<nettime> Private Internet gateways in India

[Cip <Goa_Tourism@CompuServe.Com> (by way of patrice@xs4all.nl)]

Extract:

NEW DELHI, India, June 27 (UPI) -- India's private Internet service
providers will be allowed to have international gateways. Indian
Communications Minister Sushma Swaraj said today, "We have authorized
ISPs to have their own gateway." Until now, India's state-owned carrier
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., or VSNL, had a monopoly on international
Internet traffic. It has six gateways in India, and all ISPs had to use
its facilities to connect to the Internet. A gateway consists of a
telephone exchange and a satellite earth station. It is used to
establish international telecommunications links. However, a ban on
Internet telephony by private ISPs will remain in force. VSNL will
continue to be the monopoly international voice carrier until 2004.
Swaraj said all the 531 districts spread over 26 Indian states would
have Internet access within the next two years. India has over 150,000
Internet subscribers, and the number is expected rise tenfold by 2000.

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