Triple play broadband in Pune, Chennai by Jan

India's public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd plans to roll out triple play broadband services by January 2007, starting with the cities of Pune and Chennai.

"We would launch the triple play services first in Pune and Chennai by January next year, followed by Kolkata and Bangalore," BSNL CMD A K Sinha told PTI on the sidelines of the fifth CEOs conclave of SAARC region telecom operators organised by Voice & Data.

For the service that combines voice, video and Internet, BSNL is looking at multiple tie-ups with content service providers to provide on-demand and region-specific video services.

"What we want right now is content service providers. We would have local alliance rather than with few national majors. The content alliances would be in place in the next few months," said Sinha.

While declining to give a detailed tariff structure, he said the base tariff would be below Rs 500, which would be increased depending on the needs of the consumer.

The service would ride on BSNL's vast broadband network and would serve the major cities by the end of the 2007, Sinha said. Already, another telecom PSU MTNL has launched triple play in Mumbai.