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The Government has granted in-principle clearance to
a few Internet service providers (ISPs) for setting up international gateway,
according to guidelines issued in the first week of February 2000. The
department of telecom (DoT) issued licenses to companies including Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Dishnet-DSL subject to some specific conditions.
The companies have been asked to set up the gateway
within the service area of the Internet service providers license, besides
ensuring that it is used only for Internet traffic and not for any unlawful
activity. The ISPs can commission the gateway only after getting the final
clearance from the licensor. To guard against any form of anti-national
activity, the ISPs have been asked to put monitoring equipment at the gateway
location on its own in coordination with Center for Development of Telematics
(C-DoT). The licensees are not permitted to set up gateways in security
sensitive areas. Internet traffic of all ISPs in such areas has to be routed
through Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (VSNL) gateway. DoT has listed security
sensitive areas as Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Northeastern states, border areas
of Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and coastal areas of Gujarat and
Tamil Nadu.
With
this government has issued in principle clearance to all ISPs who have applied
for international gateway license using satellite technology. The ISPs,
however, will have to approach wireless planning commission (WPC) for frequency
allocation and clearance. The companies have also been asked to make a
contribution within a month, for setting up a centralised monitoring facility.
The final clearance would depend on WTC clearance, commissioning of monitoring
equipment at the gateway location, payment of contribution for monitoring
facility and other mandatory verifications. As many as 24 companies have
applied for setting up inter-national gateways. The government has given around
225 ISP licenses so far.
Private ISPs allowed to use Ku-band
Private
Internet service providers can use spectrum in the Ku-band transponders for
international connectivity. The use of Ku-band not only improves quality of
transmission but also reduces the capital cost of setting up gateways
drastically. The Centre is yet to decide on allowing international connectivity
through sub-marine cables.
Till now, Ku-band frequencies were not permitted for
use by private telecom operators. They were permitted to use frequencies in
c-band and extended c-band.
The use of Ku-band improves the quality of
transmission of data and reduces the capital cost drastically due to a smaller
dish size. The diameter of antenna in a Ku-band gateway is between 1 to 1.5
metre while the size of a c-band antenna is between 3.7 and 7 metre. The cost
of ground equipment decreases by as much as 50 per cent and the maintenance
cost also comes down in Ku-band due to the smaller size of the antenna.
Pricing Issues
ISP tariffs have fallen sharply with better
economies of scale, lower costs for international leased lines, falling
hardware prices and the fierce competition in the domestic market. The original
monopoly provider VSNL had started its service, in 1995, at a pricing of
Rs.15,000 for 500 hours. This has come down substantially to a figure of
Rs..5500 currently.
According to a recent statement by Mr.Rajagopalan,
he expects Internet access to become free in the near future. The private ISPs
have triggered off the innovations in the pricing structure with a variety of
pricing packages