India’s Department of Telecommunications has withdrawn a controversial access charge on internet service providers, which should make the cost of internet access substantially cheaper for consumers. ISPs have long argued the access charges were designed for telephone lines which terminate in private data networks, but an ISP network is a public network and so should not have charges levied on the telephones lines it uses. The withdrawal of access charges will encourage ISPs and increase the internet penetration in the country, said Amitabh Singhal, secretary of
the Internet Service Providers Association of India. Singhal said competition amongst India’s 97 ISPs, which share around 250,000 subscribers, has already brought prices down by 60% in the past few months.
