C-block personal communications services operator Indus Inc. remains committed to launching Time
Division Multiple Access service within the coming weeks despite buildout, zoning and technical struggles that delayed
its launch date by about eight months.
The company initially planned to launch service last summer in its seven-
county license area in Wisconsin, leveraging its voice service by targeting several niche markets with vertical
applications.
“When you’re starting out, you wonder if there are better ways of living in this world … It’s like
walking through a mine field,” said Kailas Rao, chairman and president of Indus. “You have to take slow
steps, but when you’re done walking through it, you feel great.”
With many of the hurdles behind it, Indus
now plans to test its system by giving 130 customers Nokia Corp. and Ericsson Inc. phones to use for a couple of
weeks.
Rao said Indus, which will launch under the name Industar Digital PCS, first will offer voice service to
business users. The company, through direct marketing efforts, plans to offer customers three types of one-rate plans
that include long-distance minutes.
Customers will have access to AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s wireless networks
across the country under a roaming agreement between the two carriers. Indus entered into an agreement with AT&T
Wireless more than two years ago for a consulting contract that covers the AT&T Wireless Advanced Network
Services Provider Program, allowing Indus to market the look and feel of AT&T Wireless service.
A wireless office
system offering should follow as early as the second quarter-when Hughes Network Systems Inc. delivers its AIReach
Office system, said Chuck Bale, vice president of marketing. Ericsson Inc. should have its office system available this
summer, he said.
Rao said it has presold wireless office service to about 70 businesses in Milwaukee. Wireless
office is an in-building system connected to an existing private branch exchange that allows a handset to act as a
cordless unit and alphanumeric pager while in the office and to operate seamlessly outside the network. Indus will
charge customers a flat fee for wireless office service and mobile rates when customers move outside the range of
wireless office service.
“I was able to get 27 local businesses to invest in our company because they could be
customers, and they can test our products,” said Rao. “They have an equity stake so they will work with us.
Strangers wouldn’t work with us.”
These potential customers include Fiserv Inc., a $2 billion company with
13,000 employees and 60 offices and whose Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Dalton sits on Indus’ board
of directors.
And as many C-block operators struggle to find financing, Rao has been able to secure financing from
its vendors. Hughes Network Systems, Uniden Corp. and Alcatel are the company’s vendor investors. Kanematsu
Corp., a Japanese trading firm in Tokyo, and G.M. Selby & Associates, a wireless communications engineering firm,
also have invested in the carrier.
Rao’s goal is to concentrate heavily on the business market by offering other
vertical applications such as remote meter reading for utility companies, home banking and office security systems.
Rao also is in negotiations with the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club to provide advanced wireless services to the
club’s stadium, and plans call for Rao to franchise the company’s business model to wireless operators worldwide. From
1981 to 1992, Rao built a nationwide franchise of 350 Computer Bay stores.
