Leading Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Ltd will soon offer 8 Mbps (megabits per second) broadband Internet access for retail and home segments in select cities.
'With such high-speed access, users will be able to download a 5 MB music file in five seconds as compared to 160 seconds on a 256 Kbps connection,' Airtel president for broadband and telephone services Atul Bindal said at a preview of the new service offering here Wednesday.
The Internet service provider (ISP) currently offers broadband access with speeds between 256 Kbps and 4 Mbps to retail and small office home office segments.
Of the two million Airtel landline subscribers across the country, about 35 percent (700,000) use its broadband service.
The new service will be initially available in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and the national capital region in a fortnight. It will be launched in Mumbai, Hyderabad and other cities from next month.
'We will offer attractive packages to suit customers of all segments. Tariffs will range between Rs.2,000 and Rs.10,000 per month depending on usage,' Bindal said.
The company has invested about Rs.15 billion in setting up the backend infrastructure, including the optical fibre cable network, carrier Ethernet network and last mile copper wire to provide connectivity in cities and towns across the country.
The carrier Ethernet network, operational in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi, enables the ISP to offer voice, data and video services.
The carrier will also be used to offer IPTV (internet protocol television) service at 8 Mbps, with video and audio content on demand and an interactive facility.
'We are tying up with channel partners and third parties such as India Games and Soundbuzz to build content and provide unlimited gaming, music, movies and videos,' Bindal added.
The IPTV service will be launched after the government announces a regulatory framework and licensing policy.
