- News>
- ICE Economy
50% cut in BSNL, MTNL night internet access: Mahajan
New Delhi, Oct 23: Communications and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan today announced that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd would slash night time dial-up charges for internet connectivity by 50 per cent to about Rs. 12.50 per hour.
New Delhi, Oct 23: Communications and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan today announced that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd would slash night time dial-up charges for internet connectivity by 50 per cent to about Rs. 12.50 per hour.
"I have asked BSNL and MTNL to reduce night time tariffs as far as internet access is concerned. The two companies would seek telecom regulator trai's permission to reduce the current charges by 50 per cent," Mahajan said while inaugurating the Asia Pacific Telcommunication General Assembly meeting here.
The proposed night-time tariffs would be applicable for 10:30 pm-6:30 am time slab.
Stating that most Indian consumers used dial-up connectivity for accessing internet, Mahajan pointed out that currently the users paid about Rs. 25 per hour and the move by BSNL and MTNL proposed to reduce the night-time charges by 50 per cent to Rs. 12.50 per hour.
Mahajan said government has also decided to delicence the indoor use of wireless Local Area Network (LAN).
"As far as wireless LAN is concerned, we are delicencing the indoor use...The university campuses and office campuses can now use wireless for connectivity," he said adding "if the security problems do not come my way, we may be very few countries, to open it nationwide in future."
The slew of IT enabled services to use bandwidth in time sharing of incentives announced by Mahajan today, also include allowing mode.
"One of the demands, with reference to ITES, was sharing of bandwidth. Now government has decided that ITES can use the bandwidth in time-sharing mode. It would not be treated as resale of bandwidth, which was banned in this country," he said.
Elaborating on the proposed reduction in night time access charges, Mahajan later told reporters that the traffic pressure was lower during the night and hence the proposal was feasible.
"After opening up internet telephony, the actual progress on this is not taking place, as people are concerned about the access charges on telephone usage for interconnect connectivity," he said adding that he would like to see the charges drop further in future.
Stating that he had wanted the reduction to be on 24-hour basis, Mahajan said that this would have increased the pressure on traffic and hence the proposed reduction would initially be on the night-time slab.
Bureau Report
"As far as wireless LAN is concerned, we are delicencing the indoor use...The university campuses and office campuses can now use wireless for connectivity," he said adding "if the security problems do not come my way, we may be very few countries, to open it nationwide in future."
The slew of IT enabled services to use bandwidth in time sharing of incentives announced by Mahajan today, also include allowing mode.
"One of the demands, with reference to ITES, was sharing of bandwidth. Now government has decided that ITES can use the bandwidth in time-sharing mode. It would not be treated as resale of bandwidth, which was banned in this country," he said.
Elaborating on the proposed reduction in night time access charges, Mahajan later told reporters that the traffic pressure was lower during the night and hence the proposal was feasible.
"After opening up internet telephony, the actual progress on this is not taking place, as people are concerned about the access charges on telephone usage for interconnect connectivity," he said adding that he would like to see the charges drop further in future.
Stating that he had wanted the reduction to be on 24-hour basis, Mahajan said that this would have increased the pressure on traffic and hence the proposed reduction would initially be on the night-time slab.
Bureau Report