NEW DELHI: In a swift reaction to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendations on accelerating growth of Internet and broadband penetration – Internet Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI) has expressed its concern over not providing enough room for ‘stand-alone’ Internet Service Providers (ISPs). TRAI has recommended reducing the broadband Internet access charge from the present Rs 1,000 to about Rs 400.

"These TRAI recommendations are quite beneficial for the integrated or big service providers, but we were expecting that TRAI will also focus on the ‘stand-alone’ players," said ISPAI president, Amitabh Singhal.

Speaking about the issue of pricing for domestic bandwidth, MD & CEO of Sify, R Ramaraj said that the pricing for domestic bandwidth continues to be high. "We have not seen any revision in rates for leased line for about five years now. Though, the regulator has suggested to bring the price barrier down, no concrete steps has been given to come to a certain price level," he added.

According to the industry estimates telcos in India are generating between Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore with the help of ISPs. "If the country has to move forward with a projection of about 60 million subscribers by 2010, then we cannot ignore these stand-alone ISPs and price of bandwidth is a major issue to be addressed in front of us," Singhal explained.

Commenting about the price-disparity experienced by stand-alone ISPs, Ramaraj said that it is ironical to note that the incumbent is giving a 2 MBPS link for about Rs 8 lakh while we take the same link at a much steeper price of Rs 22 lakh. "How can there be a level-playing field with this kind of pricing policy," Ramaraj questioned.

Moving forward – ISPAI, an association having a strength of more than 40 ISPs from all over the country, is looking forward to putting its own set of recommendations in front of the regulator.
"We are quite pleased with the regulator’s recommendations with regard to an integrated player. What we would like to stress is that there should be enough room for a ‘stand-alone’ ISP as well. This can only be achieved if we have clear bandwidth pricing policy in place," Singhal added.

Speaking about TRAI’s recommendation, Ramaraj stated that in present conditions it is unlikely that the prices will come down. "We do not see prices coming down like that, because there is a certain amount of investment that goes in buying out the bandwidth and then selling it to an end-user. So if we don’t see a business case in putting down price, then why should we go for it. Regulator has just given its intention to reduce the price and we think that in present conditions it is not possible," he explained.

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