Patna, March 23: Public sector telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today launched its fibre to the home (FTTH) service in Patna giving consumers the integrated service of Internet, phone line and IPTV under one connection.

Launching the service, chief general manager Vijoy Kumar said: “On the eve of Bihar Divas celebrations, BSNL also wants to contribute in the state’s development and hence we are dedicating a world-class FTTH service to the state to strengthen the information technology sector. The service will start from Patna and fibre optical cable has already been laid down on important locations.”

At present, the best possible offer for Internet users being given by the BSNL is in the form of leased lines.

A leased line connection provides a speed of 2 MBPS (mega byte per second) for the users.

The FTTH service, however, would free users from the speed constraint.

The FTTH service would provide the speed of 100 MBPS to the consumers with almost no interruptions because of cable cuts as circle wiring is used in such connections and even if the cable is cut from one side, connectivity could be provided from the other side, Kumar said.

“The new service would open door for the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, which has a nationwide turnover of Rs 25,000 crore to which the state has not been able to reap the benefits of the growth of the sector till now,” Vijoy Kumar said adding that with this infrastructure addition, Bihar can hope of getting investment in BPO and IT-enabled sectors creating huge employment opportunities.

The department has already received some applications for the FTTH service, which would be installed within two-three days, he said adding that the service is in demand and would be available through a modem for which the customers would be charged.

Additional-general manager (sales and marketing), BSNL, Atul Sinha said the service is meant for all consumers but institutional and corporate users would benefit the most.

“The unlimited bandwidth is generally required by such users as they share voluminous data with different organisations,” added the additional GM.

Sharing details of the charges, Sinha said it would be available at Rs 1,500 per month in which a customer can enjoy broadband of bandwidth up to 2MBPS with 8 GB upload and download limit.

Similarly for unlimited users, broadband of bandwidth up to 1 MBPS is available at Rs 2,999 per month and maximum limit for unlimited users would be available at Rs 83,999 per month with 100 MBPS of broadband bandwidth.

Sources said BSNL is also planning to roll out similar services in other towns like Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya in the future.

R.P. Singh, Patna general manager, H.S. Dwivedi, senior general manager, Mukesh Nigam, general manager (operations) were also present on the occasion.

Stating that there is an increasing demand for high bandwidth services in the market around the world, the chief general manager said traditional technologies like digital subscriber line and cable modem technologies cannot fulfil today’s demand for bandwidth hungry applications like high definition TV, 3D TV, high-speed Internet access, video on demand, IPTV, online gaming, distance learning.

The additional-general manager said BSNL has also organised a “blood donation camp” on the department’s premises at Sanchar Sadan, where a large num- ber of its employees are expected to participate and donate blood for the national cause “rakta daan — maha daan”.