Bharti Airtel gets LoI for rolling out DTH services

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) Country's leading telecom player Bharti Airtel has reportedly received the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for launching direct-to-home (DTH) services in the country.

Earlier in the day, Bharti had said it will launch its much-awaited DTH services by January-March 2008, and will roll out the IPTV services starting with the national capital by December this year.

''Bharti has received the LoI for DTH services and would get the license within five to six weeks after completing formalities such as bank guarantees and license fee,'' sources said.

Bharti would be the fifth private company to get DTH license after Zee's DishTV, TataSky, Reliance Communications and Chennai-based Sun TV.

DTH services were first proposed in India in 1996, but they did not pass approval because there were concerns over national security and a cultural invasion.

In 1997, the government even imposed a ban when the Rupert Murdoch-owned Indian Sky Broadcasting (ISkyB) was about to launch its DTH services in India. Finally in 2000, DTH was allowed.

The new policy requires all operators to set up earth stations in India within 12 months of getting a license. DTH licenses in India will cost 2.14 million dollars and will be valid for 10 years.

UNI