The Hindu Business Line : Telecom regulator wants all ISPs connected to Internet Exchange

New Delhi April 21 In a bid to make domestic Internet services more efficient and cheaper, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested to make it mandatory for all Internet Service Providers in the country to connect directly or indirectly (through another ISP) to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

TRAI has also said that NIXI nodes should be set up in all the State capitals to make it convenient for ISPs to connect to the Internet exchange.

At present, there are only four nodes across the country making it expensive for smaller ISPs located away from the metro cities to get connected to the NIXI.

Out of the 135 operational ISPs in the country, only 27 have connected to the Internet exchange.

NIXI enables domestic Internet traffic to remain within the country, which saves ISPs the cost of buying international bandwidth.

For example, an e-mail sent from Delhi to Mumbai may now be routed through servers in the US for which the ISPs need to buy international bandwidth. Through NIXI the data can be kept within the country if all the ISPs are connected to the exchange.

TRAI has also made it compulsory for all ISPs to announce and accept all the routes at NIXI nodes. This will facilitate effective exchange of domestic Internet traffic at NIXI without requiring direct connectivity of ISPs at NIXI. Similarly, Quality of Service parameters of NIXI nodes have been prescribed to ensure effective functioning.

"The initiative will substantially bring down ISPs' expenditure on domestic bandwidth, which is likely to reduce content download charges resulting in net reduction in Internet and broadband usage charges. It will also result in better Quality of Service (QoS)," TRAI said.

The recommendations have been sent to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, which will take a final decision.

Implementation

Mr Amitabh Singhal, founder member and former CEO, NIXI, said, "Overall, TRAI has made a sensible and well thought out recommendation, but it needs to be implemented with sincerity and concern for the future of India Internet.

"Unfortunately NIXI does not have sufficient number of professionals working for it. Moves to appoint professional industry-experienced professionals have met with resistance.

"The physical structure is far from world class and cannot be even showcased to anyone from outside.

"All this needs to change, or else our NIXI will never achieve the status compared to any Internet exchange anywhere else in the world."

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Telecom regulator wants all ISPs connected to Internet Exchange