VSNL gets national ISP licence
Mumbai: India’s leading internet services provider, Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL), has received its much-awaited national ISP license in lieu of its giving up its international telephony monopoly earlier than planned. This allows it to provide Internet services in 21 cities, in addition to the six it is already in. The licence is valid for a period of ten years and is with immediate effect.

The telecom giant has lined up a Rs 100-crore investment to expand its ISP presence to 21 cities, which is likely to see its Internet subscriber base growing by 40,000 per month as against the present growth rate of 20,000 subscribers per month. The company presently has an Internet subscriber base of 4.75 lakh.

The company would be making an investment of about Rs 5 crore to set up gateways at each city for internet services.

Last month VSNL announced a 75 per cent reduction in Internet leased line and international private lease circuit tariffs, in response to falling international bandwidth rates.It also announced that it would be hiking it bandwidth capacity to 900 mbps by the next couple of months.
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