LCO’s form ‘Bengal Broadband’ to be effective from FY15

LCOs in Kolkata have joined hands to form Bengal Broadband in order to provide independent cable services to their customers along the lines of mutli-system operators (MSOs) like SitiCable, Manthan, Incable among others. The LCOs plan to start their operation from the next fiscal, 2014-15.

The company has invested around Rs 4.8 crore in setting up a headend equipment and office infrastructure at Salt Lake College More in the city. It aims to have one million subscribers in the first year of its operations as they plan to provide digital connections to consumers at reduced rates, at around 15 to 20 per cent less than the MSOs.

Bengal Broadband director Mrinal Chatterjee said that the company will be able to offer services to customers at a cheaper rate as they would no longer have to pay a part of the profit to the MSOs. “It will be an operators’ driven MSO. We are looking to generate around Rs 100 crore as revenue in the first year of our operations,” said Chatterjee.

 “However, in future, we plan to get another 1,000 LCOs under our fold and we will also focus to expand to the entire Bengal region,” added Chatterjee, also adding that the group is planning to expand in terms of infrastructure and is not looking for any profit in the first year of business.

Chaterjee also informed that they have already appointed three directors for Bengal Broadband and can appoint up to 12.

Perceiving digitisation as a threat to their business, the LCOs affiliated with Siticable, Manthan, GTPL, Incable and Digicable among others have also united.

Earlier we reported how a group of LCOs and independent MSOs met the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Technology in New Delhi to discuss the issue. The recent development is a result of that.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/3742-lco%E2%80%99s-form-%E2%80%98bengal-broadband%E2%80%99-to-be-effective-from-fy15.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/3742-lco%E2%80%99s-form-%E2%80%98bengal-broadband%E2%80%99-to-be-effective-from-fy15.html