Triple-play is here. State-owned telco Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is set to launch India's first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service.

MTNL offers basic landline and mobile telephony in the metro cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. Its ADSL broadband service Triband has around 300,000 subscribers. MTNL will offer IPTV to its 2.2 million subscribers in a week's time.

IPTV users will be able to enjoy TV programs, make calls and surf the Internet simultaneously, using the same broadband connection. The service allows watching of programs and movies-on-demand, with the option of replaying. So if you have been on a vacation and missed your favorite TV programs, you can watch them using this service.

A subscriber has to go in for a settop box (STB) to be able to use the service. One-time costs for the user include Rs1,000 for the STB and Rs500 as a security deposit. There will be a monthly rental of Rs125 for 30 free-to-air channels and a pay channel will cost Rs5 per month. MTNL hopes to grow the number of channels to 150 soon.

Users can expect a host of interactive services such as interactive television, music-on-demand, video-on-demand, video calling, gaming, stock trading and online shopping.

At present the phone line of a Triband user is split into two: One going to the phone and the other going to the PC for broadband. For the IPTV service there will be a three-way split, with the third wire going into the STB.

MTNL will issue a consolidated bill for all the three services: Phone, broadband and IPTV.

Mumbai-based IOL Broadband is the content provider for MTNL. It has tied up with Aksh Optic and UT Starcom for the delivery of IPTV.