The service will be available to BSNL customers in Gujarat from February 1 and by April, customers across the country will be able to avail the services.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) launched its Video Phone Service (VPS) for commercial use for the first time in India here today.
The service, in association with Sai Infosystems Limited, will be available to BSNL customers in Gujarat from February 1 and by April, customers across the country will be able to avail the services.
Launching the service, advisor to the prime minister on infrastructure, innovation and information, Sam Pitroda
described VPS as a big achievement for India and said that the
time has come for making major strides in providing broadband
connections to the people.
"It has taken 50 years to take video telephone out of the lab into the market. Access to large bundle of bandwidth or broadband has become critical in all aspects of development," Pitroda said.
"We have essentially connected one billion people today with over 550 million telephones connectios today. Now the key is to take the next big jump which is going to come out of broadband," he said.
"We hope to have 100 million broadband connections in the country in the next five years," he added.
Pitroda said that the country needs broadband connections for development in education, health, govenment and many other activities.
"Without broadband it would be difficult to provide delivery of lot of (developmental) services. Broadband is also about improving commerce. E-commerce is going to be yet another big area," Pitroda said.
"When all of this emerge, we will have convergence that every one is talking about. We will be able to integrate a lot of service like voice, video, data and multiple applications," he said adding that when these things become reality, the process of development would be expedited.
Speaking on the occasion, BSNL general manager, S K Bhandari said that this would revolutionise the communication industry.
He said that enormous possibility would open up with the coming of VPS as it would be useful for business communication conferencing, telemedicine and teleeducation.
Bhandari said that VPS will be available in wireline and wireless medium. It will be provided and marketed by Sai Infosystems Limited, while broadband connectivity would be provided by BSNL.
The VPS allows one to see the person he or she is talking to (provided they too have the VPS). It uses Video Voice Over Broadband (VVOBB) which converts voice and data signals into IP (internet protocol) signal and delivers to destination.
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