Kerala-based Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd (ASCL) has announced an ambitious plan to create an Information superhighway for laying an optical fiber backbone that would provide high bandwidth connectivity to all parts of Kerala and also inter-link the company's various local networks. This would enable ASCL to offer digital TV, Pay TV, more terrestrial channels and Interactive TV, according to CM Radhakrishnan Nair, Managing Director of
ASCL.
At a press meet held in connection with the launch of Keralaonline, the dial-up Internet service and KeralaTalk, the Internet telephony service, Nair said that a cumulative investment of Rs 350 crore had already been made by ASCL for laying of 30,000 km Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial cable network, 50 earth stations and sophisticated facilities for network monitoring, data center operations and web services. He claimed that ASCL was the only ISP in the country to have two international gateways - one in Thiruvananthapuram and the other in Kochi. It has a total capacity of 20 MB, which is the largest in the state, among the new generation private ISPs. The new Cable TV bill passed by Parliament would enable Cable TV service providers to install addressable set top boxes with limited access to pay channels. "Asianet was most ready for such a facility since the entire backbone was digital," he added.
About future expansion plans he said that ASCL is pumping in another Rs 150 crore for laying HFC cable in the state. For some technical reasons, ASCL would not be in a position to expand its business outside the state nor start a satellite channel for a few more years, Nair said. High bandwidth and HFC backbone has enabled ASCL to offer various value-added services from time to time and it would continue. Asianet Dataline, the cable-internet service, has 3,500 subscribers altogether in business and home segments in Kochi and
Thiruvananthapuram.
Cyber News Service