MTNL to begin work on optical fibre internet connection in Mumbai from April

The telco PSU intends to rope in 100,000 customers with the high speed internet offering

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) , the public sector telecom operator, will soon start laying optical fibre across Mumbai city as it has plans to woo 100,000 consumers for its high speed internet plan.

The tender to lay the optical fibre has already been floated. The winner of the bidding pieces will be known in a month or two, MTNL said.

"Once the contract is awarded I think the work would begin from April onwards," said Pravin Punj, executive director with MTNL (Mumbai).

The state-owned telecom operator is already providing fibre-to-home internet to about 4,000 consumers at present since 2012 but only at limited locations.

Optical fibre networks provide high speed internet connectivity that supercedes fourth generation (4G) connectivity offered by private telecom operators. For example, MTNL's current finger-to-home plan offers 100 megabytes per second (Mbps) download speed, whereas a recent report suggested that Reliance Jio's 4G offers a speed of around 70 Mbps.

"With MTNL connection, you can get any speed you can think of," said Punj.

Such high speed internet offering could be a spoilsport for private operators who boast of superior internet browsing speed on their 4G network. Currently, only Airtel provides 4G connectivity in Mumbai. Vodafone, the second largest operator, has already started distributing 4G ready SIM cards to its customers and is expected to roll out the service by end of this month.

Apart from optical fibre, MTNL has plans to create wi-fi spots in the city.