WiMax ready for rollout

After much talk, tests and trials, WiMax seems to be finally ready for commercial use in India. WiMax, high-speed internet access over a wireless connection, is a low-cost way to provide internet connectivity in places where laying cables is difficult.

Chennai-based Aircel is planning to take its WiMax network national while the Tata-owned VSNL will roll out retail WiMax offerings later this year. Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is also ready to start WiMax services, having undertaken pilots at 14 locations.

VSNL as well as BSNL have partnered with Aperto Networks, developer of the world's most advanced WiMax base stations and subscriber units, to deploy multi-service broadband wireless systems.

UTStarcom Scores IPTV Deal with India's MTNL

UTStarcom, Inc. announced a three-year contract through its partnership with AKSH Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India.

The contract represents the first commercial IPTV deployment in India and AKSH Optifibre Ltd. is the first company to launch IPTV in India. AKSH is the pioneer in optifibre fiber and cable technologies and their main product is a Fiber-to-the-Home solution.

The service, which will utilize MTNL's existing broadband network as the content delivery backbone, will consist of traditional broadcast television, video- and music-on-demand, videoconferencing capabilities and time-shifted TV, allowing users to access television content on any channel up to one week in the past. All MTNL broadband subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai are anticipated to have access to the service, which launched in December 2006.
"By pricing the basic level of service at 125 rupees, we hope to attract a large number of our broadband subscribers to our IPTV service and drive revenue growth through the additional value-added services, like time-shift capabilities and video-on-demand, enabled by UTStarcom's RollingStream," Sinha added.

All matches our property: Govt makes ordinance

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved an ordinance that makes it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feed, without advertisements, of sporting events of national importance with public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan and All India Radio.

The government will introduce a Bill in the Budget Session of Parliament to make the ordinance a law.This ordinance applies to matches in India and abroad. A committee will be formed comprising members of Prasar Bharati and the Board of Control for Cricket in India to determine the technical feasibility of feed encryption, which restricts the DD feed to India.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting P R Dasmunsi hoped that the ordinance would be notified before the start of the India-Sri Lanka series, which starts on February 8.

After the ordinance comes into effect those who don’t have cable connections in their home and radio listeners would be able to receive live feed of Team India's One-Day matches, wherever it plays.

But the Test matches would not be shown live.However, for Test matches, the government has said live feed would be required only for matches played in India while for those played abroad, the highlights would be sufficient.

The decision is bound to irk private broadcasters.Private broadcasters like Nimbus and Sony TV have paid thousands of crores for rights to matches in India and the upcoming World Cup.
They will now have to give the feed free to Doordarshan. In return DD will give them 75 per cent of the ad revenues to the broadcaster."The revenues will be shared on a 75:25 basis, with the big portion going to the private broadcaster," Dasmunsi said.

Set-top boxes for Rs 1,000 soon

New Delhi January 29, 2007: A digital set-top box can be yours at one-third the price you pay now. Indian manufacturers like Bharat Electronics, and TVS are likely to manufacture set-top boxes for less than Rs 1,000. A digital set-top box is a technology interface required for encrypted television signals for conditional access system (CAS) and direct-to-home (DTH) services. Currently, the bulk of set-top boxes being supplied in India for CAS or DTH services are being imported and cost Rs 2,800-3,300. However, the government is planning various incentives to encourage Indian companies to manufacture them. The government is expected to re-impose Customs duty on imported set-top boxes and slash the 13 per cent countervailing duty currently being charged on all components required in a set-top box could be slashed by less than half.