Subscriber Base Down, But VoIP Peps Net Usage

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New Delhi: : The natural death of free Internet access services has badly hit the Net subscriber base, which for the first time has witnessed a negative growth of 18 per cent. While the subscriber base has shrunk, Internet service providers (ISPs) have however recorded a rise in Net usage following the launch of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony services.

The Net subscriber base, is at present at 3.3 million in the second quarter ending June 2002, down from the previous quarter ending March 2002 when the base was at 4 million.

These are the latest Net subscriber figures collected by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from all the ISPs in the country, according to the ISP Association of India (ISPAI).

“The latest figures from the DoT and ISPs clearly show that the free ISP models have failed as a result, the market has turned more realistic now,” ISPAI secretary Amitabh Singhal said.

The quarter-on-quarter growth rate of Internet subscribers has been falling since December 2001 from 11.8 per cent to 5 per cent in March 2002 and now to a negative growth of 18 per cent.

According to rough estimates, Sify is still at the top with about 7 lakh subscribers while VSNL is second with about 6 lakh subscribers.

The shrinking Internet subscriber base is also a result of the customer acquisition of Wipro’s Netkracker by Sify and BPLNet’s users by NOW-India, according to Mr Singhal. “There has been a drop in the subscriber base as not all subscribers have migrated to the new ISP, following the buy-out,” he said.

On the other hand, Internet usage is up by 20 per cent following the legalisation of Net telephony services in April 2002.

According to industry experts, the launch of Net telephony is one of the main drivers of Internet usage or Net traffic.

According Mr Singhal, Net usage will be further boosted by Net telephony and could reach a rate of growth as high as 40 to 50 per cent, in a year’s time. Net4India has seen its Net usage grow by 20 per cent in the last two months.

“The growth in Net usage is around 30 to 40 per cent for most companies, although it is highly skewed towards those ISPs who have not blocked the Net access to the sites of Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs),” Net4India chief operating officer Uday Sodhi said.