Bharti Airtel to launch internet TV soon

Kolkata, Oct 13 : Bharti Airtel Ltd, which has already started a trial run of its proposed internet protocol television (IPTV) services in New Delhi, is planning its commercial launch in six cities soon, a top official said here Monday.

'We are currently covering 1,000 households in New Delhi on a pilot basis. Issues like infrastructure capabilities and different pricing models are being tried there,' Atul Bindal, president of Telemedia Services of the company, told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Airtel's direct-to-home (DTH) service in Kolkata.

As IPTV service would require high speed broadband connection, Airtel would restrict itself to metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, where the broadband speed is 8 mbps (mega byte per second).

IPTV service essentially carries broadcast content over the internet.

However, Bindal refused to divulge the date of the IPTV launch.

'We will soon be having services like IPTV, DTH, landline telephone and mobile telephony. Various combo packages are being worked out,' he said.

For IPTV services, Airtel is eyeing its 2.5 million Telemedia customers, both landline and broadband users.

The recent issue of guidelines for downloading IPTV content by the information and broadcasting ministry has prodded the company to aggressively work on its IPTV service launch, Bindal said.

--IANS