Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), the state-owned telecom services provider, has launched its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) high-speed broadband service that integrates voice, data and video in Mumbai with plans to cover 5,000 homes by next month.

Combining cloud computing, VoIP and IPTV at speeds of 100 Mbps, FTTH will allow for a mix of voice, data and video services using a single fibre, rather than multiple copper cables.

It will also have much less interruption than traditional voice services, besides being much faster. However, the services will be bundled with a handset.

“We will roll out FTTH services in a phased manner, using our own network of 100-odd buildings in Mumbai which are already fibre-enabled, and with the help of franchisees,” said AK Garg, chairman and managing director of MTNL. “The first phase rollout will be for commercial complexes in south Mumbai and in the next phase we will roll out the service in Navi Mumbai and the western suburbs.”

Franchisee tenders will be floated within the next two days.

Under FTTH, the telecom company is offering three tariff plans. The commercial data plans range from Rs5,999 for 10 Mbps to Rs39,999 for 100 Mbps. The residential unlimited data plans range from Rs1,999 for 1 Mbps to Rs9,999 for 4 Mbps. FTTH voice services are priced at Rs50 for 65 calls, Rs100 for 140 calls, and Rs200 for 290 calls.

There is also a fixed price FTTH voice plan priced at Rs550, which offers 50 free calls.

Coming three months after the rollout of FTTH services in Delhi, MTNL will tap the 26% of its current landline-cum-internet users in Mumbai for this premium service.

With an investment of Rs80 crore in the project, MTNL is looking at adding 15,000 subscribers in the next six months. Till date, the number of MTNL’s FTTH subscribers in Delhi number 100-200. The company is also expecting average revenue per user of Rs700 per FTTH connection.

MTNL also announced a new plan, under which all its landline users in Mumbai will get broadband connectivity for a monthly rental of Rs30. Customers will get 50 MB free data usage for a month with download speed of 2 Mbps under this plan.

On reports of the company planning to shut down its CDMA business, Garg said, “While we have stopped investing in our CDMA business as it is conflicting with our GSM rollout, we have no plans of shutting down operations. Instead, we are expecting to find an original equipment manufacturer or operator to partner with us for our CDMA business within the next two months.”

MTNL currently has 1 lakh CDMA users in Delhi and 50,000 in Mumbai.