Telecom slashes Internet rates
25 September 2000 23:45 IST The Department of Telecommunication Services has slashed down its internet tariff for the fourth time in last nine months, in order to remain much ahead of the private internet service providers in several states.
After receiving overwhelming response for its monsoon package introduced from 1 June, which was extended further till 31 August with its rates with most of the private ISPs, the new Festive Internet Offer is the most welcome news for the surfers.
The state-run DTS has now announced a new price list, to be introduced from 1 October. Unlike its charge of Rs 2250 for 100 hours or one year, its new rate for 100 hours (or three years) is only Rs 500 – slashing it down by Rs 1750.
In the category of 500 hours, it is now reduced by Rs 5850, charging hardly Rs 1500 instead of its year-old rate of Rs 7350 introduced in November last. In fact the DTS now provides ISDN dial-up account of 500 hours for only Rs 6000 at 128 kbps speed, which was almost double earlier.
With the new rates, the subscriber has to now only pay Rs 1000 for 250 hours and Rs 1500 for 500 hours. Similarly, the charges for unlimited use for one month is also reduced to only Rs 200 against Rs 1000 charged till May this year. The maximum amount charged is Rs 2000 for unlimited use for the whole year.
Similarly, the internet rates at the PCOs are also reduced to Rs 30 per hour and hardly Rs 10 for logging in for 15 minutes. Even the print outs would be now available by paying only Rs five per page at any PCO run by the DTS in all the states all over India.
"A state like Goa would benefit the most from this offer", states N Chenchaiah, the general manager of Goa Telecom District. After introducing the I-Net concept through a VSNL node in 1997, the subscriber base of a tiny state with hardly 1.5 million population has already crossed around 8000, including the private ISPs.
The whole state having a semi-urban nature and favourite destination of even foreign tourists, Goa may be perhaps the only state in the country where even remotest village would be found with STD-ISD PCO and cyber cafes in almost all the coastal villages.
"With over 1.80 lakh connections spread in every nook and corner of the state", says Chenchaiah, "80 per cent of our exchanges out of total 90 are being made internet-compatible while the whole telecom network is connected with optical fibre network".
As the demand for Internet users is increasing day by day in the tourist state having literacy rate of over 75 per cent, the Goa Telecom is now planning to install additional equipment within a month, while a new server was installed hardly two months ago.
"In addition, we are also planning to provide space for web servers to facilitate hundreds of web sites and web pages being loaded on the net", says Pravin Kumar, the DET in-charge of the Internet section.
While the private ISPs like the Satyam Online and Dishnet Ltd have entered the Goan market with either a node or a router in the city of Panaji, the DTS already has routers in five main cities while planning to install new routers even in other taluka towns shortly.
"Around 75 per cent subscribers have opted for dual connections – the DTS and the private one", says Biju Naik, the Goa-based manager of Satyam Online. Claiming to have diverted 3500 subscribers to Satyam, he feels the subscribers prefer private ISP because of the professional approach they adopt in providing prompt service.
Though its lines are still not stabilising to the customer's satisfaction, the Dishnet has also succeeded in attracting over 1000 subscriber by offering free usage of one hour every day for five years, initially for hardly Rs 250 and now by doubling it.
