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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 27 The Internet Service Providers Association of India on Monday said that the new policy for the Internet sector will hurt small size operators and will result in slow penetration of broadband services.

“The policy to discontinue Category C licence (district level) is a retrograde step which hurts small entrepreneurs and consumers who have risked considerable resources to create businesses in the face of aggressive competition from bigger players. There is hardly a single successful country in America, Europe or Australia which discourages small players from entering the internet market,” said Mr Rajesh Chharia, President, ISPAI. More than 50 per cent of the operational ISPs hold a category C licence.

The association also opposed the imposition of licence fee on ISPs for Internet Telephony. “If the Government is concerned about the slow penetration of broadband in India, then why are they putting burden on the Internet operators. If level playing field with other telecom operators is the issue, then ISPs should be allowed to interconnect with fixed line and mobile operators. This would at least give us additional revenue and then we can pay the licence fee,” said Mr Chharia.

ISPAI said that it would be approaching the Communications and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, to seek relief. “Denying the right to terminate calls on fixed telephone and mobile phones promotes market abuse by incumbent access providers. The Government also stand to loose significant revenue since the companies providing illegal services do not pay licence fees,” he said. The association said that the decision to allow IPTV services only to those operators which have a net worth of Rs 100 crore or more is in favour of large telecom operators.

More Stories on : ISPs | Policy | Industry Associations | Broadband

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