MUMBAI: Last mile owner (LMO) Ortel Communications, in order to strengthen its broadband base in Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh has introduced free broadband offer for its cable TV subscribers. This complimentary broadband service is part of the LMOs special value added service (VAS).
The service will be available in areas where Ortel Broadband is provisioned within its cable TV network.
The offer includes free data limit of 250 MB every month for a year, post which the subscriber will be charged a nominal fee for any usage exceeding the free data limit in a month. The plan also includes unlimited upload data offer. However, if the subscriber wants to migrate to any other existing Ortel Broadband plans, they can within the offer period of one year.
It can be noted that Ortel Broadband has already started offering mega speed broadband of 50 Mbps using DOCSIS 3.0 technology in select areas of Bhubaneswar.
The broadband segment revenue for the company grew 5.2 per cent to Rs 28.89 crore in FY-2015 from Rs 27.47 crore in FY-2014. Not just this, the operating profit from broadband segment grew a healthy 43.3 per cent to Rs 20.89 crore in FY-2015 from Rs 14.57 crore in FY-2014. Within this segment, internet connection fees grew 12 per cent in the current year to Rs 1.9 crore from Rs 1.7 crore in FY-2014.
The retail broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) for Ortel currently stands at Rs 356 as compared to Rs 373 in both FY-2014 and FY-2013. The broadband revenue generating unit (RGU) for the company stood at 58,519 in FY-2015.
Ortel Communications president & CEO Bibhu Prasad Rath said, “We are glad to launch free Broadband Combo offer to Ortel Cable TV customers. Our objective is to deepen our penetration into markets by making internet affordable and continuously delight our valued customers. We have been constantly adding value to our customers and this free broadband offer will be useful for those who are having limited download and unlimited uploads.”
“In addition, the company has already actively deployed DOCSIS 3.0 recently to deliver impressive internet surfing experience to its subscribers. With faster digitisation of Cable TV customers, we will be in a strong position to leverage the opportunity by offering combo plans of cable TV and internet connections,” he added.
