The only Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Gujarat which created a niche for itself when it commenced broadband access over the cable two years ago, E-Commerce Opportunities appears to have a very clear ramp-up strategy: from cable to content.

Consider. Currently, it is firming up plans to tie-up with MNCs who want to set up regional bases in the country. The logic: ``they require regional coverage overnight but would also be more amenable to paying a high cost for a market share since the ISP business now is all about acquiring market share." Speaking to The Financial Express, the director of the company, Manu Khera also revealed that the proposed tie-up or joint venture with any of these companies would be finalised within the next six months.

According to Khera, E-Commerce Opportunities' focus is on becoming a leading reagional player in the cable ISP business since it already has a first-mover advantage. "This is because in the Internet access-over-cable game, the relationship with the consumer is very physical in nature. The first person to get access to the consumer has a distinct edge over others,'' he says.

In view of this, Khera claims that his company has a distinct edge over other ISP providers in the state like Wilnet and Icenet which are dial-up services. In addition, Khera contends that the churn percentage in the cable ISP business is very low since "an entry barrier is created by the first provider who sets up his cable net unlike the high churn rate in dial-up services where a change is just a mouse click away."

Khera revealed that E-Commerce Opportunities plans to pump in Rs 10 crore in its second phase of expansion within the next six months. The company's current investment is around Rs 90 lakh. Said Khera: "We are on the verge of tying up funding from venture capitalists to the tune of Rs 10 crore shortly."

The expansion phase would include coverage of 80 per cent of Gujarat in terms of market potential by Diwali this year. In terms of cable ISP subscribers, the company hopes to increase the subscriber base from the existing 2,000 to 10,000 in the next six months.

And Khera then crunches numbers based on a Nasscom evaluation which says that each cable subscriber is valued at 10 dial-up subscribers. His reckoning: the 10,000 subscriber base would be the equivalent of a 1 lakh dial-up subscriber base, Khera says, making E-Commerce Opportunities among the leading ISP players in the state.

Further, in order to capitalise on its first mover advantage over other ISP providers, E-Commerce also plans to maximise the use of cable and has lined up a slew of innovative services in e-commerce, e-education, e-communication and e-portals in the near future. Given the fact that Gujarat has no portal which matches up to international standards in terms of content, E-Commerce Opportunities is also planning to launch a Gujarat-specific portal shortly which would be tailor-made to cater to the needs of the local Gujarati population ranging from trade, entrepreneurial information to local discount schemes, cinema and entertainment.

"We want it to be an information processing portal in an information friendly format," says Khera. To rope in more and more subscribers, the company has up its sleeve a bargain offer designed to tempt the thrifty Gujarati: Rs 500 off on the Internet access cost of Rs 1,250 for subscribers who would use its portal for a minimum of 50 hours.

Interestingly, the company has no plans of becoming a national player since, as Khera puts it, "for us, Gujarat is the globe." "We are content in being a leading regional player and will concentrate on consolidating our presence here where the market is projected to grow to one million subscribers in three years." Sometimes, the secret of being big, is to aim small.

Why is this Gujarat-based ISP so confident that first-mover is also first in class?