India announced on Thursday the creation of a national internet service hub to connect all service providers and boost web traffic in the country of 1 billion people.
Until now, domestic internet service providers have been forced to rely on international traffic routing providers to run their websites.
Information and technology minister Dayanidhi Maran said the policy will help to "proliferate the internet" as domestic service providers will be able to reduce the cost of traffic routing and improve service for subscribers.
The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is being formed by the government in partnership with the Internet Service Providers Association.
The country has around 25 to 30 million internet subscribers, but the government is hoping to boost the number to 40 million by 2010 among its population of 1.04 billion.
Giant neighbor China's internet population, by contrast, is estimated at around 87 million, according to a government report in July. China's population is estimated at around 1.3 billion.
The government also simplified rules for registering domain names in India to enable them to hook up to the nationwide internet exchange. From next January firms will be able to get .IN (for India) domain names online and complete the registration process in less than 24 hours.
Just 7,000 domestic firms have registered domain names in India, although there are tens of thousands of websites run by Indian companies and groups.
Maran said the national internet exchange would help increase internet speed and lower tariffs, as a large amount of internet traffic could now be generated inside India.
Industry service providers hailed the move as a boost for the business now reviving after thousands of e-commerce and other dotcom ventures folded due to high costs and poor demand.
"It's high time India became an internet superpower," said Amitabh Singha, president of the Internet Service Providers Association.
"The policy will definitely give a boost. If you don't have a robust internet infrastructure, it can doom any country's future," Singha added.
Singha said a major benefit of the national internet exchange will be that it will improve internet access quality.
Right now, Indian service providers need to route even domestic traffic over long distances across the globe.
"If I send a mail to my neighbor, I don't want it bouncing around the world hurting quality. The internet exchange will cut the long route and minimize payment of foreign currency to international carriers," Singha said.
"These moves should help make Indian internet a major component of worldwide internet. Today, Indian internet is seen as a very insignificant part of the global internet economy," Singha said.
AFP
India's vision of itself as 'internet superpower'
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