AirTel to offer 'Triple Play' in 90 cities

NEW DELHI: After dominating the Indian mobile telephone market, AirTel is all set to launch 3-in-1 services -- phone, internet and cable TV -- across 90 cities to its fixed-line customers.

Bharti Chief Sunil Mittal told PTI here that the company was in the process of finalising commercial arrangements for offering 'triple play', which is currently being extended to its fixed-line customers in Gurgaon on a pilot basis.

"When we go into the final commercial mode which will happen in the next 4-5 months, then anybody who has an AirTel connection can get Triple Play," Mittal said.

The company currently has 15 lakh fixed-line subscribers and Mittal said this was expected to go up to 25 lakh by next year. "We are connecting about 60,000-70,000 new connections (on fixed-line) every month and this should take us to about 25 lakh by next year," he said.

Through its pilot in Gurgaon, where the company is offering the new service to around 500 consumers which includes 40 TV channels, Bharti is trying to gauge market preferences.

Apart from testing the product, it is trying to get feedback on channel preferences, surfing habits, channel bundling and, more importantly, pricing.

Mittal said Bharti planned to operate "like a cable operator" when it went full-throttle with the new services.

"We will take content from whoever sells it, on a revenue share basis. We will become like a cable operator," he said.