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The Union Government has finalised guidelines for prospective Internet service providers (ISP), allowing cable television operators to offer access to the Internet through their networks and fixing zero licence fee for the first five years. The 13-point guidelines, arrived after month-long talks between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the national task Force on information technology, will be notified soon, DOT sources said. Without additional licensing, but guided by the cable laws, all cable TV operators can become ISPs, either by directly hooking to the earth stations through a (very small aperture terminal) or to the local nodes by a wired connection. Of the licence period fixed for 15 years, ISPs are not required to pay any licence fee for the first five years, while one rupee per connection is proposed from then on.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the advanced INSAT-2E satellite during October-November 1998, ISRO Chairman K. Kasturirangan said on Sunday. He told newsmen that the installation of the INSAT-2E satellite would enlarge the country's telecom network to a great extent. Dr. Kasturirangan said that ISRO had drawn up plans to increase transponder capacity fron the existing 70 to 130 by the year2002 and also to lay emphasis on creating infrastructure for space programmes. The ISRO Chairman also called for a change in the telecom laws to keep in tune with changing times
Motorola, the leading telecommunication company, has launched regional language pagers in India. Called the 'Scriptor', it would be available in seven Indian languages, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujrati, Marathi & Hindi. Talking to media persons before the launch, Mr. Ajay Sachdeva, head of marketing, Indian & SAARC said: "The potential paging population wants to send & receive messages in their mother tongue. The introduction of 'Scriptor' is one of Motorola's key initiatives in India towards developing products suited to Indian requirements."
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) could have an edge over other prospective ISPs (international service providers) In view of its plans to provide intelligent network service in the current year. This would include thae introduction of toll-free dialing. MTNL's general manager of marketing and public relations K J Chacko agreed that there was a strong possibility that MTNL would offer toll-free acess to Internet users. Today the users have to pay both Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) for internet connectivity, and MTNL for the telephone connectivity to the international gateway where VSNL would retain its monopoly at least until 2004 AD, as per the World Trade Organisation guidlines.
Microsoft Corp. Is developing another Internet service in its attempt to become a major commercial gateway to the World Wide Web. The new home page, code-named "start.com'" will be launched sometime in the late summer or early autumn, the company said. Its features will include many of its Web-based properties, free electronic mail, a search engine called Yukon and an ability for users to personalise the page to include stock quotes, weather and news of their choice.
Intel Corporation unveiled their two new basic PC processors - Intel Celeron processors 333 Mhz and 300A Mhz. The Celeron processors 333 Mhz and 300A deliver up to 38 per cent and 25 per cent performance improvement respectively over the Intel Celeron processor 300 Mhz. Intel today also introduced Pentium II processor 450 Mhz to provide the highest levels of desktop PC perofrmance for a wide range of productivity and entertainment applications. Intel's 33 per cent price slash on the 233 Mhz Pentium II has buoyed the home PC as well as the small and medium business PC market. The move is bringing 233 Mhz computers into mainstream use, even as the Pentium with MMX was becoming the entry level standard. Intel Corp is also hoping to counterbalance the cheap chips world by boosting sales of the Pentium IIs of 266 Mhz and 300 Mhz,
Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail, is preparing a technology-and-policy blueprint for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to increase the use of the Internet and computers in the southern state. This emerged out of a meeting with Naidu on Wednesday, the millionaire-entrepreneur said.
The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will offer key language software products free on the internet for non-commercial users. C-DAC products such as ALP word processor under DOS, LEAP word processor under Windows 95 and two fonts in each Indian language would now be made available free on the Internet. C-DAC has been making efforts to popularise Indian languages on computers since it developed GIST. Recently a project on development of Internet tools and technologies for Indian languages had been started by the Department. Initially the focus would be on Hindi.
The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will offer key language software products free on the internet for non-commercial users. C-DAC products such as ALP word processor under DOS, LEAP word processor under Windows 95 and two fonts in each Indian language would now be made available free on the Internet. C-DAC has been making efforts to popularise Indian languages on computers since it developed GIST. Recently a project on development of Internet tools and technologies for Indian languages had been started by the Department. Initially the focus would be on Hindi, he added.
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