MUMBAI: Hathway Cable Internet has set its sights on netting the broadband internet mass market with its two new packages that offer twice the broadband access speed at less than half the price vis-à-vis its previous offers.

Aiming to lower the entry price of broadband cable Internet, the cable internet service provider (ISP) is introducing two broadband packages branded as Rush and Velocity.

While both packages allow an access speed of 128 kilo bytes per second (kbps) each, Rush offers a data transfer or download limit of 300 mega bytes (MB) for Rs 300 a month or Rs 3,000 a year whereas the other package, Velocity, offers a higher download limit of 750 MB for Rs 1,000 a month or Rs 10,000 a year.

While there may not be many takers for Hathway's Velocity plan, which offers limited MB download for Rs 1,000 as against unlimited access from competitors at the same price point, the Rush plan is more likely to generate healthy consumer response as individual users usually do not require more than 300 MB downloads. Also, prospective individual consumers are more likely to pay a reasonable Rs 300 on a monthly basis for limited download access.Earlier, Hathway was offering an entry price of Rs 650 for an access speed of 64 kbps. Competitor SitiCable Networks offers two unlimited download plans for individual users for Rs 750 and Rs 1,000 per month each while the Tata owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) offers an unlimited download plan for Rs 1,000 per month in the individual user category.

Earlier this year, Hathway had also halved its cable modem price from Rs 6,750 to Rs 3,333. The modem is built on DOCSIS (Data over Cable Services Interface Specifications) technology.
What remains to be seen is whether competitors react to Hathway's slashed tariff plans with their own or sustain their existing price points.