Private Internet access providers await Govt. signal

By R.K.Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, JUNE 1. Private internet access providers and companies which have sunk in considerable amounts to create the information technology (IT) backbone in the State, are still waiting with bated breath for ``signals''from the new Government.

With the change in Government, many local bodies and Government organisations have asked the companies setting up infrastructure either to stop their digging operations completely or to ``hold on for a while'' till they receive appropriate orders from Fort. St. George.

The Chennai Corporation has given ``regulated permission'' to the agencies laying optic fibre cables, but in the absence of a firm directive from the Government, the other local bodies have kept the decision in abeyance or let the companies dig without any clear-cut permission.

At the moment, there seems to be some confusion as to which Ministry handles IT. IT providers and the State's bureaucracy were under the impression that the Industries Minister handled the portfolio. But the Ministry, which asked those who enquired, to contact the Chief Minister's office.

The DMK Government permitted seven agencies, on a non-exclusive basis, to create high bandwidth optic fibre cable networks to cover all districts. These are WorldTel Tamil Nadu, BPL Broadband, DishnetDSL, Bharti Telesonic, Broadband Solutions of Enron Communications, Macronet Private Limited (later Reliance Infocom) and Estel Communications.

WorldTel Tamil Nadu, DishnetDSL, Reliance Infocom and Bharti Telesonic are in the process of physical implementation of their projects. DishnetDSL and Bharti Aquanet Limited (a Bharti Telesonic SingTel joint venture), have initiated steps to lay submarine optic fibre cables from Singapore to Chennai with a total capacity of over 11 terabits a second to ensure the availability of international bandwidth on demand.

Bharti Aquanet Limited has been permitted to use the public path on the Chennai Beach and along the Chennai Corporation roads to bring their submarine cable to their landing station in Chennai.

On completion, 13,000 community Internet access centres scheduled to come up along the ``backbones'' being set up as the implementing organisations, would also be internet service providers. Right now, 30,000 PCs are available in browsing centres, cyber-cafes and common facilities for people to access the internet.

But the projected targets are unlikely to be met in the near future, given the progress of implementation. One company has completed almost 60 per cent of its work in the Chennai and says it requires a ``rider-free'' three months to complete its full route. In the whole state, this company, which intends to lay cables for about 235 km, has completed about 25 per cent of the work. Two others - also operating in Chennai- are hardly off the block, with around 15 to 20 per cent of their works completed.

Though the physical and political problem remains to be sorted out, there are others - at the Union Government level. Primarily this will require the implementation of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and a strategy to assure universal internet access together with domestic bandwidth on demand.

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