8 Mbps Broadband from Airtel

Airtel on October 10th announced the launch of eight Mbps broadband service, becoming the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed broadband service. With this the Airtel broadband customers could now browse multiple windows and at the same time, download heavy files, view streaming video, enjoy online gaming, chat, email and other applications. Currently the speeds on offer, range from 256 KBps to 4Mbps. Airtel customers would be able to download a 5 Mb music file in five seconds flat as compared to 160 seconds on a 256 kbps connection through this Broadband connection. Airtel’s eight Mbps broadband service will initially be available in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and the NCR, with a subsequent roll out in Mumbai and Hyderabad in a few weeks. Though the price points of this offering is still being worked out by Airtel. It is expected to be priced Rs 2,000 for a download of 7-8 GB. Tariff plans and product offerings are also being worked out to enable customers, who do not want a 24-hour eight mpbs speed but want them for certain applications or a short duration of time, to avail the new offering.

Airtel IPTV:

Airtel is looking at a segment of `speed on demand’. With the 8Mbps speed, Airtel network will soon be IPTV ready. Already Airtel is conducting the pilot run at NCR and it is awaiting the clarity on government regulatory. Soon after that Airtel will launch the service in NCR and subsequently in other places.