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MTNL launches India’s first 3G mobile TV service with Aksh Optifiber
NEW DELHI: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has commercially launched India’s first 3G-driven mobile television service with the help of Alcatel-Lucent in collaboration with Aksh Optifibre.
This new mobile TV service makes multimedia and entertainment a reality for millions of MTNL mobile subscribers in the metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai. The service was launched in March 2010.
Specifically, Aksh has leveraged Alcatel-Lucent’s cost-effective, flexible mobile streaming server to provide an enhanced user experience with its bandwidth adaptation and video optimisation capabilities as well as enable generate additional revenue for MTNL.
“We are proud to enable India ‘s first 3G mobile TV in Delhi and Mumbai. Mobile TV as a value added feature epitomizes convergence in technology realising the distant dream of live television viewing on the move. Our association with Alcatel-Lucent enables us to materialize that Indian 3G subscriber’s aspiration for a revolutionary product,” said Aksh Optifibre managing director Dr Kailash Choudhari.
“Streaming video is the fastest growing data service and is a key enabler for mobile operators to justify investment in 3G and LTE technologies,” said Alcatel-Lucent, India managing director Vivek Mohan. “Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile streaming server offers an exceptional viewing experience, high quality video from the very first video frame, and fast and seamless stream switching when zapping between TV channels.”
Alcatel-Lucent will provide its Mobile Streaming Server (also known in the market as pvServer); an off-the-shelf solution to launch video services on 2.5G and 3G networks. The Mobile Streaming Server supports all types of standard-based media formats and dynamic switching from high-bit rate to low-bit rate streaming based on network coverage and bandwidth availability, hence lowering cost of ownership.
It offers enhancements to all aspects of user experience, including fast start-up, bit rate adaption, quality video from frame 1 and seamless stream switching. The solution also helps monetise the mobile TV service by providing open interfaces that enable pre-roll, in-stream and post-roll ad insertion for any mobile video application.
The new mobile TV service helps Aksh Optifiber extend its existing IPTV service, iControl, currently offered to the MTNL subscribers. The new partnership also further cements Alcatel-Lucent’s role in the development of new advanced mobile services for MTNL and of 3G in India.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
