Nimal, while speaking on "Broadband challenges to ISPs," said that initially the bandwidth will be increased by 45 mega byte. He stated that tariff will have to be yet decided however, "it will be both economical and useful for the ISPs."

Nimal said that VSNL has also planned an asynchromous transfer mode (ATM) with a bandwidth of 155 mega byte per second to be launched in eight cities initially and later to be extended to 12 cities. The ATM network will help improve the basic telephony and internet traffic. It will be commissioned by June or July this year. Tenders have already been invited.

He advised private ISPs to go in for higher-speed access, higher bandwidth at low cost and benchmark connectivity in a bid to remain competitive. He said that the challenges to ISPs are network-technology cost.

National Centre for Software Technology director S Ramani said that the ISPs will have to position themselves properly to focus on customer education. The ISPs will have also to decide whether they want to cater to the corporate or home segments.