BSNL will use its existing infrastructure to offer hi-speed Internet under Dataone. Subsequently, Dataone will also provide virtual private network (VPN), multicasting, video conferencing, video-on-demand and other broadcast applications after an agreement with content providers. The services will be commercially launched on January 15 across 198 cities in India, BSNL officials said.

BSNL general manager (marketing) C V Nagleela said Dataone would offer speeds from 256 kbps to 2 mbps, depending upon the plan. ??But the call charges and rental of the landline will be over and above the tariff for Dataone,?? she said.

According to the tariff plan designed by BSNL, the basic plan for domestic consumers come at a monthly rental of Rs 500 or a discounted annual subscription rate of Rs 5,000. Under the Home 500 plan, consumers will be able to surf the net at 256 kbps, can download or upload matter up to 1 GB and get one mail account free with a space of 5 MB.

Similarly, domestic consumers can go for faster speeds of 384 kbps, 512 kbps or 1 Mbps under the Home 1000, Home 1800 and Home 3300 plans respectively. The remaining three plans can also be subscribed at an annual discounted price of Rs 10,000, Rs 18,000 or Rs 33,000 respectively. Besides speed, the download/upload limits also go up in the range of 2 GB, 5 GB and 10 GB respectively.

However, those going for the last three plans will have to give two months rental as security deposit, while for Home 500 plan there is no such charge.

For the business plans, the basic package has a speed of 256 kbps only. But unlike the domestic segment, the basic plan in business class has a rental of Rs 1,200 but has a higher download/upload limit of 4 GB.

The remaining three business plans come with a rental of Rs 3,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 9,000 respectively. The download/upload limits are much higher in the range of 10 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB respectively.Full story at:

BSNL aims to ?broadband? with hi-speed, low tariff