IPTV soon reality in Nagpur
INTERNET Protocol Television (IPTV), entertainment as per your choice and at your time, is all set to invade the homes of Nagpurians, courtesy Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Said Principal General Manager (PGM), M D Bhatia, the IPTV is a Dussera gift to our valued customers. Customers having hi-speed internet connections (Broadband) can avail the services to be marketed and provided by Maharashtra Knowledge Centre Limited (MKCL).
The local media were provided a preview of the IPTV at Itwari Telephone Exchange. Area Manager (East), Namratta Tiwari, was also present. Giving the highlight of new service, PGM said, with IPTV we are entering a digital age of entertainment and right now exchanges are being configured to ready for the mega launch. He said a customer will have to purchase the Set Top Box (STB) to avail IPTV which has currently 100 digital channels. The beauty of the service is provision of Time Shift, wherein one can hold transmission of any programme for a particular period of time, and restart it after completing the important chore. The current provision on part of service provider for Time Shift is 72-hours within which a particular programme can be viewed, so no worry of having missed a popular opera. The IPTV will no way affect hi-speed internet and telephone services which will be independently controlled by respective servers. From STB, only a three-way connection is provided and all three can function simultaneously. With the server of basic phone and IPTV independent, any line disturbance will not have effect on video status. Another feature is video on demand where customer can select from rich library the movie of their choice for which rates vary. The MKCL franchisee said that there will also be a provision of SMS and chatting, provided both the interactors have IPTV connection. Besides education services, gaming will also be there for subscribers. About tariff, Bhatia said it will be competitive and right now only Pune has IPTV services in Maharashtra Circle. The STB at Pune is priced at Rs. 3,950 plus monthly subscription of Rs. 150 onwards and will depend upon the package subscribed. The STB will also be available on rent, with security deposit of Rs. 1,500. In future, with launch of 3G services even Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), means making calls to overseas as well as STD will also be possible and that too at a fraction of current cost. However, till the BSNL Corporate Board decides on VoIP policy, we will have to wait and watch, he said
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