet & Mobile Association of India estimates that Internet users will grow from the current 39 million to a 100 million by 2007. A majority of these users will be accessing the Net from cyber cafes. This is the market we are targeting for the iWays, with multiple services and revenue streams. We will also look at taking this successful delivery platform for Internet services to other countries who have similar levels of home PC and Internet penetration. “
Sify manages the service delivery centrally to its vast chain across 149 cities over its Tier 1 backbone infrastructure, with software and tools custom developed by its technology team. The software with which service delivery is remotely managed also manages the administrative & financial aspects of operations in a reliable, transparent manner, building credibility and trust with customers and franchisees. The innovative iWay delivery platform, combined with the high quality rich graphic content that Sify provides on its broadband content portal www.sifymax.com and on www.sify.com , make for a total user experience that is drawing many more users on to the Internet.
Customers are debited, from a prepaid charge for a specified number of hours, as per actual use in real time-which they can monitor when they are logged in, and renew online. Since the service is delivered off central servers over the network, customers can log in from any of the 3100 iWays from anywhere in the country with their log in id and password, and use the services exactly as they do from the iWay where they signed on. This gives them flexibility and makes their access ‘portable’. The quality of user’s experience is managed by Sify, and the customers ‘owned’ by the company.
The software, tools & technology that run the iWays are packed with innovation to ensure reliability, and the best possible user experience. Each PC is ‘sanitized’ the moment a user logs out of the system so that there is nothing left in the cache or history, so that users get a ‘fresh’ PC every time they log on. Updates of software, security patches etc are remotely uploaded into every PC across the chain over the network by engineers from the command center in Chennai, South India. In addition, every PC can be monitored and reconfigured remotely to ensure optimum working condition using custom developed tools. This robust system is a proven and scalable model capable of scaling to many multiples its current size for remote delivery of services.
While Internet access forms the core service, Sify’s iWays offer other services such as Online Games and Net telephony. Online games saw a growth of 50% in terms of usage with over a 1000 iWays being games enabled, and at special gaming cafes that Sify has branded ‘Sify Gamedromes’. Net telephony also continues to grow, with the service available from familiar looking telephone booths which consumers find easy to use. The phones, however, interface with a computer using an application developed by sify, and make a Voice over Internet Protocol call. iWays are also increasingly becoming centers for eCommerce for travel arrangements, paying for utilities, eGovernance services etc.
About Sify
Sify is a leader in Consumer Internet Access, Portals, and Enterprise Services in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common Internet backbone infrastructure reaching 160 cities and towns in India. Consumer Services comprise of Access Media- with the over 3000 strong iWay cyber cafe chain across 149 cities and towns and broadband access to homes, and Portals with one of India’s leading consumer portals www.sify.com, and India’s first broadband content portal www.sifymax.com. A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Enterprise Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services and hosting. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s Enterprise Service offerings. The company’s network services, data center operations and customer relationship management are accredited ISO 9001:2000.
For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com.
Forward Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.
For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify’s business, please see the discussion under the caption “Risks Related to Our Business” in the company’s report on Form 6-K for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.