BLUETOWN wins DKK million order to supply Wi-Fi to Indian villages

The Danish IT company BLUETOWN has landed a million order to connect the citizens of India’s rural areas. CEO Peter Ib expects a turnover of DKK one billion in the coming years.

_{Summary from Berlingske Tidende (danish media)}

12.500 solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspots in Indian villages within the coming 3 years. This is the result of the million order that BLUETOWN in cooperation with partner company Goip has successfully settled with the state-owned Indian telecommunications company BSNL.

“We have to raise the capital and thereby grow the business in cooperation with BSNL. The potential for success is huge. For a relatively young company, this order is a scoop”, says Peter Ib, CEO of BLUETOWN.

BLUETOWN has its headquarter in Copenhagen and offices all around the world, counting Tanzania, India, San Francisco, Peru, Ghana and Dubai with a total of 65 employees.

With the new agreement, Peter Ib expects a turnover of a couple of DKK hundred million at the Indian market. The objective is to utilize the agreement to its fullest extent and thereby obtain a DKK 500 million turnover. This requires BLUETOWN to obtain a capital injection of approximately DKK 100 million. In 2016, 500 hotspots will be established in secluded Indian villages and in the course of three years, the number will count 12.500 hotspots. Within the next five years, the ambition is 25.000 hotspots all around India.

“The telecommunications industry is a huge, global market with high revenue. We expect a turnover of DKK one billion in 2018 or 2019. It’s a risky and unknown terrain, but we have succeeded in ways that people didn’t imagine to be possible – for example with the order in India”, says Peter Ib.

Connecting the unconnected in the world’s poorest areas

Since 2012, BLUETOWN has invested DKK 50 million in the development of Wi-Fi hotspots to developing countries. Some may regard BLUETOWN as philanthropy, but this is not the case according to Peter Ib. BLUETOWN operates as a profitable business with focus on innovation, sustainability and improvement of the information flow in poor, rural areas.

“The timing is perfect. The market is changing and the traditional telecommunications industry based on GSM is being outpaced by cheaper, lightweight technologies suitable for these areas”, states Peter Ib.

The Indian order means that BLUETOWN’s Indian country office will be expanded from six to twenty employees. It was the Indian country manager, Satya. N. Gupta, who made BLUETOWN aware of the growth potential of the Indian market a few years ago.

“The Indian Premier Minister Nerendra Modi had begun the execution of the reform program ‘Digital India’, which among other things encompasses internet assess to 650.000 villages”, says Satya N. Gupta.

In cooperation with Satya N. Gupta and Goip, BLUETOWN is taking the lead in the development and improvement of the Indian IT infrastructure.

Source article /Danish media / Berlingske Tidende / Business section /Article (Danish)