MTNL will come out with a new marketing strategy including an advertising campaign on TV to create awareness among Net users about the cost-effectiveness of its ISDN services. The company has targeted a customer base of 5,000 in Mumbai alone by the end of this year.

Said MTNL chief general manager, S Ramani Iyer, "we have been getting good response for the service. From a customer base of just 700 in June, the subscribers have gone up to around 2,000 and we expect to finish the year with 5,000 users."

At present, MTNL sells the facility through marketing agencies which sell various equipment based on ISDN. The new TV campaign will focus on positioning ISDN as the affordable and effective medium for all communication purposes. "Net access through ISDN is an attractiveand affordable way for corporates. Even individuals can afford it since they can pay as per the usage. Some of the ISPs have taken the MTNL ISDN connection for providing Net access," said Iyer.

MTNL removed the minimum monthly fee of Rs 5,000 in June. As per the new structure, there is a one-time registration fee of Rs 3,000 and a minimum monthly rental of Rs 1,000. As per the policy, the monthly rental will have to be paid in advance for 12 months.

The ISDN facility has a bandwidth of 128 kbps or two channels having a capacity of 64 kbps each. ISDN has been finding its use in a number of facilities like video-conferencing, faster data transfer, simultaneous voice calls and digital fax.

If used as a telephone, one ISDN line can be used as two separate lines having 64 kbps capacity for better voice transmission and quality. A normal telephone has a lower bandwidth, of 28-32 kbps.

ISDN is highly suited for video-conferencing with two separate lines carrying voice and video. VSATs are another medium forvideo-conferencing, but is comparatively expensive. Corporates are the major users of video-conferencing.

Among its other plans, MTNL has decided to lay a 36 kbps line connecting the Flora Fountain area in Mumbai to the central exchange in south Mumbai to provide faster Net access to subscribers in that area.

On the plans to provide e-commerce backbone to users, MTNL chief general manager said the company is keenly watching the enactment of cyber laws. "Though at present, connectivity and content take precedence over commerce on the Net, e-commerce will become a part of life once required regulations are passed," Iyer said.

MTNL, through a tie-up with ICICI Bank, allows payment of bills online as of now.