Bharat Sanchar launches net-based TV services in Haryana

NEW DELHI - State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Wednesday announced the launch of its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in the Haryana in association with Smart Digivision.

The company has launched services initially in three cities - Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ambala - and will later take it to the rest of the state.

‘We plan to launch the IPTV services in nine cities as of now and will then take it up to 93 cities,’ BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal told reporters.

‘This move will also help us retain our wireline customers, as customers will be required to have a broadband connection for the services,’ Goyal said.

Referring to BSNL’s third generation (3G) mobile services launch, Goyal said it would be rolled out in the next two months starting from Chennai. ‘We are certainly ready to match the highest bidder price that the company is required to pay for the spectrum that has been allocated to it,’ he added.

Talking of the IPTV launch, Smart Digivision chairman Mahendra Nahata said: ‘We aim to have four million subscribers in three years.’

His company has franchise for about 54 cities and plans to launch in all centres before the end of the current fiscal year, he said.

IPTV is a system that delivers digital content services to subscribers using the Internet protocol over a broadband connection using closed network infrastructure.

Nahata, who holds 36 percent stake in Datacom Solutions, the telecom arm of the Venugopal Dhoot-headed Videocon Industries, also indicated his company was open to the recent offer made by Videocon for its entire stake in the telecom subsidiary.

Dwelling on the development, Nahata said: ‘I would like to reach a solution of all our problems in the New Year and want to arrive at an agreement with the partners’.