Public sector telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s (BSNL) Maharashtra circle is aiming at a base of one lakh subscribers for its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services by December 2009.
IPTV is content delivered on TV screens through a broadband (high-speed internet) connection, which lets users choose from hundreds of broadcast and other content provider channels, besides allowing interactivity between TV viewers.
The company’s Maharashtra telecom circle first launched its IPTV services in Pune in March 2007 in partnership with Pune-based IPTV platform provider WICE Net Ltd. “In Pune, we have a customer base of 650 as of now. This is going to increase as broadband subscriber base increases,” Chandra Prakash, chief general manager of BSNL’s Maharashtra Telecom Circle, told mediapersons while announcing the launch of IPTV services in Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Kalyan and Solapur. “We aim a subscriber base of one lakh by the end of this year in Maharashtra telecom circle,” Prakash said. The IPTV services would be available to subscribers at a monthly charge of Rs 225 allowing 107 channels.
BSNL’s IPTV services were first launched in Bangalore in 2007. “The Maharashtra circle is the second telecom circle and the one with largest broadband and IPTV services users,” Prakash said.
In January, BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal had said that the public sector telco had received a mandate from the government to roll out eight million broadband connections. The company will invest Rs 1,600 crore in procuring supporting infrastructure for broadband services. By December 2008, the total number of broadband subscribers in the country stood at 54 lakh, of which BSNL had 60% market share.
In order to encourage internet penetration, the telecom firm has partnered with low-cost PC makers such as Chennai based Novatium to provide computers as less than Rs 5000 to its broadband subscribers. “We even hear that computers are available at Rs 500. If that is true then it will definitely help broadband plans,” Prakash said.
Besides WICE Net, BSNL’s Maharashtra circle has partnered with Smart Digivision, an IPTV platform provider, to enable choice for subscribers.
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