The TeNet group is a team of faculty members from the department of electrical engineering and the department of computer science and engineering, IITM. The team was instrumental in developing corDECT wireless in the local loop (WLL) telephony.

Two former CMDs of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), S S Motial and Lakshmi Menon, have joined Midas Communication Technologies and NMS Works Software, respectively. Both have long years of experience and extensive contacts in the telecom field.

Midas Communication (turnover: Rs 12 crore) is the research and development (R&D) company floated eight years ago to jointly develop corDECT with the TeNet group. Till now the four young founder directors (all former students of IITM) managed Midas Communication under the able guidance of their professors, Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthi and Dr Timothy A Gonsalves.

With a handsome order book position, Midas Communication is now entering a different league. Recently, telecom players like Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), Reliance Infocomm, Shyam Telecom and Himachal Futuristic Communications have placed big orders for corDECT lines.

BSNL is sourcing around 5.5 lakh lines for deployment in rural areas. Apart from local orders, Midas Communication has also bagged a $12-million order from Egypt. corDECT already has over 1 lakh lines operational and more than 2 million lines under deployment in around 10 countries.

The company is also readying itself to launch another cost-effective fibre-optic-based access product called optiMA. The solution will provide narrow-band and wide-band communication to end-users.

Midas Communication director Shirish B Purohit says the company will close this fiscal with a turnover of Rs 45 crore. And now Motial as its executive chairman is expected to chart the company in its new path and build a vibrant organisation to meet new challenges.

With the demand for corDECT lines picking up within India and abroad, the coming in of Menon as the chairperson of NMS Works is really a boon for the company. Menon also headed Hindustan Teleprinters (HTL) for a long period before moving over to ITI. NMS Works is ready with its unique CygNet Integrated Network Management Systems — a heterogeneous network management solution.

“It is true that NMS Works is a very small company compared to ITI and HTL. But this is going to be a challenging assignment. At ITI, HTL and prior to that at Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) I have been associated with technology,” says Menon.

In addition to corDECT, the Direct Internet Access System (DIAS), the digital subscriber line (DSL) net connection product from another TeNet group outfit, Banyan Networks, will also require CygNet. In fact, MTNL and BSNL have started deploying DIAS. The domestic market size for a CygNet-like product is put at Rs 350 crore while the global market is estimated at $12 billion.

Incidentally, K V Nair, Banyan Networks’ chief operating officer, joined the company recently. He was earlier with Satyam Infoway, looking after business development. Earlier to that he was with Crompton Greaves for 12 years.

A year-and-a-half ago, n-Logue Communications, another TeNet company engaged in the business of providing net connectivity to rural areas, got P G Ponnappa as its chief executive officer. Ponappa was earlier the chief operating officer of Wipro Net Kracker, an Internet service provider. Prior to that Ponnappa spent 10 years in marketing paints for Asian Paints.

“The power of the Internet and what it can do to change and improve the lives of the rural populace interested me to joint the company,” he says.

Apart from the companies, the TeNet group at IITM is attracting corporate and research talents now. One of the prize catches is Dr David Koilpillai, who has joined IITM as a professor in the electrical engineering department. He was earlier the director of the Advanced Technologies and Research Department and a member of the global management of Ericsson Mobile Platforms, an Ericsson company developing all components of mobile phone technology.

He was responsible for an R&D team of 75 engineers developing EDGE technology, with an annual operating budget of $20 million. In 1999 Koilpillai received the Ericsson Inventor of the Year award, the highest technical recognition within Ericsson.

The other person from the corporate world to join IITM/TeNet group, as assistant professor, is Dr Anil Prabhakar. He was a design engineer working on magnetic recording heads at MKE-Quantum Components, Colorado, and then at ReadRite Corporation, California. He was also on deputation at ReadRite (Thailand).

Dr Hari Ramachandran, with research interests in the area of optical physical layer including both access links and backbone link design, and Dr R Manivasakan, an expert in statistical modelling in telecom networks, are the other two new faces in the 14-member TeNet group faculty team.