Public sector telco Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today announced the launch of its fibre-to-home high speed Internet service.

"We believe MTNL's fibre-to-home initiative would give subscribers limitless possibilities by serving requirements of high bandwidth applications and this would revolutionise the way subscribers work, live and play. It will offer triple-play solution including voice, video and data," MTNL chairman and managing director AK Garg told reporters.

The loss-making telco which operates in Mumbai and New Delhi has spent Rs 80 crore on this platform.

The company plans to acquire around 15,000 subscribers in six months and expects an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 700, he said.

The company intends to enable voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) as well as IPTV on its fibre-to-home connections.

"Initially, we intend to focus on multi-storeyed buildings where MTNL already has fibre optic cables in place.

We intend to take fibre optic cables to all new buildings. We will shortly float a tender to empanel private sales and marketing partners in Mumbai, especially for its suburban areas like Navi Mumbai. We also plan to increase our reseller base for other telecom products," he said.

The company also intends to push its 3G data cards priced at Rs 1,599, which it claims is the cheapest in the market.

"At the moment, 26 percent of our copper based landline users are internet users. We would like to migrate these existing users to our fibre-to-home service," he said.