Spectra, formerly known as Spectranet, said it is now offering what is arguably India’s cheapest high-speed broadband service, even as rumors of an impending launch of Reliance Jio’s JioFiber start gaining momentum.
Under the plan, Spectra said customers will get a download and upload speed of 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) with unlimited data usage for Rs 1,249 plus taxes per month.
The company is also providing a free dual-band router as well.
Customers have to pay Rs 1,000 as installation charge and Rs 2,000 as a refundable deposit.
The service is available in eight cities — Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune & Chennai.
The ISP is part of the Shyam Telecom group, which acquired it from Punj Lloyd about ten years ago.
Broadband players in India have been cutting prices aggressively in the last two years due to the impending launch of Reliance Jio’s gigabit fiber broadband-cum-IPTV service JioFiber.
Two years ago, Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that JioFiber would be launched in 100 cities in India.
However, the company is yet to launch services and is expected to do so within the next six months.
Meanwhile, the biggest private sector wired broadband services player, Bharti Airtel, has also started aggressively swapping its copper-based connections with fiber-based connections to offer higher speeds.
It was earlier offering a top speed of around 40 Mbps, and has recently unveiled plans with speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
Compared to Jio’s plans of reaching 100 cities, Airtel’s wired broadband service is already present in 89 cities in the country.
However, incumbent broadband and cable operators are fearful that Jio’s entry could be accompanied by a massive shakeout of smaller players in the industry as was seen in the wireless segment, as well as in markets like the US where a single player, Comcast, virtually decimated the competition.