<nettime> First private ISP sets shop in India

[Marlon Menezes <marlon@bjt.net>]

(via goa net)

                     India Invites ISP Competition
                     Reuters 

                     2:16pm  24.Aug.98.PDT
                     NEW DELHI -- A new Indian Internet service
                     provider is taking on the state-run ISP,
                     introducing competition in India's eight largest
                     cities by next March and expecting to have
                     150,000 subscribers by the end of next year. 

                     Dishnet Ltd. said on Monday that it plans to roll
                     out service in Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Pune,
                     Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and
                     Ahmedabad within seven months. 

                     The service will offer Net connections at rates of
                     up to 40 percent below those of Videsh Sanchar
                     Nigam Ltd., the state-run ISP, which has had a
                     monopoly on Internet access in India. After three
                     years, Videsh Sanchar Nigam, which charges
                     10,000 rupees (US$238) for 500 hours of Internet
                     time in a year, has 150,000 subscribers. 

                     "We hope to have 150,000 subscribers by the
                     end of 1999 and several million in five years by
                     taking the Internet into every locality of every city
                     of India," said Dishnet's chairman, Vijay
                     Bhatkar. 

                     The company said it will invest 4 billion rupees
                     ($94 million) over a period of five years and that it
                     has entered technology partnerships with
                     Microsoft (MSFT), Compaq Computer (CPQ) and
                     Intel (INTC), to set up its ISP infrastructure. 

                     Dishnet will call its service ETH.NET, short for
                     Education To Home Network. Some 10 percent
                     of ETH.NET's subscribers - including students,
                     teachers, schools, and universities -- will receive
                     the service for free. 

                     As India opens it Net access to competition,
                     analysts estimate that the number of Internet
                     subscribers could climb to 1.5 million in three
                     years.


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