New year bonanza for MTNL, BSNL subscribers

NEW DELHI: New Year bonanza awaits the subscribers of BSNL and MTNL broadband service from January 1 - they will get 2 Mbps connection at the same rate at which they were getting a sluggish 256 Kbps till now.

This was announced by Union communications and information technology minister Dayanidhi Maran at the inauguration of a new building of MTNL here. The new building will house futuristic services of the MTNL like convergent billing, 3-G, NGN and IP-MPLS.

The convergent billing system will enable the MTNL to provide single bill of all services against multiple bills. In addition it will enable the MTNL to roll out its services faster and in an efficient manner. This will further enable the customers of the MTNL to access through Internet the status of their bills on real-time basis.

The department of telecommunication has declared 2007 as  "Year of Broadband" in India. The enhancement of broadband speed will further popularise the usage of the broadband in the country, the minister hoped.

Speaking on the sidelines, Maran said that the convergent billing system of MTNL will come into effect from March 31, next year. He further announced that all the existing broadband customers of MTNL will be automatically upgraded to the speed of upto 2 Mbps from the existing 256 Kbps from January 1, 2007 at the existing rates.