Broadband

It appears that ISPs all across India have been ordered by the Indian government to block a number of key websites on the Internet.

ISPs are believed to have been asked to block sites like bloodspot.com, hinduhumanrights.org, hinduuni-ty.org and clickatell.com, besides frontline blogs like the Google-owned blogsp-ot.com. Deepak Maheshwari, secretary of ISP Association of India said: “We have received a letter from DoT, asking us to block around 18 URLs.”

Though the communication, dated July 13, by the telcom department to ISPs lists specific pages/ websites, several ISPs have blocked all blogs because they were not equipped to filter specific pages. This could be because all websites hosted on blogspot.com, for instance, have the same IP address.

Officials defended the decision saying, "We would like those people to come forward who access these (the 12) radical websites and please explain to us what are they missing from their lives in the absence of these sites."

The TRAI has decided to withdraw its consultation paper which recommended not placing IPTV under the purview of the Cable act. This follows strong opposition from the cable and broadcasting industry over the last week.

The basic intention behind the proposed amendments in the Cable Television (Regulation) Act, 1995 was to keep the IPTV service outside the definition of `cable services’.

Today’s development notwithstanding, the regulator played down the issue. “The chairman has indicated that probably the consultation paper needs to be revised. We would take a final decision soon,” a Trai official told Indiantelevision.com in the evening.

Source: Indian television.

The Financial Express has a story on the ongoing dispute between cable TV / DTH operators and telecom majors over the classification of IPTV; i.e. should IPTV be categorised under the cable TV act or the Telegraph act?

Cable consortium MSO Alliance stated that if IPTV was kept outside the cable laws, cable operators could not upgrade their IPTV services to digital IPTV without unified licence.

The stakeholders urged Trai to amend the Act to include voice, video and data.

This was in reponse to a TRAI proposal that recommended IPTV not be treated as cable TV.

Sources: The financial express, Indian television.

Point topic recently released figures on world-wide DSL usage with India figuring prominently in the list for the first time. As of March 2006, India was estimated to have 1,088,935 subscribers, ranking 22nd overall.

Of the established nations, with more than one million DSL subscribers as at 31 March 2006, India topped the percentage growth ranking, increasing its subscriber base by more than 700% in twelve months. Significant subscriber increases were also made in Turkey (190% increase), Mexico (99%) and Australia (84.6%). Pakistan growth (484%) led the way in countries with less than one million DSL subscribers, with Morocco, Greece and Bulgaria all experiencing DSL growth of more than 200%.

Sources: Point Topic, DSL Forum [PDF].

Following recent announcements by BSNL and MTNL, Airtel have now announced plans to launch triple play services in November.

Bharti group Chairman Sunil Mittal said the company was in the process of finalising commercial arrangements for offering “triple play”, which was currently being extended to its fixed-line customers in Gurgaon on a pilot basis.

“When we go into the final commercial mode, which will happen in the next 4-5 months, then anybody who has an Airtel connection can get triple play,” Mittal said.

Story: Business Standard.

MTNL are said to be planning WiMAX pilot projects in Delhi and Mumbai. Similarly, BSNL are said to be planning projects in Rohtak and Chennai.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not yet assigned frequency spectrum for WiMAX services. Once TRAI assigns spectrum for WiMAX and decides on its pricing, MTNL will offer WiMAX commercially to its subscribers. This will, of course, depend on the success of its pilot projects.

Link: Indiatimes Infotech.

However much of a misnomer it might be, the Indian gaming scene has seen a lot of press off late including an article on Wired.

Tangible progress will be marked by the first Indian participation in the Electronic Sports World Cup, which kicks off June 30 in Paris. Earlier this month, 162 regional qualifiers from nine Indian cities came to New Delhi -- including 8-year-old Rohan Karir, a TrackMania prodigy -- to compete for 10 tickets to Paris and a shot at some of the $400,000 ESWC prize money. All told, more than 20,000 Indians competed, making it one the biggest national gaming tournaments ever.

Article link: Wired.