Giving a major fillip to India's fledgling broadband story, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, the public sector utility that offers telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, is slated to offer unlimited broadband access to subscribers.
Starting Tuesday (May 17), customers will have to pay no monthly rental and would end up paying only for the data they download at the rate of Rs 2 per MB.
Broadband in the Indian context has been defined as Internet connection offering speeds of 256 kbps or above. Earlier MTNL used to charge its customers a minimum monthly rental of Rs 399 and allow free downloads of up to 400 MB. Extra downloads, i.e. beyond 400 MB, used to be charged at Rs 1.20 per MB.
Broadband prices to fall further
What the revenue implication of this deal will be is not yet known. According to telecom sector analysts if usage actually picks up then MTNL will actually stand to gain over a period of time.
According to MTNL sources, the public sector company was adding close to 200 broadband subscribers daily and may end up having close to 400,000 subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai by December-end.
MTNL, which launched its broadband services on January 24, is also mulling the offering of cable TV over broadband to its customer base.
MTNL may also soon provide cable TV channels to its broadband subscribers, says an Economic Times report.
These channels, said the report, will also be free.
Apart from this, the telecom PSU also plans to launch another plan -- TriB 599 -- which will offer download speeds of 512 kbps and 500 MB data download free to customers. For extra downloads, it will cost customers Rs 1.20 per MB. TriBand 599 will have a monthly rental of Rs 599.