Airtel intros 8Mbps broadband

Airtel further strengthened its non-mobile services today by introducing 8Mbps broadband Internet access in India targeting mass customers, retailers and SMEs.

“Non-mobile part of Bharti is a strong engine of growth. Over the years we have invested around over a billion dollar in non-mobile service and it is a critical part of our operations now. We continue to further strengthen the Internet space,” said Atul Bindal, president, Bharti Airtel Limited, briefing the media here today.

“Our objective is to deliver broadband services to the mass customers. We want to deepen the penetration and expand as wide as possible,” he added.

Airtel’s 8Mbps broadband service will be initially available in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and the NCR. Subsequent rollouts would be made in Mumbai and Hyderabad in a few weeks. The commercial availability of the new service is expected in two weeks.

Airtel has invested Rs. 1500 crore in India on the overall infrastructure out of which 25-30 per cent is on enabling broadband, informed Bindal. The company has invested Rs. 50-55 crore in Bangalore and Chennai circle for the new service.

Currently, Airtel has two million subscribers in the non-mobile segment with a hold of 25-30 per cent of broadband market share in India.

Airtel has invested in the back end infrastructure to deliver these speeds. It already has Carrier Ethernet Network (CEN) operational in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. Mumbai too would be upgraded to CEN in the next phase.

CEN allows not only provisioning of high speed plans to broadband customers but also delivers triple play services.

"Airtel is targeting the South India broadband market,” said Prem Pradeep, chief executive officer, Bharti Airtel.

Talking about broadband access in the other Asian counterparts, Bindal said, “When compared to Japan, Korea and others who have 20-30 Mbps Internet access in place, we have a long way to go to achieve that. We are also planning to invest in those geographies as well.”

Airtel has also introduced new products like NetXpert, automated broadband online support, and PC Secure offering anti-virus and parental control. Airtel also launched Speed on Demand, which enables customers to upgrade bandwidth as and when needed.

Without disclosing any specific detail on the tariff plans, Bindal said that the new service would be bundled between Rs 999- 2000 range.

Mohit Manke
www.theexclusive.in