The Internet service will be available in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore and then extended to another 112 cities in a phased manner. Aptech Internet Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech, will pump in Rs 22 crore as seed capital for its ISP operations.

Aptech Internet Ltd chairman Atul Nishar said the company was looking at strategic and financial investors for raising funds to expand its activities in the Indian marketplace. "We are planning to achieve a subscriber-base of 1.5 lakh within a year," he added. "We will make available ISP connections to Aptech's three lakh students via its 1,400 training centres spanning 700 cities and towns. We will also offer value-added services like the Knowledge-Connect and the Answer Engine to the students and other target customers," Nishar told reporters.

As part of the value-added services, Aptech offers a personalised training programme delivered at home along with the package. The company has fixed the Internet rate at Rs 600 for a 50-hours connection (that includes a 4-hour special training to the customers), Rs 1,000 for a 100-hour package (including a 4-hour training) and a SmartSurfer package.

"Under the flexible SmartSurfer package, the company offers 10 hours for Rs 150, 25-hours for Rs 300 and a one month package (maximum of 720 hours) at Rs 499," Aptech Internet president Arvind Nair said.

The revenue stream of the portal includes income from training, knowledge connect, counselling, e-commerce, corporate sponsorship and advertising. The company will bring about 50,000 experts to answer the customers' questions on the Net. Aptech Internet has roped in Alta Vista for its search engine, Nair added.

Aptech Internet will provide consumers with high quality Internet services and also educate them on ways and means of accessing the treasure house of information available on the Internet. Aptech Internet is consumer obsessed and not VC focused. It has taken the learnings from consumer research to create the site, Nishar said.