www.chennaibest.com speaks to Sirish Purohit, Director, Midas Communications Chennai, one of the promising R&D Telecommunications firms in Chennai.

One of the overriding influences was to do indigenous development. We wanted to create technologies in India. That was very important to us as we had a lot of opportunities and challenges available outside India. One of the most important things to us was to take this challenge right here. Not just in creating technologies but to make a commercial success out of it. We are not compromising on the commercial aspect of our technology. This will be a precursor to many such events.

We are a technology development company. We have been looking at technologies that have been influencing the environment widely. We had skill sets in telecom and electronics. We were thinking as to where to utilise our design skills. We were in touch with Jhunjhunwala all the time. He came out with the idea, "Why not in the access products, which is part of the telecom network?". Telephony is a catalyst in economic development. There is a direct correlation between the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth and telephony. We found the idea very attractive. We wanted to do something which could increase the tele- density in India and the developing countries. That was very satisfying. Then we looked at options available before us. We realised that we should do something which would make it affordable.

Cost is the major factor in increasing the numbers in use. Technology without affordability in mind is not at all a technology. What we mean by technology is the technology which will be of use to the common man. Elite technology will not have a wide impact. So with all these considerations, we assessed the telecom scenario in the country. We realised that the available traditional technology could barely reach 2-3% of India's population. Traditionally, in an urban area, per line cost would work out to be Rs 30,000 - Rs 35,000. With other costs and expenses included, you need to get back atleast 30-35% of revenue to make it economically viable. So you have to look at telephony as a sustainable operation. If it has to be sustainable, it has to make business sense. If it has to make business sense, it has to make profits. So if it has go to millions of people, it has to be affordable to millions of people. That is the first criteria.

You cannot reduce the interest rates or the operational costs. The only way out is to reduce the capital costs. If the capital cost is Rs 30,000 - Rs 35,000, telephony can reach only the 2-3% of the population. Now this capital cost should be lowered to Rs.10,000. This can be done through technology. For this to be sustainable at this rate, the telephone bill should be Rs. 250 per month. Then telephony is accessible for nearly 25% of the population. If it is brought down to Rs. 5,000 per line, then the bill will be Rs.125 per month which is affordable to 70% of the population. This then acts as a catalyst in offsetting economic change.

Access is the most costly. The last mile - the most expensive part of the network. So, to reduce the costs, we decided we have to reduce the costs where it is maximum. The access network cost is to the tune 60-70% of the entire network. Secondly, the access techniques have practically remained static for more than hundred years of telephony history.

It saves per line cost drastically. Telephony is made affordable to many. It gives services that no other system gives today; like simultaneous internet and telephony at a price to performance that is unmatched. We have a system which is based on DSP- Digital Signal Processing. This allows us to implement a lot of functionality in software. We can very quickly adapt ourselves to the new environment. I think technique-wise, this is one of the major breakthroughs that we have done. And that gives us lot of flexibility to operate in different countries. We can adapt easily to country-specific telephony requirements, both at the user level and when interfacing the system with the rest of the network. Most of the functionality is in software and that makes a big difference.

No. I think the technology breakthroughs come from the young teams. Today, not too many new technologies come from the old companies. Nice to start with no baggage at all.

In terms of price-to-performance and services we offer, nobody in the world offers services like this. Absolutely nobody. So we have some unique selling points today. We need to maintain this edge to ensure that others do not take over. It is just a question of technology. There are different ways of achieving functionality. The result is the same, but it is the technique that is different (the last mile copper wires replaced with wireless system). One of our advantages I think, is being internet ready. Secondly, we have a system that confirms to international standards, which can harness high volumes. And anything with high volume implies low cost. We can make use of the numbers and the consumer can get benefited.

In terms of technology, our focus is on access technology. We are into wireless. We already are in the process of launching our optic fibre based products. Many access technologies will be launched. For instance, power line carrier systems. There are many exciting possibilities. We have not confined ourselves to a few areas. Cable (Television) is a powerful access media. We can think of something in this area. Right now our priorities would be access technology. In terms of business, I think we are going to concentrate on consolidating our product positioning in India. We have strong plans for Latin America and Africa. These regions have huge markets for our products. Eastern Europe will also be on our list. There are many avenues still unexplored.

Yeah! DoT has planned a system for Chennai. Chennai is going to have a system in St. Thomas Mount in another 4-5 months. A thousand line system.

More and more structured initiatives have to be there. Today it is still at the individual level. For instance, a good framework is available in I.I.T (Indian Institute of Technology). It has to be harnessed. Seeing this kind of successful partnerships like Midas, more and more people will get inspired. There should also be clear-cut academic incentives to those involved in this process.

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