Bharti has been testing 3G services in India for a while now. Now, Bharti is testing the DTH services in Gurgaon, reports Business Standard. Bharti Telemedia is the brand under which the company will be providing the service.
The news says that Bharti has been testing some 80-100 set-top box installations in various homes in Gurgaon. Bharti has been using the MPEG-4 technology. This is technically superior to the MPEG-2 technology used by Zee’s Dish TV or Tata and Star’s Tata Sky DTH service.
MPEG-4 is a better compression technique. USineg the older MPEG-2, 15-17 channels can be hosted on a DTH transponder, whereas an MPEG-4 transponder can accommodate 22-25 channels. Even Anil Ambani’s BIG-TV is in the process of launching their DTH service using the MPEG-4 technology. They have even started the testing. It was heard that they are facing some technical glitches in their set top boxes and had to recall around 50,000 set-top boxes from the market.
The cable TV subscription rates have been rising ever since. And the quality has been degrading. Having DTH services gives a good alternative to the end consumer. Seems, there might soon be around 4-5 players in the market.
