(1)
INTERNET access nodes will be opened by DoT
and authorised ISPs at all District
Headquarters and local charging areas by 26th
January 2000. As an interim measure, and till
nodes are provided in all local charging
areas, access to nearest INTERNET access
nodes will be on local call rates with effect
from 15th August 1998. ISPs will be
responsible for ensuring that this facility
is not misused for telephone traffic.
(2)
Voice & Data Communication is permitted
for IT Software Development and IT Services
on dedicated or leased circuits, but no
telephone traffic is permitted. Surcharge on
64 Kbps and higher capacity circuits for
voice-cum-data applications is withdrawn with
effect from 15th August 1998.
(3)
Doubling of the lease rental charged by DOT
for high speed data circuits leased by Closed
User Group (CUG), Licensees of Basic Service,
Cellular Service and other Value Added
Services and users shall be reduced to single
normal lease rental charge.
(4)
Requests made by public sector Software
Technology Park (STPs) or Private Sector STPs
or IT promotional organisations approved by
the Government for release of bandwidth shall
be acted upon by the VSNL by intimating
INTELSAT within two weeks of receipt.
(5)
Setting up of Central call centres by IT
Service Providers shall be permitted for
which DOT and other Basic telecom Service
Providers will make available bandwidth.
(6)
Intelligent Network (IN) Services including
free phone and premium Service (e.g. 1-800
and 1-900) Services shall be introduced by
DoT by 31 December 1998 in several cities
over an Intelligent Network (IN) Platform.
(7) For
setting up ISP Operations by companies, there
shall be no license fee for first five years
and after five years a nominal license fee of
one rupee will be charged.
(8) The
monopoly of the VSNL on International Gateway
for INTERNET shall be withdrawn and
authorised public/government organisations
will be allowed to provide INTERNET Gateway
access directly without going through VSNL
Gateways. Private ISPs are allowed to provide
such Gateways after obtaining Defence
clearance. Suitable monitoring mechanisms
will be put in place to take care of security
considerations.
(9) The
Railways, Defence, State Electricity Boards,
National Power Grid Corporation as well as
organisations like ONGC, GAIL and SAIL who
have rights of way shall be allowed to host
fibre optic backbone. These organisations
shall be allowed to provide service to the
public based on this backbone by having an
interface with the existing or new public
networks, but without necessarily having to
go through DOT network.
(10)
Networks such as NICNET, STPs, as well as
private networks shall be allowed
inter-connectivity without necessarily having
to go through the DoT's INET network.
(11)
Providing access to INTERNET through
authorised Cable TV shall be permitted to any
service provider without additional
licensing.
(12)
The 'last mile' linkages shall be freely
permitted either by fibre optic or radio
communication for IT application enterprises,
IT promotional organisations and ISPs. In
case of radio linkages, coordination by the
Wireless Adviser will be observed to avoid
frequency interference.
(13)
The radio frequency band in the range of 2.4
- 2.483 GHz shall be open as 'public
wireless' for any Government organisation or
PSU or Private Sector Company to set up
Spread Spectrum based non-interference type
Wireless data/multimedia communication
equipment subject to a maximum of 4 Watt
EIRP; WPC will periodically issue a
district-wise directory of two or three
selected subbands of 10 MHz each for each of
the districts on the criteria of least
congestion and reserve these subbands
maximally for the exclusive use of Spread
Spectrum Communication as above. The use of
the band will be on the basis of
non-interference, non-protection and
non-exclusiveness. Private sector, Public
sector and Government operators shall
bilaterally obtain Defence Clearance for
location, the area covered and the frequency
sub-band: The Private Sector Units will be
required to obtain MHA clearance directly;
The security agencies shall convey their
decision within 30 days of application
failing which the application would be deemed
to have been cleared from the security angle;
If cleared, the Private and Public Sector
operators shall be required to obtain a
registration and automatic license directly
from WPC by producing the copies of security
clearances; the Government operators will
directly register with WPC; WPC will be
empowered to monitor the violation of the
above conditions and impose penalties on
defaulters in three stages: Written warning,
monetary penalty and debarring for two years.
A Public Wireless Technical Audit Unit
comprising a representative each from the
Defence, DOT, NIC and from NASSCOM for the
limited purpose of representing private user
interests, shall monitor the implementation
of the above policy
(14)
Data communication requirements for
Electronic Commerce(EC/EDI) shall be met by
DoT in a liberal framework by assigning the
highest priority under their priority
classification if the EC/EDI requirement is
certified by authorities in Government
authorised by the Ministry of Commerce.
(15)
Public TeleInfo Centres (PTIC) having
multimedia capability specially ISDN
Services, Remote Database Access, Government
and Community Information systems, Market
Information, Desk Top Videoconferencing,
TeleInfo and INTERNET/Web Access Services
shall be permitted and encouraged by the
Government. DoT and other Basic Service
Providers, Value Added Service Providers and
authorised IT promotional organisations shall
be permitted to promote these services on
non-exclusive basis. No license fee will be
charged for operating these services and the
usual tariff, where applicable, will be
payable by the PTIC Service
providers/franchisees. Efforts will be made
by DoT and other Service Providers to upgrade
STD/ISD PCOs to convert them into these
powerful PTICs for which ISDN or other
digital facilities shall be provided on
priority without necessarily having to make
additional investment on this account.
(16)
DOT shall take suitable action to delicense
Multimedia services, including FAX, provided
by PCOs.
(17) To
enhance the pace of PC and INTERNET
penetration in remote and far flung areas in
the country, the Defence Services shall
enable provisions of connectivity for
ciivilian applications to their communication
backbone.
(18)
Existing Software Centres by themselves may
not be able to fulfill the high targets now
set for the IT industry by the year 2008.
International experience has shown that
hi-tech industries flourish essentially in
the rural hinterland adjacent to cities with
modern telecom and communication
infrastructure and top class hi-tech
educational/research institutions. India will
promote such 'Hi-tech Habitats' in the rural
hinterland adjacent to suitable cities. For
this purpose suitable autonomous structures
will be designed and progressive regulations
will be framed to facilitate
infrastructurally self-contained
self-financed Hi-Tech Habitats of high
quality. Initially, five such Hi-Tech
Habitats shall be planned and implemented in
the rural hinterland of the cities:
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and
Bhubaneswar. It is estimated that
progressively 50 such Hi-Tech Habitats can be
viably set up by empowering the State
Governments to autonomously nucleate them
within a technologically progressive and
administratively liberal set of guidelines to
be prepared by a special Working Group on
Hi-Tech IT Habitats to be set up by the Task
Force.
