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Net access may get cheaper for small towns

Swaraj gave this indication at a high-level meeting with Prime Minister's Task Force on Information Technology, which will submit a report to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee next week, detailing problems that have

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clogged the growth of the IT industry and suggesting ways to clear bottlenecks.

Once the DoT lowers STD rates to the level of local charges, the country will witness a move towards the rapid spread of the Internet, particularly in small cities.

In fact, it was agreed at the meeting that there would be a sharp rise in the number of Internet access nodes throughout the country.

So far, people in cities without such nodes have been paying STD charges to surf the Net because they had to get connected through other cities.

The high costs of surfing, coupled with inadequate bandwidth and high costs of computers, have been choking the proliferation of the Internet in the country.

Swaraj is slated to hold another meeting with the task force to deal with larger policy issues like the need to make changes in the archaic Telegraph Act.

According to sources who attended the meeting, Swaraj also appreciated the need of the IT industry to legalise the use of voice on leased lines. However, some DoT officials cited security reasons to disallow such a move.

IT industry representatives have been requesting the government to allow voice on these lines, saying that it would make software companies more efficient.

Most of the companies use voice on these links despite the ban and it is difficult for authorities to detect whether a connection is being used for voice or data.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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