Incidentally, the company on Saturday applied to the department of telecommunications for a national ISP licence. The strategy behind the proposed acquisition is to achieve a huge subscriber-base within a short time. Hughes may use the `Hughes' brandname for the ISP services.

"We are yet to identify any company for the purpose of acquisition. With the launch of ISP services in the country, we will become a one-stop market place for users offering broadband services, application services and Internet access under a single umbrella," Hughes Tele.com president and chief executive officer Prakash Bajpai told The Financial Express.

"We hope to unveil the Internet services by July-August. Since the company is planning to offer backbone services in gigabytes, it will become the most cost-effective service in India," Bajpai said.

Hughes Tele.com, which is also planning an initial public offering, is offering some shares to strategic investors through a private placement. The company will raise about $150 million through the private placement which will be completed within the next two months.

is a joint venture between Hughes Electronics Corporation, Alltel Corporation of the US and the Ispat group. Following the IPO, there will be some changes in the equity structure of the company. Recently, ICICI decided to underwrite a long-term debt of $220 million to Hughes Tele.com. This will help the company achieve financial closure soon, he added.

Currently, Hughes has over 20,000 lines in service and has embarked on a massive expansion plan covering all major cities of Maharashtra serving business and residential customers. In the next two years, Hughes plans to roll out about 2.2 lakh lines all over the state. Meanwhile, Lucent Technologies on Monday announced that it has signed a $175 million contract with Hughes Tele.com to implement a broadband telephone network in India.

The network will be expanded throughout the Maharashtra and Goa circles over the next three years. As per the agreement, Lucent will provide its technical expertise including switching centres incorporating Lucent's 5ESS switch, AnyMedia Access Systems, AnyMedia Optical Networking Units (ONUs), Intelligent Network (IN) software and service management systems, power systems and support services including the construction of the outside plant.