Ortel launches new internet tech in Orissa

With this. the Bhubaneswar based company has become the first in south Asia to emerge as a complete convergence provider, said Mrs Jagi Mangat Panda, director, OCL.

"It is a culmination of our dream to become a complete convergence services provider. We have built a world-class Hybrid Fibre Coaxial [HFC] network, with over 30 fibre nodes in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, since 1995", she added

The adoption of new technology will bring down the modem costs significantly. In Docsis system, the modems will cost only Rs 5000 against the normal cable modem cost of Rs 9000 in non-Docsis network. "Besides it is faster and reliable", she said.

OCL, which got the first ISP license in the country in the private sector, has more than 500 internet customers including 100 cyber cafes and 30 corporate houses.

According to M. Patnaik, chief technology officer of OCL, US based Cable Labs had developed Docsis 2.0 technology and began its technical experimentation in December last year. In June, this year it was launched commercially.

"Cable Labs is the industry leader in broadband communication. Docsis has distinct advantage over other new telecom standards like digital subscriber line (DSL) and satellite broadband. It is cheaper in comparison to other technologies because of absence of telephone charges", Patnaik said.

Docsis 2.0 also will provide quality service like guaranteed bandwidth as high as 30 mb per second and toll-quality phone service on voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology. OCL also plans to provide phone services on VOIP technology by the end of the year.

B P Rath, assistant vice-president of OCL said that with several classes of service ranging from the low-end 64 kbps shared-bandwidth internet access to the high-end Rs 35,000 high-bandwidth leased lineservices under its belt, the company expected a sizeable increase in its internet service customers inn the coming days.