Mr R Kothandaraman, managing director of the Delta Innovative Enterprises Ltd which promotes the Deltagram brand, told The Financial Express that the company is rolling out a new product called E-Letter which would be positioned as an alternative and cost-effective communication channel to modern communication tools like e-mail and long distance telephony. The company would be looking at those looking for a personal touch to their e-mails and those who does not have any access to computer, modem or telephone, he said adding, E-Letter will be priced at Rs 10 per mail.

The process is like this: Any customer who wishes to send the mail can either walk into a Deltagram centre and leave the message with postal address or dial up a local Deltagram collection centre and dictate the message over telephone. The messages, limited to one page, would be delivered to the destination in four hours.

Move over e-mail and phones, E-Letter is here He said the company is expecting a revenue of about Rs 500 crore from this line of business. Considering the tele-density of a paltry 1.5 per cent in the country, a large population has been deprived of the benefit of new and speedy communication systems. "E-Letter would fill this vacuum by providing an alternative and cost-effective solution to this", Mr Kothandaraman said.Besides, he said, there are good number of people who want to give a personal touch to their greetings and mails. For instance, the West German Post, which implemented this concept in 1998 has carried 160 million such mails so far. "If a country like Germany equipped with all modern communication channels can offer such a vast market, then the potential in country like India is unlimited", he said.

The company is planning to launch the full-fledged services in south India by April and a nationwide launch on August 15.He said that Deltagram would replicate the E-Letter concept in other developing countries and is in talk with companies in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Philippines to form joint ventures. "The talks are in a preliminary stage and we are hopeful of reaching an agreement soon", he said. If the talks bore fruits, Deltagram will float joint ventures in these countries to provide services there.The company, which is investing Rs 60 crore to set up the necessary infrastructure, is eyeing a turnover of Rs 500 crore in a short span of four years from now. The company posted a turnover of Rs 5 crore last fiscal and is expecting it to touch Rs 15 crore this year.

The Rs 60-crore company, he said, has no plans to go public or raise money through private placement. The company is financing its whole investment by way of equity to the tune of Rs 20 crore, Rs 30 crore term loan lined up from IDBI and IDFC and the remaining from internal accruals, he said.The company has around 50 earth stations connected to over 250 towns and has over 7,000 collection centres throughout the country.