Bharat on-line

May 13, 1999: Following the concept of ‘america-on-line’— the largest and the most popular portal site on the world wide web, MTNL is setting up a Indian site named— ‘bharat on-line’ (bol.net.in). This site will serve as an interactive and comprehensive portal site for connecting the rest of the world to India. This interactive site will showcase Indian culture and the developments made in various contexts. It will also host various ongoing Indian and international events.

The site will feature general topics covering news-updates, weather, classifieds, etc.; special interest sections like sports, technology, trade and business, travel and tourism, entertainment, health, and a host of other interactive facilities like discussion panels, on-line chat available to the Net users free of charge.

The site is being created and maintained by Intermesh systems, the creators of IndiaMART.com — India’s largest business and travel service provider on the world wide web. The site will be continuously updated and developed into a complete one-stop site providing interface to diverse Indian subjects. This is the first site of its kind putting India in the upfront.

In the heat of the ongoing cricket fever, the site has been launched with live coverage of the World Cup ’99 on-line as a curtain raiser. The site not only offers a ball-to-ball commentary of the ongoing matches, but also includes interesting features like history of all six world cups held in the past and records made during past World Cups and one day-internationals. It also contains interesting sections like schedule of the World Cup matches, card-file of all the competing teams with detailed profiles of the top players who are expected to create waves in the ’99 World Cup.

This site uniquely presents the accounts of famous Umpires, the momentous history of World Cup venues and a list of trophies and prizes to be awarded during the World Cup. Other highlights are features like on-line polls for the winning team, the official World Cup song, CEAT rating of the world’s top 20 cricketers. A section on the point distribution system lists out the rules laid out for the teams to qualify for each successive round. Daily news updates will keep the surfers informed with the latest events of the event. The unique feature of the site is its visual appeal and eye-catching sporty layout. The site is designed to facilitate easy browsing and downloading using cutting edge Internet technology.

MTNL is continuously extending its area of operation from mere telephony to communication and connectivity as its move towards becoming a world-class organization in this era of communication revolution. With internet becoming a window to the global information superhighway, MTNL has become a leading ISP (Internet service provider) in India. MTNL now provides Internet based services like PSTN and ISDN dial-up services, lease-line connections, and web-hosting services. Other innovative services in its profile are Voice mail service, Intelligent Network Services, Data Network Services, Leased lines, and Telex in addition to free of charge Phone Plus services. ‘Bharat on line’ will be another giant leap towards its growth. With the launch of this web-site, MTNL, coming up with whole range of world-class-services in communication technology will come a way ahead of its competition in the private sector.