BSNL introduces video telephony, surveillance and mobile advertising

To add 30 million more broadband subscribers.

State-owned telecom operator, BSNL on Saturday announced a soft launch of voice and video services on its broadband network in Gujarat for the first time in the country. The project will cover a wide spectrum of telecom services including video telephony, video surveillance and integrated mobile advertising.

Talking about the new services, Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL said, "Voice over IP and Video Surveillance ar going to add additional flavour to the eisting rich experience Indian consumers are enjoying on BSNL broadband service. Voice over IP will provide a long awaited video calling and video conferencing services to the people of India. VOIP services also promises to offer international calling at a very affordable rate. It is expected that a call to US, UK, Canada etc. may cost you as low as Re.1/- per minute. BSNL has decided to provide these services free of cost for the next 15 days so that the consumer can enjoy this extraordinary experience unrestricted which VOIP service promises to give."

Riding on the back of these services, BSNL is also targeting to increase its subscriber base in broadband by 30 million by the end of the financial year 2009. "We currently have a subscriber base of 47 million in broadband and we will be adding another 30 million since we believe the voice and video services will result in huge popularity among customers.

The telecom operator intends to increase its market share in broadband services from the current 57 per cent. "India is experiencing fastest growth in mobile services with an addition of 9 to 11 million customer base per month. We are at 439 million telephone users as on May 1, 2009 and second only to China in the world telecom sector. BSNL has more than 81 million customer base which includes more than 47 million mobile customer base," said Goyal

While BSNL has tied up with Ahmedabad-based Sai Infosystems for video telephony, it has signed an agreement with Delhi-based RiVACOM Pvt. Ltd. for video surveillance. Both SIS and RiVACOM will be providing the software solutions and equipment for video telephony and video surveillance services, respectively.

Meanwhile, for its integrated mobile advertising services, BSNL has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with M/s UTPL. Through this service a BSNL mobile customer can receive advertisements of various products and services in accordance to his/her profile, preference and convenience, added Goyal.