Starting in Q3, Tata Communications is going to offer a private-labeled version of HyperOffice's online collaboration suite with the high-speed data and voice tools that it sells in India and worldwide.

Tata is the SaaS company's first big-time patron.

Tata offers Internet services in India under the Tata Indicom brand to business subscribers, including online backup, security, web conferencing, business e-mail, hosting, high-speed broadband, dial-up Internet, net telephony and Wi-Fi.

India is the third-largest telecoms market in the world and the second-largest wireless market. India's Economic Survey for 2008-2009 counted 414 million fixed and mobile connections as of February - on target to reach 500 million by 2010. Broadband subscribers increased to 5.69 million in February, up from 180,000 in March 2005.

Informa, the research firm, forecasts mobile broadband revenues will reach $3.9 billion in India in 2013.

HyperOffice president Farzin Arsanjani reckons Tata Communications is just the ticket for putting cloud computing tools into the hands of business users in emerging markets.

The company's international expansion started last year when it delivered a Spanish edition of HyperOffice as well as smartphone and iPhone support.

HyperOffice operates as an integrated Microsoft Exchange alternative as well as a SharePoint alternative with all the functionality but developed and priced for small to mid-sized companies. Its solutions include document management, calendar, contact management, task manager, discussion forums, opinion polls and announcements. It's browser-agnostic.