The Tamil Nadu (TN) government has selected Vodafone via a tender process for its subsidized fiber Internet service that will be offered under the ‘Arasu Cable TV Corporation’ brand, an IT department notice from the TN government said. Currently, Vodafone’s leased lines are present in 2,577 households who are now able to connect to the Internet via the state sponsored fiber project. TN government said that it has additionally floated more tenders, inviting applications from interested entities (mostly telcos and ISPs) to partner with Arasu Cable for providing Internet services. The state claims to have received 392 applications, and has selected 170 applicants for deploying Internet services in 24,750 new households across the state. Along with fiber Internet, TN govt is also providing IPTV services and WiFi. On the cable TV side, Arasu Cable claims to have 70.52 lakh subscribers as of May this year, compared to 4.94 lakh subscribers reported in 2011. The cable TV service also counts 26,378 local cable TV operators. Arasu Cable services and tariffs Arasu Cable TV Corporation was set up in May 2011 with an initial investment of Rs 3 crore and was later renamed as ‘Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd’ (TACTV). The state-owned digitization project provides 4 kinds of subsidized services: Fiber Internet: The TN government started rolling out subsidized connections to all households in the state back in March 2016. The service charge Rs 299 per month for a 2mbps connection with a 5GB monthly FUP limit, incrementally increasing the prices…
