Shakeel Ahmad (left), minister of state for communications, with S.K. Chakravarty, CGM of Calcutta Telephones, in Calcutta on Saturday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, May 19: After the first mobile call in 1995, Calcutta is set to witness another first in telecom services.

BSNL will launch a service which will allow customers to view Internet videos on their CDMA handsets in the city. The technology used will be equivalent to 3G. The tariff is yet to be finalised but is expected to be much higher than existing CDMA rates.

BSNL will launch this service in partnership with ZTE Telecom India after September. The service is expected to hit the market before 3G network services on GSM phones are rolled out by the end of the year.

“Calcutta has been selected to pilot the service, which will deliver high-quality video over internet at a speed that is similar to 3G network on GSM phones. The order placed with ZTE is for one lakh lines at an investment of Rs 42 crore,” said S.K. Chakravarty, chief general manager of Calcutta Telephones.

The subscriber will have to use a data card similar to those used for wireless Internet, only much faster. The e-video service offered by CDMA players like Reliance broadcast news clips at a maximum speed of 144kbps and 148kbps.

BSNL itself has a low-end service called Tarang. But the service is tediously slow and has a time lag with the original broadcast. For example, if you are watching a television news clip on your CDMA phone, what you see is five minutes behind the news being broadcast on television. In the new high-end service, videos will be broadcast simultaneously at much higher speed of 2Mbps.

After the high-end version is launched in September, BSNL will shift the Tarang service to semi-urban and rural areas. The existing CDMA towers will be upgraded to provide the service.

“We will also use this technology to provide wireless broadband in areas where laying of copper wires and cables for broadband is difficult,” Chakravarty added.

BSNL hopes to launch IPTV or cable television through broadband internet in the city by the end of June .

Minister of state for communications and IT, Shakeel Ahmad, today launched BSNL’s prepaid card services for fixed line.