The Hindu Business Line : BSNL video conferencing services by month-end

YOU WILL now be able to see the person you are talking to on the telephone. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is launching video conferencing services by the month-end, which will enable its subscribers to hear and see each other from the comforts of their homes or workplace.

To avail themselves of the service, subscribers will have to install a video end-point (H.323 standard), which is widely available in the market. Companies like Sony offer high-quality video end-points. Users with a PC can also download the software called `PVX' from BSNL's Web portal to avail the video conferencing facility with their Web cam. But the service can be expensive for individual users. First, you need an ISDN line, which has a minimum rental of Rs 400 a month. That apart, subscribers will have to pay a non-refundable one-time registration fee of Rs 200 and a monthly rental of Rs 100. BSNL will also charge Rs 10 per minute for the service.

For consumers who do not want to pay a monthly fee, BSNL is also offering the facility at its customer service centres across 94 cities. Specially-designed studios with a 786 MBPS bandwidth have already been set up in these centres. This is the first time that video conferencing is being made available for retail users in the country.

Other telecom operators either have pilots running or have the service for the large corporate segment only. For instance, Tata-managed VSNL has public video conferencing studios in 10 cities, primarily useful for holding corporate meetings.

BSNL is expected to launch the service across 94 cities including Chennai, Coimbatore, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Shillong, Noida, Ghaziabad, Agra, Jaipur, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Aurangabad. The company plans to roll out the facility to every district headquarters in the second phase.

The Union Communication and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, is slated to inaugurate the service on January 20.

Video conferencing also allows users to chat with a number of people simultaneously for which BSNL has installed a conferencing bridge at Gurgaon.

The company plans to offer the service to its existing subscribers only in the the initial phase.