PUNE, DEC 25: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, Pune on Thursday launched the Internet student account facility as a part of its dial up services under Gateway Internet Access Services (GIAS).The facility, exclusively for students was formally inaugurated by Chief General Manager of VSNL, Pune K P Tiwari.The charges will be a dial-up access fees of Rs 500 for 500 hours or one year, which ever is earlier. This access mode is primarily limited to text based services.At the launch of terminal dial-up (Shell) account for students, Tiwari said the facility would greatly benefit the student community by opening a window to world-wide information. VSNL also had the set up to give unlimited subscription for the student accounts.B Ramlingiah, general manager, said the facility can be availed by any student form standard XI of a full time recognised college or institute and below 30 years. Even PhD students and research fellows under 30 will be considered for the facility, he added.The students will berequired to furnish a copy of bonafide certificate on the letterhead from their principal for the current academic year and a photocopy of their identity card. Ramlingiah said that total number of subscribers having Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) account was inching towards the 10,000 figure mark.On the decentralisation of VSNL's Pune station, Tiwari said a centralised office will be opened at Deccan Gymkana soon. Presently, all the administrative work is done at its Dinghi base, causing inconvenience to the customers.Ramlingiah said Intelsat, under its expansion plans, has taken up a 50 million US dollar project to increase the access speed to some of the most commonly visited websites on the net. These sites remain clogged with heavy subscriber traffic.
