BSNL broadband @ 24 Mbps

The broadband segment in the country seems to be hotting up. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has launched the fastest broadband connection in the country, offering speeds of up to 24 Mbps. This comes after Bharti Airtel claimed to be offering the fastest broadband after it launched a 16 Mbps line.

BSNL's high-speed broadband is being made available with Very high speed Digital Subscriber Loop (VDSL) Technology. To avail themselves of the service, subscribers will have to pay Rs 4,999 a month for speeds up to 16 Mbps and Rs 9,999 a month for speeds up to 24 Mbps.

However, the service is currently not available for everyone. Only those customers who are close to BSNL's broadband exchange nodes can subscribe to the service. While 24 Mbps broadband will be available to customers who are at a distance of up to 500 metres from the exchange, 16 Mbps broadband is available to customers up to around 1 km from the exchange. BSNL does not have the capability to offer high-speed connection over a longer distance at present.

For other subscribers, BSNL is already offering broadband service with speeds ranging from 256 kbps up to 8 Mbps. BSNL offers its broadband services with value-added services such asgames on demand, music and video on demand, Web conferencing, Virtual Private Network on IPTV, video tutoring, video surveillance, Web co-location, Web-hosting.

Broadband speed in India is lagging behind other countries. For example, in Japan consumers can get up to 100 Mbps connection. Subscriber growth is also sluggish in India with only 8 million broadband users till now.