MTNL joins hands with Aksh Optifibre to launch first IPTV in Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) The entertainment-starved work crazy average Indian is now showered with another advanced-technology offering right at his door-step, in the form of state-owned MTNL's Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) service, providing video and music on demand, internet and TV facilities, all on one TV screen! Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), has joined hands with Aksh Optifibre Ltd to launch India's first IPTV interactive service in Delhi, offering its broadband subscribers here and in Mumbai, phone, internet and television services from a single cable.

The service will be unveiled in Mumbai in January 2007.

The software, hardware, service set-up and content delivery for IPTV will be managed by Aksh Optifibre Ltd, while MTNL will be the service provider in-charge of operations and revenue collection.

''Targeted at its over 3 lakh broadband and fixed line subscribers in both Delhi and Mumbai, the service will give MTNL a tremendous headstart in these regions, and revolutionise the way people watch television,'' MTNL CMD R S P Sinha told reporters here.

The minimum service fee will be Rs 135, including Rs 75 as rental and Rs 60 as a basis service. The IPTV service will require a set-top box which the consumer can purchase by paying a one time deposit that is categorised into Gold (Rs 3,000), Silver (Rs 2,000) and Bronze (Rs 1,000).

This fixed deposit in the name of the consumer will be for a period of 5 years, and any interest accrued will be reverted to him. The entire amount (with interest) will be paid back to the consumer upon maturity or elective termination of service, and return of the set-top box, whichever occurs first.

On a poser as to whether this service will fall within the purview of the Broadcasting Ministry or the Telecom Ministry, Mr Sinha, while refusing to give out any further details said, ''Discussions are on. It is too early for me to say anything.

We will have to wait and watch.'' The consumer can pay for this service to MTNL every month, through a billing format provided by the latter, for all the pay channels/content the user has applied for, at the beginning of each billing cycle (month).

''At present we will be billing IPTV usage separately from the broadband connection and telephone lines, however, we are keen to bill IPTV alongwith our telephone lines. From November this year, we are likely to have one bill for all three connections,'' Mr Sinha said.

Registrations for the MTNL-AKSH IPTV service will begin from October 25, this year, while commercial operations will begin from November 1.

The service will initially feature a bouquet of 25 free-to-air and pay TV channels, which will go up as demand increases.

MTNL's market strategy has to take into account exisiting services like cable, direct-to-home, and also the conditional access system (CAS), which will be implemented in parts of Delhi and Mumbai by the end of this year, MTNL officials said.

Users will also be offered various other features which include films and videos on demand besides e-governance information.

Experts say that at present cable operators charge between Rs 200 to Rs 300 a month for 60 to 100 channels, however, once Conditional Access System (CAS) requiring a set top box is implemented, it will offer customers more flexibility than IP-TV.

MTNL may face challenge from CAS, where the government has fixed a maximum retail price (MRP) of Rs 5 per pay channel.

Among features of the service are video/music-on-demand with a few free movies included in the package, booking of movie tickets, video calling, virtual classrooms, placing cake/flowers orders, trading stocks while watching a business news broadcast channel, and even advanced tele-medicine for which the remote center needs only an MTNL line and television set.

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