MRO-TEK Realty, a local telecommunications and network product company, has joined with Everest, a local software firm that builds network management solutions and competes with IBM and HP, in offering to manage the information technology networks of telecom firms globally.
Both Bengaluru-based entities are positioning the solution as an affordable alternative to large US firms; also, as a reliable one that ensures control of their network.
"Dumped copycat Chinese products do not have good software. We are very good at it," said Sudipto Gupta, chief executive officer of MRO-TEK.
The two have won a multi-year and multi-crore contract from Summit Communications, Bangladesh's fastest growing optic fibre network service provider. MRO-TEK says it hopes this will be a case study for them to target global telecom firms.
"Globally, telecom players are facing a hyper-competitive situation, even in Algeria. The third network is always muscling to be in the top two," said Gupta.
Everest founder Satish Kumar V, who earlier led the product development arm of Singapore's DMX Technologies in Bengaluru, branched out last year, taking the 70-odd researchers in the team to start on his own. Everest would continue to support existing customers of DMX, while looking to branch out in newer ways to monetise the solution to customers globally.
"We bought the IP (intellectual property) and are expanding," said Kumar. The solution, pitted against IBM's Tivoli and HP's NNM Suite, is currently deployed in India at Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, Bharat Sanchar NigamL and Airtel, and in telecom providers Maxis and Singtel in Southeast Asia.
Everest is helping Reliance save diesel costs by monitoring consumption across its 200,000 telecom towers. With Tata Teleservices, it is analysing data usage by customers across the Wi-Fi hotspots it has deployed.
MRO-TEK is investing in upgrading its infrastructure at its Electronics City facility on Bengaluru's outskirts. It is looking at a focus on optical and 5G (fifth-generation) wireless technologies and to expand in newer areas such as contract manufacturing for global hardware firms, building of new hardware for strategic purposes and a focus on projects and solutions.
The firm is licensing the 5G technology among global pioneers to manufacture it for local and emerging markets, where networks are focusing on upgrading their infrastructure to offer next generation services, said Gupta.
It is also in talks with a public sector undertaking for projects in homeland and industry security, based on an analytics-enabled command console platform it had developed.