At a two-day meet of the general manager-ranked nodal officers representing all the 22 telecom circles earlier this week, the Internet Service Providers Association of India was also promised that DoT would clearly define a maximum ceiling to the `last mile' charges which would be equivalent to the actual distance of leased line taken by an ISP. The decision will be announced within a month, sources said. This will benefit a score of category C ISPs, who have been demanding that they should be charged for the actual distance between their node and the nearest telecom exchange for setting up the `last mile', or the `local loop'. At present, DoT charges them for the distance from their node to the point where its leased lines terminate.

This has resulted in the ISPs being sent notices for payment far in excess of the maximum ceiling of Rs 96,000 fixedby the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for a 64 kbps line of over 500 km distance. Thus, in many cases, they have had to dole out up to Rs 1.5 lakh or even more as DoT has been levying extra charge per extra km, sending their business plans awry. Out of the 170 ISPs, almost two-thirds have taken a Category C licence and are to a large extent dependent on fast and economic rollover of their networks.

The meeting in Ghaziabad was called by the licensing and regulation wing of DoT to sensitise the nodal officers in each telecom circle about the new technologies and developments in internet arena and how they could ease the industry's growth.

It was attended by representatives of the customer service department, costing department and telecom engineering centre, besides the Internet Service Providers Association of India. The latter was invited to air its views on the vexing problems affecting the providers.

All nodal officers have been instructed to call a regular meeting of the ISPs in their area toresolve their problems within a reasonable timeframe so that they could devise their business strategies. The meet is the first concrete move taken by the department since July 15 open house with ISPs when it was decided to appoint nodal officers in each telecom circle to sort out their grievances.

``Not much had happened since then as many nodal officers themselves are not fully aware as to what they can do to fuel the growth of ISPs,'' said a industry representative. DoT has promised that it would issue a circular next month citing a sample cumulative charge to be levied from ISPs for different resources, according to sources.

In response to ISPs complaints, several nodal officers demanded more clarity in the departmental circular and said they did not want to err on the side of caution due to fear of being pulled up by the audit department. For example, in absence of a clear instruction, different circle officers have been charging ISPs different rates for high-performance E1R2 links which are to betreated on par with PSTN lines.

``Since each E1R2 can carry 30 lines, the department charges us Rs 3,000 in some places and Rs 90,000 in some other. This is even when DoT spends the same amount on laying these lines,'' said an ISP. In a related development, the 30-member ISPAI has started setting up local chapters in the states to muster up higher membership. It has already set up two such branches in Gujarat and Rajasthan.