Chenai: Tamilnadu Arasu Cable Television Corp. Ltd has obtained a license from the Department of Telecommunications to provide broadband and internet services in the southern state.
The state-owned cable television company will provide internet and broadband services to households in Tamil Nadu, the government said in a statement.
Tamilnadu Arasu Cable Television had 26,246 local cable operators and 7 million subscribers as of July 15, 2014, compared to 494,000 subscribers as of September 2, 2011.
When J. Jayalalithaa became chief minister of the state, she revived the defunct business in 2011 to provide cable television services at an affordable rate of ₹ 70 per month to subscribers.
In 2007, Mr. Karunanidhi, party leader of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, established the cable television company.
On September 15, Jayalalithaa had announced the government’s decision to provide Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) to all homes in the state by leveraging the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license obtained by Arasu Cable. The goal is to provide IPTV as well as high-speed broadband and other Internet services.
She also announced her intention to establish Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corp. with an investment of ₹ 3,000 crores to implement the central government’s Bharatnet program to link village panchayats through fiber optics. This project is expected to connect more than 12,000 village panchayats by fiber optic.
