E-mail device called iStation from iNablers launched

Hyderabad,  August, 2001 :iNabling technologies Pvt Ltd popularly known as iNabling launched a revolutionary device with a breakthrough concept. The concept being E-mail without PC! And the device the iStation! The iStation is a device that allows one to send and receive text-based e-mails anywhere ,anytime by mere touch of a button. The iStation has just been launched in Hyderabad and is being extended to other parts of Andhra Pradesh shortly.

Few means of communication have taken the world by storm like e-mail. 80% of Internet usage is for e-mail. It is estimated that 4.0 million Indian are connected to the Internet. Some of the reasons for the low penetration of the Internet are attributed to the current Internet infrastructure that covers only the main towns leaving large geographical areas untouched. To add to this Internet service providers have servers linked to phone (PSTN) lines, which were not designed for heavy Internet traffic. This resulted in users suffering long delays and inconvenience in connecting to the Internet, to add to which are the exceptionally high phone bills. Further ,large sections of the Indian population are most comfortable in their local language, whereas the Internet has English as the main medium of communication. 

Keeping this scenario in mind the team at iNabling Technologies set about designing a product which is simple, inexpensive, low on communication costs and one that facilities communication in Indian Languages as well. The results of these efforts is the iStation, a unique product that enables its users to send and receive text-based e-mails without a PC or an ISP access account.

iNabling Technologies, has Mr.B.V.Jagadeesh as its Chairman, a leading entrepreneur in USA. He is also the co-founder of exodus Communications and President of Netscaler. His companies have an Internet infrastructure, which carry half the Internet traffic in the USA. iNabling Technologies, is also backed by Infinity Ventures and ICICI Venture Funds.

According to Mr.B.V.Jagadeesh, "our dream was to connect all Indians at an affordable cost and in the language that they are most comfortable with. Given the bandwidth constraints, it is text-based communication that can effectively reach all homes. Video and voice centric applications take up large share of the bandwidth. The result is skew in technology access and utilization. iNablers are the future of text-based communication and will bridge the digital divide".

Features of the iStation:
The iStation plugs into a standard telephone jack and comes with 256KB memory. It has an embedded modem and backlight LCD for night viewing. Communication needn't be put on hold even in the face of power failure, as the iStation comes with a 9V UM9 backup battery.

The iStation is currently available in 2 models- Premier at Rs.7999/- and Classic, which is being offered at a special Rs.1000/- discount is a priced at Rs.5999/-. The Premier version comes with enhanced features like printer and PC ports. The Premier is targeted at people who would like to take printouts of their mails or would like to uplink to the PC. While the Classic model is for those who require the basic e-mailing facility without these additional features. Several other useful utilities have also been incorporated like a calculator, calendar and address book, which are available with both models.

Reachout's News Bureau
-August '2001

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