MUMBAI: Aksh Optifibre has signed an agreement with BSNL to provide IPTV services to its subscribers services in 20 cities in Northern India covering Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP (West) on broadband network of BSNL.

As per the agreement, the company needs to have 10,000 IPTV subscribers within a span of nine months across 20 cities. However, the company is confident of increasing the number of multifold. BSNL has a total landline network of 40 million across India and six million in North India, which means that there is potential for IPTV services. The tie-up will also create thousands of job opportunities for individuals in various fields like marketing, sales, content development, support, product enhancement etc.

The incremental cost for acquiring, creating content and subscribers is expected to be Rs 5 billion. Funding of this project is through international market and the company has recently concluded a GDR / FCCB issue of $ 40 million in January 2008 to part finance the IPTV and VOIP services in Delhi and Mumbai.

Aksh Optifibre MD Dr. Kailash Choudhari said, "It is our endeavour to provide cost effective services to the masses and also to enter into tier II and III cities along with rural areas, giving them full rights to interactive entertainment in true sense establishing IPTV as the most competitive platform."