Calcutta, Dec 3 :    Calcutta, Dec 3:  Global Electronic Commerce Services Ltd (GECS), the services division of the $ 135 million Global Group, plans to set up eight international gateways for which it has entered into a tieup with British Telecom (BT). It will initially set up gateways at five locations - Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Calcutta and Bangalore. The first three are already operational and the fourth at Calcutta is expected to be commissioned within the next ten days. Work on the next two gateways have recently commenced at Bangalore and Hyderabad. When the gateways will be operational, GECS will provide around 30-40 mbps of bandwidth nationally. Of this 4mbps has been taken from Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) and the rest will be acquired from BT through V-sats and undersea cables from Cable & Wireless. A cumulative 15 mbps of bandwidth will be made available at Calcutta. 'It does not matter how much bandwidth we have at a particular location. If more bandwidth is required, we can source it from our other locations,' says Nawed Zafar, head, business operations, GECS. The category A licence for internet service caters singularly to the corporate and small and medium industry (SME) segment. 'We are not catering to the retail segment. Hence, there is almost no competition from other ISPs. Also, though many ISPs have entered the market, only those able to provide quality service will be able to survive,' adds Zafar. GECS also plans to set up 13 data centres all over the country. The first one is at Mahape, Navi Mumbai, while the second one will be functional soon at Pune. The third data centre at Calcutta will be set up over 15,000 sq ft at Infinity in Saltlec. Zafar adds, 'The data centre is being built to conform to international standards. We have already reached the optimum capacity at our Mahape data centre. The company is building another unit over more than one lakh sq ft in Mumbai.' The company presently has two offices in the eastern region - in Calcutta and Jamshedpur. Depending on how the market evolves, the company plans to expand to Bhubaneswar and Guwahati. GECS will be an important player in the internet services market with its merger with Global Tele-Systems Limited (GTL), another group company, expected to be formalised in February next year. The company has already initiated the process and is awaiting clearances from Securities and Exchange Board of India and the high court.