Date:20/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/20/stories/2005012002580100.htm

Back DoT asks ISPs to stop offering VPN services within 30 days

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi , Jan. 19

THE Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to stop offering leased line Virtual Private Network services within 30 days. The move comes after the DoT decided that VPN services were not part of the existing ISP licence norms.

The Government had said that those ISPs that wanted to offer VPN services would have to pay an entry fee ranging between Rs 1 crore and Rs 10 crore and a licence fee of 8 per cent of the annual revenue.

The DoT's move will have an impact on corporates, which use leased line VPN services from private ISPs such as Sify and HCL for internal communications.

In a notice sent to all ISPs, DoT has said that despite the policy being announced in December, some of the ISPs were still offering VPN services in violation of the new norms. "It is understood that some ISPs are providing VPN services in contravention to the terms and conditions of the Licence Agreement, which stipulates that the Licensee shall not engage provision of any other telecom service unless so licensed. The Licence Agreement stipulates under its terms and conditions that the services or service means Internet Access /content services, except telephony on Internet. Provisioning of VPN services is not covered under the terms and conditions of the Licence."

DoT has said that ISPs wanting to offer VPN services must take permission and pay the entry fee as stipulated in the licence norms. "It is, therefore, hereby directed that the ISP Licensees indulging in provision of VPN services must discontinue such services within 30 days from the date of issue of this letter unless otherwise permitted by the competent authority," DoT has said in its notice.

ISPs, meanwhile, are finalising their future course of action in the light of the DoT notice. VPN services account for almost 40 per cent of the revenue of most ISPs. The issue had cropped up after the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd complained to the Government that ISPs were violating the licence norms.

The telecom regulator, however, had advised the Government that VPN was, in fact, a part of the ISP licence.