The upgradation from shell accounts to TCP/IP accounts would be carried out at no extra charge at all with immediate effect and no fresh connections or renewals of shell accounts would be allowed.

VSNL has, however, decided to continue offering the Rs 500 for 500 hours shell account for students. With most shell accounts only held by students, the impact of the VSNL move to disband them is not expected to be too significant.

The twin decisions were taken by the VSNL board which met in New Delhi on May 27. A statement, issued by the country's largest ISP, which has 2,70,000 accounts opened with it, said that VSNL is in the process of upgrading its entire Internet infrastructure to bring world-class quality to customers. "It is in pursuance of this objective that the shellaccounts will now stand upgraded to TCP/IP with immediate effect," the company's acting chairman-cum-managing director Amitabh Kumar was quoted as saying.

"There have been persistent requests from shell-account holders to effect such upgradation and the decision has accordingly been taken to provide the upgradation to TCP/IP," VSNL claimed.

On the new 25 hour connections, VSNL said the introduction of 25 hour accounts is meant to encourage first-time Internet users who would like to try out the "new global information medium" for their personal or professional use. "This is also in line with market practices wherein new entrants have been offering 25 hour TCP/IP accounts. VSNL will also sell bulk 25 hour accounts to orginal equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to have these pre-installed in various equipments egs PCs, set top boxes etc," said the statement.

VSNL has said that it is witnessing a surge in its Internet connections which have now exceeded 2,70,000. The ISP has also commissioned new internationalbandwidth for meeting the requirements of the Indian customer and other ISP's requirements.

Another 8 mbps of bandwidth has been added in New Delhi on Thursday taking the total bandwidth to 110 mbps from India and another 65 mbps is in the pipeline.

"Over 20 ISPs have already taken connectivity from VSNL while others have indicated their intention for taking international connectivity in the near future. With the commissioning of the Internet central control facility at Mumbai, VSNL is able to closely monitor the Internet traffic of all ISPs and provide a quality Internet connection in a transparent manner. Significant growth of international bandwidth is expected in the current year with over 500 mbps as the likely target," the leading ISP has said.