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PTCL set to launch ‘triple-play’ service

* DSL Internet, TV channels and phone services will be provided on one line

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited will soon launch a ‘triple play’ service, enabling its customers to access more than 100 TV channels, digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet connection and a regular phone service on a single phone line, Daily Times learnt on Friday.

Initially, the service will be introduced in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. It will be extended to other cities in the coming years.

Sources in PTCL said the service would be introduced this year, adding that it had so far cost around Rs 3.5 billion to the company. “The triple-play service will charge PTCL customers around Rs 1,500 per month,” the sources added.

Though PTCL had already been providing DSL Internet connection in a number of exchanges across the country, the system needed to be overhauled. “The company has now overhauled its system. It has replaced copper cables with optical fibre ones to provide the best possible service to its customers,” sources said.

A PTCL official requesting anonymity, said copper cables had been laid from exchanges to telephone cabinets in the past. “Providing proper TV channels and DSL Internet services to customers requires fibre optic cables,” he said.

“The company has been working on the project for two years. Optical Network Units (ONU) have been installed in several telephone exchanges,” the official said, adding that the new service would enable PTCL customers to watch 100 to 250 TV channels.

PTCL plans to expand the service in phases across the country. During the first phase, the company will provide the service in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The required network will be installed across the country within a year. Two Chinese companies have installed more than 350 ONUs from exchanges to telephone cabinets by replacing old copper cables with optic fibres. One optic network unit costs Rs 10 million.

PTCL Corporate Strategies Executive Vice President Zomma Mohiuddin said the company had been working on the ‘triple-play’ project for the last two years. He said the service would be extended to around 10 more cities by June 2008.

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