MTNL First to Introduce VDSL-based 20 mbps Broadband Service

Mahanagar TelephoneState-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam has launched a new broadband service based VDSL technology, aimed at supporting HDTV and triple play services.

The 56.25% government-owned company has managed to become the first operator in India to introduce the next level of phone-line broadband technology providing data transfer speed ranging from 1-2 Mbps to 10-20 Mbps. The service offers free download limit of 18 GB for a monthly rental of Rs 9,000.

The technology will be limited up to a length of 1 km of copper wire from the originating centre — usually an MTNL telephone exchange, the state-owned telco said. In addition, it has been shared that the high data speed has made DSL a plausible substitute or at least a back-up to costly leased line technology.

Unlike other competitors like Tata Communications, which has opted for metro Ethernet offering data rate of up to 100 Mbps in Mumbai, MTNL, with its line technology, has chosen to migrate to the next line of DSL technology, instead of putting in new ethernet infrastructure.

Since it has a fledgling TV service on the current ADSL technology, MTNL claimed that the new platform will enable it to offer a large number of high definition (HD) TV channels on its IPTV services in the future.

Till date, MTNL is enthusiastically acclaimed as the largest broadband service provider in Mumbai, offering a high 4.02 lakh connections in the city, costing upwards of Rs 199 per month.