The Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has announced that new licenses for private companies wanting to provide access to the Internet will be issued over the next week.

He said up to forty-nine percent of the equity in the new operations could be owned by foreigners.

Addressing a computer technology conference in Bangalore, Mr Vajpayee said the aim of the government's policy was to speed up access to the Internet all over the country at an affordable price.