VSNL plans new venture for cable Net

MUMBAI, FEB 4: State-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited VSNL is exploring the option of entering into a joint venture for providing cabl...

MUMBAI, FEB 4: State-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited VSNL is exploring the option of entering into a joint venture for providing cable internet service. quot;We are looking at three models for cable internet: providing only bandwidth, revenue sharing and a joint venture. We have not yet decided which model to follow,quot; Amitabh Kumar, director operations, VSNL, told reporters at the Nasscom 2000 event on Friday.

Currently, there are three major players in the cable service market the Zee group, Hindujas and the Rajan Raheja group. However, Kumar said VSNL would prefer to go with the first two options because a joint venture would mean forming a new company. He estimated internet access through cable would increase from around 1 to over four per cent in two years. VSNL8217;s cable internet service was at least two to three months away, he said. Answering a query, he said free internet would be available within a month in India. quot;It has already started happening,quot; he said referring to the scheme MTNL launchedrecently. About VSNL specifically, he said there was no immediate plan to offer free net.

However, he added that it might be involved indirectly if the ISP chose to buy capacity from VSNL and sell it for free relying on advertisements for revenue. VSNL8217;s internet subscriber base is expected to touch 4 lakh by March.

The ISP is spending Rs 32 crore on building a high capacity internet exchange with 10 to 12 nodes. The project is already underway and Rs 10 crore has been invested so far. VSNL, which is the major bandwidth provider for all ISPs, is also planning to enhance its existing capacity by 330 Mbps by March. quot;We don8217;t forsee any major threat in the near term,quot; Kumar said about private players setting their own gateways.

Earlier, addressing the gathering on distance education, Carnegie Mellon University professor CMU and co-chair of Clinton8217;s IT Task Force, Raj Reddy, said the IT revolution had the potential to democratise knowledge. For instance, the budget of all the libraries in India,combined, amounted to the annual budget of Harvard University. This disparity could be ironed out with the help of computers.

Today8217;s computers, which shipped with over 1 GB of memory, were capable of storing over 3,000 books. When computers start shipping with terrabytes memory each terrabyte would be capable of storing 3 million books, 30,000 hours of music or 300 videos of two hours each, Reddy said. Reddy asked the IT industry do develop Indian language speech recognition software which could be used to teach illiterate adults and also English as a second a language. quot;Microsoft will not build Indian language speech recognisers for a long time,quot; he said. All speech recognition software developed by CMU is open source and can be used by Indian developers, he added.