India's MTNL reveals fibre-to-the-home progress

[igod]

Source: IPTV News

November 7, 2008 - Indian state-owned telco Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) plans to unveil its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network next week, according to local news portal DNA, and plans a technology demonstration at a location in Delhi.
“The service will utilise MTNL’s existing investments into internet protocol television (IPTV)," said a company official. "However, it will offer higher speeds and provide newer services such as high-definition video and even high-definition TV channels, gaming etc." The official added however that MTNL is unlikely to launch the service immediately: “Technically, it is a much simpler network than the traditional copper line-based service. However, it will require us to lay fibre from the exchanges to the homes. All the exchanges are already interconnected with fibre,” he said.

State-owned rival telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is also reported to be assessing fibre-to-the-home technology.

 

[Motorazor143]

first they need to think about Broadband then they should concentrate more on IPTV..MTNL seems to be behind IPTV for quite some time now and in the process they are not bringing any changes to broadband like improvement in BB speeds etc.It's been 2 years since speeds of 2 mbps were launched.They need to move on and provide 8 mbps like other ISP's are providing.:cool2:

 

[ayuboy]

IIPTV isn't that great! just normal 200KBps stream i guess!😕Yeah moto is right:thumb: They gotta concentrate more on their BB speeds and Better and cheaper High speed ULplans. like 2Mbps@Rs999 and 8MNps@Rs1299:yahoo::yahoo:There isn't gonna be HD broadcast in India Until 2010.What gaming are they talking about?Like they hosting Tournys or opening their own Dedicated Game Servers?As in we play from TV or connect a console?

 

[Motorazor143]

yeah! they r behind IPTV from a long time now..IPTV has been a big flop in Delhi..they should leave behind IPTV and try to focus more on BB since majority of their customers are either landline or BB users.They need to cash in now since their tarrif is the best and also MTNL is a reliable service provider.If they manage to get a few high speed business and home plans then they would surely get more customers.Airtel is already finding it tuff to retain their customers due to intense competetion from MTNL...MTNL needs to brush their competetion a bit more..There are a few areas where they still can improve ie customer care etc..

 

[zeo]

I totally agree with you Motorazor143 :thumb:. MTNL should first send their so-called "customer care executives" for a year long training where they would be given training on how to use technology along with some brains (if any :rofl🙂 to answer a customer's query rather than use their present default answer: "Your system is at fault" :madness:.Also MTNL should take up works like BSNL's National Internet Backbone (NIB) project. These projects will shoot our broadband speed off the roof :yahoo:.It is good that MTNL plans to change the existing copper based line to fibre optic line which will immensely help all of us broadband users. But that cost should be entirely borne by MTNL and not passed on to the customers as higher tariff rates.

 

[iChaitanya]

5 Mbps unlimited @ 50k per month... 😗

 

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[amish]

this is good news. SNR margins wud be very good and higher speeds wud be possible too. hope it comes soon.

 

[skorpio1]

I've seen what happened to Reliance's Fibre optic cables that were inserted in Sawed Grooves on all Roads in Mumbai.Now given MTNL speed of customer complaint readdress, I wonder how long they will take to resolve issues if something goes wrongheck their TRIBAND dept & CC knows less about BB access than most fresh users on this Forum.how will they manage Fibre Optics??????????.....Not a Lines mans cup of tea to rectify faults if they occurP.S:-I'll have sweet dreams tonight dreaming of 5MBPS links at RailTel prices 😉 here in Mumbai :cool2::thumb:

 

[viralbug]

This is good news. There would definitely be higher speeds. But I'm not sure how long they will take for this. Its still a long way to go before we will be getting high speeds.

 

[socrates]

I could be wrong but if my memory serves me right the fiber optic cables comes to my colony junction box. It was put up in the late nineties :huh: after they interconnected the exchanges in the mid nineties. I am the Prabhadevi exchange

 

[viralbug]

late nineties? no chance.must be something else.

 

[socrates]

Hmmm. Checked with some of the 'old timers' office bearers of our society & they confirmed its true. I was told it happened around '00 - 2001 🙂. Hope its true

 

[viralbug]

afaik reliance were the first ones to lay fibres.but i think maybe some small parts of south mumbai did have fibres connected already.

 

[socrates]

I beg to disagree. In this case Reliance is not the first. 🙂 MTNL started interconnecting exchanges with fibre optic cables as far back as '94 - '95 in Mumbai area, not sure if Reliance Comm had come into existence then. In fact the Rel Comm website says this 'This backbone was commissioned on 28 December 2002, the auspicious occasion of Dhirubhai’s 70th birthday'. You must remember that Prabhadevi exchange is always the first to get any new h/w, technology etc For eg in our area all wiring was redone by MTNL in 1991 when they switched over to the new h/w at the exchange.

 

[viralbug]

I thought Prabhadevi was one of the newer exchanges.what i meant was, reliance was the first ones to lay fibre on a large scale. and yes, they launched on 28 dec 2002 only (i was at the launch 😀).Fibre connectivity for intetconnecting exchanges might have been there. that is different case. if you count that then most companies have fibre connected for transfer of data.😛 i mean fibre for home usage.