ACT Fibernet: Building 'Highways'

In a span of eight years, the broadband ISP is already the fourth-largest and is set to ramp up operations across India.

- Harichandan Arakali

Getting fibre to millions of middle-class homes in India’s chaotic cities is a tough ask. One has to contend with, among other things, stray cattle on the roads, dilapidated or non-existent footpaths, monsoon winds that can bring down tree branches onto overhead cables and competitors and malcontents who aren’t above pulling down your cables.

Atria Convergence Technologies, which provides fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services as ACT Fibernet, has braved all of this to become India’s fourth largest broadband ISP (internet service provider). Set up eight years ago, it is within striking distance of the No 3 spot. But its top executives have their sights set on more ambitious targets— they want ACT to be an indispensable platform, bringing everything from entertainment to home surveillance, to millions of households across India.

India is set to hold its biggest auction of wireless spectrum in September this year but the reality is that data in the country isn’t affordable for most people and any meaningful access to the internet, beyond checking WhatsApp and other not-so-data-heavy apps, requires some kind of wired connection. That is the premise ACT acted on years ago. And that is now paying off.

The People Behind It 

“Look at the biggest markets in any of the world’s most developed markets, and wired networks dominate economic activity,” Bala Malladi, chief executive of ACT Fibernet, tells Forbes India about why they had chosen a wired network, with FTTH technology.

Accoridng to Malladi, as everything goes digital and moves to the cloud, neither old technology such as the copper wires of yesteryear’s phones nor wireless broadband will suffice. And as consumers move inexorably from voice to data, he says confidently, “the real highway to the home is going to be built by us.”