BSNL Chennai Telephones will shortly launch a live portal that will uncork a host of value added services for 2G and 3G mobile users.
The “bsnllive” portal will be operated on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) platform where a browser provides all the essential services available on a computer-based web browser in a format customised for the smaller display screen.
Though a late starter on the live portal front —most rivals already manage highly successful portals providing fare ranging from music and movies to videos — BSNL expects to compensate by offering a comprehensive spread of information and entertainment. The categories of content would include cricket, astrology, cosmetics, recipes, cookery and multimedia games.
One-stop portal
In particular, officials are pinning hopes on the one-stop portal to kick-start another wave of interest in 3G mobiles. Growth in the 3G sector has been sluggish with the user base in Chennai estimated around 30,000 (only 5,000 of which are post-paid connections).
According to a Chennai Telephones official, there could be more activity on the 3G front once the city and suburbs come under one seamless grid. Work is progressing on adding over 100 Node B towers to the existing 440 cell sites.
“While the WAP portal belongs to the 2G and GPRS generation, it can have a magic of its own on a 3G phone,” an official said.
The higher speeds at which data is carried across the 3G network will help enhance the experience as movies are streamed on demand real-time instead of being stored and played.
A strong point of the portal is likely to be the music, video and games sections.
Apart from warehousing a substantial library of 5-6 minute-long video clips, the sub-sections on the portal will also enable users to download mp3 version of film songs.
The portal is being designed in a manner where at each stage of accessing content the charges are displayed accompanied by a “buy” tab to click for initiating a download or streaming.
