The Hindu : MRO-TEK to explore Malaysian market

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 26, 2002

Business

Business

MRO-TEK to explore Malaysian market

By Preeti Mishra

BANGALORE APRIL 25. The ISP fever which had gripped subscribers with free Internet access and discounted package deals with unlimited net access has diminished. Going by official statistics, BSNL, one of the leading ISPs, saw a 3.31 per cent decline in the subscriber base at 2.4 lakhs (December 31, 2001) over 2.5 lakhs (September 30, 2001). During the boom period, ISPs contributed a significant chunk of business to networking computing companies. The decline in the ISP's user base has had an adverse effect on firms such as Bangalore-based MRO-TEK.

"BSNL accounted for nearly 35 per cent of our business. This year we are likely to see a negative growth rate due to the downslide in the ISP market. However, we expect to offset this through our product offerings for the cellular and VoIP domains,'' S. Narayanan, MRO-TEK Co-Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, told The Hindu.

In keeping with this sentiment, MRO-TEK has already forayed into the cellular market with products such as compressed voice systems (CVS) that allows cellular operators to provide value added services within a limited bandwidth. At present, Airtel's countrywide network uses CVS, according to Mr. Narayanan. Other cellular providers have expressed interest in the product, he said."India does not have a congenial manufacturing environment despite the sops given by the Government. A Genetic Engineering of Manufacturing policy needs to be implemented by the Government wherein MNCs are allowed to set up manufacturing base in the country along with developing the requisite infrastructure,'' stressed Mr. Narayanan.

Post 1990, the company forged strategic partnerships with companies from Israel, the U.S. and Taiwan to acquire technical knowhow for manufacture of high-end digital modems, multiplexers and interface converters to service the ISP market.

MRO-TEK registered a turnover of Rs. 124 crores for 2000-01. Having gone public in 2000, the firm raised Rs. 23 crores through the book building route which has been utilised to augment the manufacturing facilities and (R&D) research and development.

Emphasis on VoIP and Internet telephony

With investment of Rs. 5 crores towards R&D, the company has shifted its focus to optic product development. One such product is the copper-optic fibre converter enabling the convergence of voice and data services through VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). The vanilla product would be alpha tested in May and marketed by the year-end.

Other products under development in MRO's R&D lab include ridging/non-bridging products and QoS products which would allow corporate users to monitor the Internet time offered by ISP packages. The company would also market products such as a device which allows legacy protocols in backbone infrastructure to port to IP standard. The company plans to develop air drop mug chipsets in collaboration with an Israeli company.

It has projected a positive outlook for 2003-04 because "the carrier segment has bottomed out and will see an upswing come 2003,'' revealed Mr. Narayanan. Markets like Malaysia and Singapore would be explored through joint ventures. While MRO Singapore is already operational, MRO-TEK is in talks with Afrinto, Malaysia, to pursue the far eastern market.Established in 1984, MRO-TEK focussed on manufacture of indigeneously developed line drivers and modems, LAN and WAN products, multiplexers and cobalt RAQ for hosting and providing e-mail IDs to users.

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