| What is DSL? When you connect to the Internet, you
might connect through a regular modem, through a local-area network
connection in your office, through a cable modem or through a digital
subscriber line (DSL) connection. DSL is a very high-speed connection
that uses the same wires as a regular telephone line.
A common configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up
to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds
of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL or asymmetric
digital subscriber line.
Telecom department sources added that because Maran is young and
comes from a media business background, he is keen to push ahead
with technology that would not only help the telecom sector, but
also other sectors like cable and broadcasting.
The government sources said that Maran is taken up by Trai's suggestion
that India could have 20 million DSL subscribers over a period of
few years if the price goes down to $9 from a comparative high of
over $ 40.
Big telecom companies like the Tatas-controlled VSNL and Reliance
have evinced keen interest in broadband networks and DSL and have
been ordering equipment in hundreds of thousands to tap this virgin
market. Both VSNL and Reliance have fiber backbones, barely utilized,
to the major cities, and international alliances for bandwidth.
Some of the advantages of DSL are the following:
· You can leave your Internet connection open and still use
the phone line for voice calls.
· The speed is much higher than a regular modem (1.5 Mbps
vs. 56 Kbps)
· DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it can use
the phone line you already have.
The company that offers DSL will usually provide the modem as part
of the installation.
The sources indicated that though Maran would like to push ahead
with the Convergence Communication Bill, but various political compulsions
would have to be taken into account before the Bill, which has lapsed
with the demise of the previous Parliament and government, could
be revived.
"The minister would like to confer with the Prime Minister
before he takes any formal step regarding the Communications Bill,"
a government source said. The Communications Convergence Bill, amongst
other things, envisages an over-arching law for the convergence
era with a common regulator for telecom, IT and broadcast sectors.
However, where Maran may face some difficulty in reviving the Bill
is the fact that one of the important allies of the present United
Progressive Alliance Government is the Left parties and it was a
parliamentary panel headed by Somnath Chatterjee, the now-speaker
of Parliament and a Communist Party Marxist Member of Parliament,
that had suggested over 70 amendments in the Convergence Bill.
|
