'Indian SMBs to invest to boost internet infra'

Kolkata, May 24: Small and medium businesses in India is likely to invest $1.2 billion to boost their overall internet infrastructure and solutions in 2007, a rise of US $300 million over last year, according to a New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

Within the overall spending pie, Small Businesses(SBs) dominate in terms of total expenditures. However, an interesting finding in the study was that MBs comprise roughly a quarter of the overall Internet expenditure in spite of the fact that they account for a mere four per cent of the overall Internet business universe, the report said.

''Currently almost two thirds of India's PC-owning small businesses are connected to the Internet, whereas medium businesses have already reached near saturation in terms of Internet adoption,'' sources said.

In fact, SMBs were gradually beginning to view the Internet as an intrinsic part of their overall business operations, rather than as just another technology tool for facilitating business transactions.

Building a basic Internet connectivity infrastructure is still the priority for India's SMBs. Since robust connectivity serves as a backbone for future anticipated adoption of advanced technologies like VPN and WAN, this is especially true for larger medium business.

A detailed analysis of the Internet-related spending components of Indian SMBs show that over 60 per cent of SMB Internet-related spending is devoted to Internet-access technologies. Within different high-speed internet access technologies, DSL is currently used by over 45 per cent of Internet SMBs; this penetration is anticipated to rise by nearly ten per cent this year.

A significant factor driving DSL installations is the introduction of Data One broadband service by BSNL, which has played a pivotal role in popularizing broadband usage within the SMB segment and making it more affordable, the report mentioned.

Broadband usage is also a priority for over 90 per cent of MBs and close to 70 per cent of SBs whose attitudes indicate that deploying broadband access or enhancing broadband Internet speed is a vital strategic focus area in the next 12 months.

Indian SMBs use multiple varieties of websites. Within the search engine category, the most frequently used website is Google, which 46 per cent of Indian SMBs have used in the past year. Among mail services, Yahoo leads the way followed by Rediff, Gmail, Hotmail and Indiatimes.

A city-wise analysis of the ISP scenario reveals that BSNL is a major player in almost all major cities. However, there is some variation within the cities. Bharti provides tough competition in cities like Delhi.

UNI