Vsnl Blocks Apnanet.Com Website

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the monopoly internet service provider in the country, has started flexing its muscles against public opinion. It has blocked users from accessing an Indian site called apnanet.com after it started a signature campaign against the proposed hike tariff in internet services from April.

Internet surfers in India and around the world have been unable to access the site since Tuesday evening.

Apnanet is a site put by a group of students and has been on the net for less than 10 days. Apart from promoting the use of Internet services in India, the site also created a forum for users to voice their opinions about VSNLs proposed tariff hike and send their feedback to VSNL from that site.

 

Within the first week, 450 responses to the tariff hike were posted up, claims Apnanet.

Sanjay Shetty, a technical expert and one of the site organisers confirmed that the VSNL router (which routes traffic from India to other sites and routes international traffic to web sites hosted in India) had been configured to stop access to this site.

Niraj Somkar, deputy general manager, systems, VSNL said he had no comment to make on the matter. However, the VSNL Internet help desk confirmed that the site was unaccessible.