"We will be launching video conferencing services with BSNL in next three to four weeks," Yugal Sharma, country manager of Nasdaq-listed Polycom, which has provided technology for the project, said.
The services would be rolled out in five big cities to start with and later expanded to other cities.
BSNL is spending Rs 6 to 7 crore for the project in the first phase. Polycom, provider of solutions to enable video conferencing, is also talking with another state-owned telecom company for deployment of its technologies.
"MTNL is already using our products to provide video conferencing facilities in Delhi and Mumbai," he said, adding that they too want to expand it.
At present, Polycom has just one telecom service provider Reliance Infocomm as its customer. Using Polycom technology, Reliance is offering retail video conferencing the services in 111 cities, Sunil Buch, who is heading marketing for Reliance Webworld said.
Sharma said the penetration of broadband would drive the penetration of video conferencing in India. By January 2006 broadband would be easily available. Polycom, which started operations in 2003, has seen its revenues grow 3.5 times.
"The size of video conferencing market in India is $30-40 billion and is growing at 55 per cent. Our growth will be better than the market," he said.
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