DishnetDSL head, corporate communications R. Desikan (left) and chief technology officer Brahma Reddy in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Dec. 19: DishnetDSL, Chennai-based internet service provider, launched its digital subscriber line (DSL) services here today. This service will give customers a speedier internet service.

DSL facilitates a 64kbps access to subscribers without blocking the telephone lines and offering an ‘always on’ internet connection. DSL is at least 25 times faster than a conventional dial-up connection.

“We are planning to start with an initial capacity of 300 customers and expect to take this to 3,500 subscribers by March next year. We are also keenly looking at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack,” said P Govind, regional head for the east.

Calcutta is the twenty-first city in the country where Dishnet is launching this service and it is the first in the eastern region.

The company has 2.7 lakh subscribers across the country for its dial-up services, of which 18,000 are in Calcutta and a mere 30,000 DSL subscribers in the country.

“We will be present in 30 locations across the city,” said R Desikan, senior manager for corporate communications. “It is expected that around 25 per cent of dial-up subscribers will convert to DSL within the next three months.”

A DSL subscriber has to pay a monthly fee of Rs 995 for a 64 kbps connection and an installation cost of Rs 29,970. The connection speed can be increased up to 512kbps. There are different options available to cater to users’ specifications.