MUMBAI, APRIL 19: Interested in a Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) internet connection? Breathe easy. No lengthy procedures anymore, the net is now available off-the-shelf, through Compact Discs (CDs). You can simply walk into a designated retail outlet, purchase the CD, instal it and start surfing.Like its competitor in the private sector, Satyam Infoway, VSNL has decided to make its internet service available through CDs with a view to providing instant internet availability and access.This saves the subscriber the hassle of waiting in a queue and also later waiting for the internet account to be activated. The VSNL is also reportedly working on partnerships which will enable payment online through credit cards.Satyam Infoway, a premium player in the market with 15 per cent higher internet rates, was the first to introduce this innovation to make subscription easy. It has since been using this feature as a selling point for its internet services.But the VSNL has not only chosen to catch upwith it, it has also taken the first step towards providing the large majority of non-English-speaking Indians keen on using the internet and e-mail a solution to their problems.Acting chairman and managing director of VSNL Amitabh Kumar announced a tie-up with the Centre for Advanced Computing, which will enable exchange of e-mail and presentation of web pages in 13 Indian languages. The facility will be available for free to all VSNL subscribers for a limited period of around three months (yet to be finalised), after which the software will be available on payment of Rs 500, R K Arora, executive director, C-DAC, said.The 13 Indian languages for which this feature is available are Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu.The iLEAP wordprocessing software which makes all this possible can be downloaded for free at vsnl.com/ileap or internet.vsnl.net.in. On expiry of the trial period, the subscriber can become a registereduser by sending an e-mail to gist@cdac.ernet.in for the payment.Spell check for multilingual documents and translation from one language to another is also possible with iLEAP. ``We are trying to make it like Hotmail,'' said a VSNL official, referring to recent updates which allow Hotmail subscribers to display content in French or German, instead of English.
