by Satrajit Sen

Banyan Netfaqs, publisher of Afaqs.com and The Brand Reporter, has launched TelecomYatra.com, an online telecom portal that aims to provide latest news developments on voice, VAS (value added services), technology and allied sectors. The company hopes that TelecomYatra would also act as an online community for telecom professionals to interact by sharing their views and reading about the who's who of the telecom industry in India.

“Our objective is to make TelecomYatra a one-stop destination for people who want to know about the telecom sector in India,” Prasanna Singh, COO, Banyan Netfaqs, has told AlooTechie. “TelecomYatra will not only focus on voice and VAS, but also networks, broadband, VoIP, DTH, IPTV and the handsets business. It will also report on the relevant policies and regulations which impact the telecom industry. This is primarily a B2B (business to business) website but will definitely include related information for everyone who wants to know about the industry.”

Prasanna Singh believes that the Indian telecom industry is at a perfect stage of development now and it is necessary to involve the industry as a community to further development. “Voice has already been commoditised and with 3G and smart phones gradually taking the centre stage, the industry will have a lot of stories to tell in the coming times,” said Singh.

When asked about the monetisation plan for TelecomYatra.com and if there will also be a print version of the site, Prasanna Singh said, “There are no monetisation plans as of now and the company currently wants to focus on online publishing. There will definitely be some plans of launching a print version of TelecomYatra as well, but presently we want to scale up our online publication.”

Sreekant Khandekar, director, Banyan Netfaqs, added, “We plan to launch two new websites focussed on different industries within the next one year and leverage Afaqs as the umbrella brand.” In October 2007, Seedfund, an early-stage venture capital fund, acquired an undisclosed stake in Banyan Netfaqs.