Plans, still on the drawing board, envisage Net access at prices lower than that of government-owned VSNL or any other service provider. At the same time, the high bandwidth cable TV lines will be able to provide a minimum speed of 56kbps to users, according to top sources.

RPG Netcom is planning to provide two kinds of services - one nicknamed `the poor man's internet' is designed to use the television for the purpose of Net access. The second envisages a division of the cable connection between the television and a personal computer.

The plans are to provide a bandwidth of 10mbps for the forward route and a 2mbps return route to the serious user of internet. The so called `poor man' on the other hand will get a minimum of 56kbps access.

In exceptional cases, special connectionswith a bandwidth of 30mbps on the forward path and 10mbps on the return path can also be provided.

RPG Netcom is in talks with several companies offering web television technologies for set-top boxes. RPG sources said, "serious users will have to use a cable modem. A 10mbps cable modem will cost approximately Rs 10,000. However, a lot would depend on the volumes and if they are high the price of a cable modem may be as low as Rs 5,000."

Sources pointed out that, "when you consider the fact that our access charges will be lower than VSNL's and there will be no hidden cost of telephone bills, the real impact can be understood."

Cable modems provide for an extra layer of security. In the technology developed by IEEE-Cable Lab, each modem is awarded a unique address identifiable by the network monitoring system.

RPG is yet to decide on the technology that it will adopt for data transfer. The data over cable network system (Docsys) and the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) are the two technologies beingconsidered.

The basic difference between the two technologies is that ATM sends data in smaller packets and in a scrambled form. It is a more secure mode of transfer but the costs are double that of the Docsys technology.

Sources indicate that the details are likely to be finalised by the end of June. RPG Netcom managing director Prabir Bose told The Financial Express, "we are still in the process of finalising the technology to be used for providing internet access."

RPG Netcom has based its cable transmission as a MSO on a hybrid fibre co-axial network (also known as optic fibre). However, the last mile access to be provided by the cable operator has been the cause of concern.

Sources said, "we have looked into the infrastructure of the cable operators and do believe that they need not change their entire infrastructure. Apart from providing standardised connections with regular junctions very little investment will be needed from their part."