Tata Photon subscribers can now watch live television channels on their laptops on the go. The facility is called Photon TV which is available via the existing Photon CDMA 1x EV-DO connection in 22 states. The Photon TV is actually a PC or laptop based application for video streaming to your computer. There are also a library of recorded TV shows, movies, music and videos and you can get them when you like.Tata Photon is one of the best wireless internet services available in India and with the launch of Photon TV they have now thrown a good challenge to their main competitor Reliance NetConnect. We were previously assuming that the cable TV providers may come up as an alternative source for the network connection but it seems that the internet service providers like Tata Photon is coming up with the TV options as well.
Tarriff and Subscription Model
Currently there are three options for viewing the TV channels. First option is simple, pay Rs. 5 per channel per month. In the second option, you can choose a bouquet of 10 channels and you’ll get them at Rs. 29 per month. In the third option, you can get all 40 channels at Rs. 75 per month. So far, the plan may not look pricey but remember that in addition to these charges, you are going to be charged for the data streaming as per your data plan which may add up to a fair amount in total unless you have an unlimited connection.
If you have super surf plan of Rs 1,.500 per month, you can watch TV for up to 15 GB per month without any additional fees and considering that 1 min TV viewing would need data streaming of 1.2 MB, you can watch 160 hours of TV for 15 GB limit. Rajib Dingra of watblog.com thinks that real time streaming of TV content is not possible as the bandwidth of Photon Plus is not consistent while traveling but let’s hope that Tata would take some initiative for a fair experience of TV watching after tying up with Apalya Technologies for technical partnership.