Meghbela to offer unlimited voice over broadband

Meghbela Cable and Broadband Services, the first ISP in Eastern India to deliver video, data and wireless services through fiber-to-home on Friday said, it will offer unlimited free local and STD facility to its subscribers bundled with its broadband services.

Meghbela Cable and Broadband Services, the first ISP in Eastern India to deliver video, data and wireless services through fiber-to-home on Friday said, it will offer unlimited free local and STD facility to its subscribers bundled with its broadband services. The city-based broadband service provider said the new services will help them grow and the company was aiming to add two lakh additional subscribers by December 2021 amid aggressive pricing by telcos like Jio and Airtel with their all-inclusive broadband services.

The company which has an active broadband subscriber base of 1.5 lakh will offer fixed line voice services from January. Last mile connectivity is the USP of Meghbela over telcos which boasts 10,000 km of over-head and 2000 km of underground optic-fiber-cable infrastructure. ''We are first ISP in the east to become four-play service provider in the eastern India. In the first phase we will expand our base in other eastern states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha,'' Meghbela Broadband co-founder and director, Tapabrata Mukherjee said.

''We will continue to grow amid competition as there is scope for all. But, despite telcos hitting the market with aggressive tariff plans our demand had grown by nearly 40 per cent in the recent months,'' co-founder and director Indranil Bhattacharya said. Similar to mobile tariffs, in the next six months these broadband tariffs by the telcos will also get revised as these are not sustainable, Mukherjee said.

The tariff of telcos for value-added broadband begins from Rs 500 onwards while for ISPs it is Rs 1000 and above depending on bandwidth and other value-added subscriptions. ''However, in the medium term, basic ARPU (average realisation per subscribers) for broadband players will be in the rage of Rs 500-1200 for basic to premium services,'' Mukherjee estimated.

To offer four-play, Meghbela unveiled a voice-enabled android box for consumers looking to convert their regular TV sets into a smart TV providing access to premium OTT platforms and more than 150 live TV channels. The company also plan to launch IPTV (TV on internet protocol) by February 2021.

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