Bharti Telemedia to launch DTH operations by Q4 FY07-08

New Delhi, Aug 7 (UNI) Soon after receiving the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, country's leading telecom player Bharti Airtel's subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia, today said it will launch its direct-to-home (DTH) services by the last quarter of FY 2007-08.

''The launch of DTH services will add tremendously to our existing bouquet of integrated telecom offerings. We will be deploying world-class technology and infrastructure to offer the best in class DTH services to our customers,'' Bharti Airtel President and CEO Manoj Kohli said in a statement.

The DTH services will be launched across the country by the company and the relevant infrastructure will be set up near Gurgaon (Haryana) for the purpose of uplinking and broadcast.

Bharti would be the fifth private company in the country 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 was not approved because of national security and cultural invasion concerns.

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, the DTH was allowed with the new policy requiring 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