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True, the annual licence fee amount is yet to be determined by the government's Inter-Ministerial Implementation Committee. In fact that amount will be fixed only three years after private ISPs have been doing business.

T O D A Y

• Net charge • US export curbs • VSNL hub decision • Data warehousing deal

But the 100-odd prospective ISPs have been intimated at a recent meeting that the bank guarantee sum is a ballpark figure which could be the tentative 'licence fee'.

The Implementation Committee has been empowered to decide on all Internet matters. The apex inter-ministerial panel is being headed by Telecom Commission Chairman A V Gokak and its other members are the Department of Electronics secretary, the railway board chairman, the union power secretary and the member secretary, Planning Commission.

The committee is exploring two options for working out the annual licence fee for ISPs - either impose a flat tariff or a differential rate linked to an individual ISP's customer base after the third year of operation.

Sources, however, indicate that any firm decision on the licence fee would be taken in consultation with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and industry associations like the Confederation of Indian Industries and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Significantly, gateway access charges which ISPs will pay the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited will also be fixed by the committee on a 'promotional basis'.

Such gateway access charges will be primarily linked to the Internet port charges levied by US telecom carriers like AT&T, Sprint or MCI as a bulk of the Net database is in the US.

The new Internet policy allows ISPs to use the network backbones of the Power Grid Corporation and the Indian Railways besides the DoT's network for domestic connectivity.

While international access will be through VSNL's six gateways, specific applications by ISPs for multiple global gateway access will be considered by the inter-ministerial panel.

Interestingly, VSNL proposes to bring down the gamut of leased access charges by 20-30 per cent, especially after the marked reduction in annual Internet port charges levied by US carriers.

Notably, the port charges payable to US carriers by VSNL for bulk Internet access through a 2 MB link has dropped sharply from $36,000 per annum to $25,000 per annum.

Earlier:

November 3: ISP license details announced

November 6: Yet another set of ISP rules revealed

- Compiled from the Indian media

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