ET Bureau BANGALORE: Akamai Technologies, which helps companies deliver internet content, is talking to Indian handset makers Karbonn, Spice and Videocon to bundle its compression software to help speed up connectivity on their devices.
"A lot of the world's most important device manufacturers are in India," Akamai's chief executive Tom Leighton told ET. "It is very important for us to have our software on those devices because that can make the internet faster, more reliable and more secure and more affordable."
To solve connectivity issues and reduce surfing cost, Google on September 15 said YouTube would soon be available offline in India.
Viewers would be able to download a video, save it and watch it later, saving on recurring data download charges.
According to Leighton, Akamai would be taking a similar ap proach by prepositioning content on mobile devices based on customer interest and surfing habits, so that content can be accessed even when there is limited to no connectivity.
“We are working on prepositioning content on the mobile when the device is in a WiFi-enabled area, so that the user can access it even if there is limited 3G or 2G connectivity,” Leighton said.
By using adaptive image compression, the appropriate image type (size, quality) is delivered by Akamai depending on the network strength available on the device.
Akamai, which last year bought Chennai-based Velocious Net works, is also scouting for more acquisition targets in the country.
"We are looking for potential acquisitions and India is a logical place for us. We are looking at technologies that are in the areas of media delivery, application acceleration, security and enterprise cloud networking," Leighton said.
The company is talking to both startups as well as mature companies for possible acquisitions. “We have a substantial amount of cash. We will use that cash for acquisition and to buyback stocks to provide shareholder benefit," Leighton added.
Leighton is bullish on India as he believes that the growth of mobile devices in the country presents a huge opportunity for the company.
Akamai has 1,200 employees in India, the largest outside US, and is looking at increasing the work force. Leighton, a former MIT professor, founded the company in 1998 based on his thesis on reducing internet congestion. However, he believes the problem is only getting more acute as more and more devices join the Internet.
"Internet of things will create more demand for the bandwidth. It'll create a challenge for the internet to support it and it'll create business opportunity for us because those devices would need faster, reliable and secure connectivity," he said.
Earlier this year, Election Commission of India used Akamai services for election results announcement on its website.
"There were 600 million hits on the ECI website on the day of the results and we ensured that the website didn't go down," Leighton said.
"A lot of the world's most important device manufacturers are in India," Akamai's chief executive Tom Leighton told ET. "It is very important for us to have our software on those devices because that can make the internet faster, more reliable and more secure and more affordable."
More users today in India are watching video and high-quality content on the mobile, creating pressure on the limited 2G and 3G infrastructure in the country. YouTube alone gets over 20 million unique users a month from mobile phones.
To solve connectivity issues and reduce surfing cost, Google on September 15 said YouTube would soon be available offline in India.
Viewers would be able to download a video, save it and watch it later, saving on recurring data download charges.
According to Leighton, Akamai would be taking a similar ap proach by prepositioning content on mobile devices based on customer interest and surfing habits, so that content can be accessed even when there is limited to no connectivity.
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“We are working on prepositioning content on the mobile when the device is in a WiFi-enabled area, so that the user can access it even if there is limited 3G or 2G connectivity,” Leighton said.
By using adaptive image compression, the appropriate image type (size, quality) is delivered by Akamai depending on the network strength available on the device.
Akamai, which last year bought Chennai-based Velocious Net works, is also scouting for more acquisition targets in the country.
"We are looking for potential acquisitions and India is a logical place for us. We are looking at technologies that are in the areas of media delivery, application acceleration, security and enterprise cloud networking," Leighton said.
The company is talking to both startups as well as mature companies for possible acquisitions. “We have a substantial amount of cash. We will use that cash for acquisition and to buyback stocks to provide shareholder benefit," Leighton added.
Leighton is bullish on India as he believes that the growth of mobile devices in the country presents a huge opportunity for the company.
Akamai has 1,200 employees in India, the largest outside US, and is looking at increasing the work force. Leighton, a former MIT professor, founded the company in 1998 based on his thesis on reducing internet congestion. However, he believes the problem is only getting more acute as more and more devices join the Internet.
"Internet of things will create more demand for the bandwidth. It'll create a challenge for the internet to support it and it'll create business opportunity for us because those devices would need faster, reliable and secure connectivity," he said.
Earlier this year, Election Commission of India used Akamai services for election results announcement on its website.
"There were 600 million hits on the ECI website on the day of the results and we ensured that the website didn't go down," Leighton said.
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