BSNL's 2 Mbps broadband @ Rs 250 a month

Karthik

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the state-owned telecom service provider, will provide broadband up to 2 MB at Rs 250 per month.

The speed has been increased by almost 8 times whereas the download has been increased by 2.5 times at almost half the cost, said a company press release.

Under the new plan all the existing 820,000 customers are also being upgraded for the speed up to 2 Mbps depending upon technical feasibility.

The year 2007 has already been declared as the 'Year of Broadband.' BSNL plans to add a 5 million port capacity to the existing network of 1 million ports during 2007. The telecom services provider has a market share of 44% in this segment.

BSNL plans:

* BSNL has a very ambitious plan to add large capacity during 2007.
* More than 1000 cities / towns and 20000 villages will come under the broadband map.
* 10,000 exchanges in urban 20,000 exchanges in rural would be broadband enabled.
* All the telephone exchanges with more than 1000 lines will be covered under this expansion plan.
* By the year 2008, all gram panchayats will have Broadband coverage.
* Broadband coverage for all secondary and higher secondary schools and all public health centres by December 2007.
* BSNL is in the process of launching broadband access through WiMAX technology in about 1,000 block headquarters with support from the government which will cover an area of about 20-25 km in each block.
* BSNL is already in the process of launching triple play services over broadband in Pune and subsequently in Chennai and Bangalore.
* BSNL will also to start on-line gaming services over broadband very shortly under two categories -- Standard and Premium packages -- with monthly fixed charges of Rs 100 and Rs 200, respectively.

The company release said that:

* Till now the minimum bandwidth available to broadband customers was 256 Kbps. BSNL has now decided that all the Home and Business Plans will offer data rates up to 2 Mbps, subject to technical feasibility.
* Further, the downloading limits in Home 250 and Business 700 plans have been enhanced to 1 GB and 4 GB from 400 MB and 2 GB, respectively. The limits in other plans have been suitably enhanced. With the increase in downloading limit, a Plan 250 customer will get a benefit of Rs 840 per month for 1 GB limit and Business Plan 700 customer will get a benefit of Rs 2400 per month for limits up to 4GB.
* BSNL has also decided to bring down the per MB downloading rates from 1.40 per MB to Rs.0.90 per MB in Home 250 plan and the rates have also been lowered in other plans.
* BSNL has also decided to reduce the fixed monthly charges from ADSL modems from Rs 100 to Rs 60 per month which would benefit about 800,000 customer of BSNL. The reduction is applicable with effect from December 1, 2006.

Source:rediff.com/money/2006/dec/21bsnl.htm

The rates(not official yet) are:
Home 250 - 1GB limit, 90 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 500 - 2.5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1000 - 5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1800 - 10GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 3300 - 20GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Night Unlimited on all Home plans except Home 250 is from 8 PM to 8 AM now.
There is no mention of the Home 900 UL plan.

Business 700 - 4GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 1200 - 8GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 3000 - 20GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 5000 - 35GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 9000 - 75GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.

More info at: thehindubusinessline.com/2006/11/28/stories/2006112805170400.htm