India's Top 500 Companies 2016   Preface | Foreword | Executive summary | Methodology | Definitions and Calculations |Economy Update| Insights |Corporate Awards 2016 | Expert's Views Company Listing | Launch Event| D&B Editorial Team | Sponsors Banks NBFCs & FIs Securities Market Mutual Funds Insurance Changing Face of Top 500 Companies Overview of Top 500 Companies Quarterly Updates Project-based Award Winners Company Performance Award Winners ABM Knowledgeware Limited Altran India Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd. Flexituff International Limited IBS Business School International Paper APPM Limited Karnataka Bank Pincon Spirit Limited Rimjhim Ispat Limited Schindler India Skipper Limited UPL Limited Alphabetical Listing Total Income Listing Net Profit Listing Net Worth Listing

Kindly give us a brief of various services offered by your company.

We are a provider of multiple services with a deep reach architecture that allows us to service homes, SME’s and large institutions that have high performance, high bandwidth demands. In the area of services to homes, in addition to providing fibernet internet services, we also provide linear programming in many market places, both on a digital platform and as an OTT service. As an internet service provider, we deliver internet service through FTTX wired lines. With a growth in high performance data demands at home, consumers are asking for more curated services. Thus, in addition to internet services play, value added services such as home security, data security, entertainment on demand, e-commerce services and curated educational services are areas that we are investigating and will add to our portfolio.

What are the emerging trends in information, communication and entertainment industry? How does your company plan to keep up with these trends?

There is a tsunami of information aggregation happening in the virtual world. The consumption of information on the net spans all age groups and we are tethered from cradle to grave to this high way. Social media is changing the way we communicate. It’s more likely that we communicate through text than voice today. Social media is also giving birth to a newer phenomenon of us sharing with the world many of the day to day things that we do in pictorial forms including videos. This is now creating demand not just on download capabilities, but also on a symmetrical upload speed. In the entrainment space from pure linear television watching, we are aggressively moving towards individualised offline watching, which means we will watch scheduled live programmes at a time and manner that best suits the individual. So at home, at the same time, possibly in same room, multiple devices, from phones to tablets to televisions, and different forms of entertainment, are being consumed simultaneously. So from behaviour where, even up to the last decade, there was a need to get to a television at a specific time because of a particular show, people are moving to a mind-set that says “I will watch it when I have the time”. This will change how the entertainment industry delivers as we move forward.

Fibernet is an advanced version of internet connectivity. Can you share with us the advantages of Fibernet over broadband? What impact do you foresee which Fibrenet can have on India’s digital revolution?

The broadband definition in our country has gained currency based on the 2 MBPS minimum speed defined by the IT Ministry, Govt. of India. However the market place and the average consumers have moved far beyond this, in terms of needs. Fibernet is really at the leading edge in terms of the service profile it can provide to the consumer. We are seeing a doubling of per home data consumption every year. This basically means that one has to design infrastructure that will address this continuous increase in per person consumption of data. Fibernet does this by ensuring that we can provide up to 100 MBPS per second to every home today and to further upgrade that infrastructure as and when there is a consumer demand. Today it is our estimate that over the next year or two there will be a 150 – 200 GB average consumption per home. Our infrastructure is already designed to ensure that it is able to cater to that growth. Our fiber to the home and optical transfer enable such deliveries and we are geared for further upgrades.

What opportunities do you see for your sector in the next five years? How is your company planning to tap those opportunities?

Internet service providers today are download Centric. It is our belief that over the next five years upload needs will become symmetrical to download needs. Most networks today are so download Centric that they will struggle with this change. Then there is a new elephant in the room that is just taking birth. It goes by the name IOT. IOT will upend all planning because of the needs of the infrastructure to meet its demand. Internet service providers really will have to revisit, rethink and redesign, if the whole eco system is to survive and perform. We at ACT are looking at this carefully and will do everything that is required to stay ahead of the curve.

What is your vision in the long term and how well prepared the company is to really tap the emerging opportunities?

I have a slightly different take on what long term planning should be within an organisation. One, is to look at the market place, parse the opportunity available and determine your play in that space. This is done by every organisation and the quality of execution decides how successful the company will be. But what we are doing is looking internally. Are we the best people company that we can be, and a major portion of the metrics of measurement will be how we perform in delivering an organisation where Learning, Personal and Professional growth and the idea of shared vision is central to the existence of the organisation. If we measure high on this scale, in a sustained fashion, it would be a great future for the company.