The Hindu Business Line : BSNL cuts ISD rates on some routes by 30 pc

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Tuesday announced a 30 per cent reduction in international long distance calls to Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Gulf and SAARC countries. From May 20, BSNL subscribers will be able to make a call to these countries at Rs 12 per minute compared to the existing Rs 18 per minute.

BSNL's competitors such as Bharti charge between Rs 14 per minute and Rs 17 per minute for calls to these countries. Other operators are expected to revise their ISD rates following the BSNL announcement on Tuesday. Tata-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd is the largest ILD player in the country with almost 60 per cent of the Rs 43-billion market.

On the domestic front, BSNL announced 25 per cent cut in bandwidth prices. The move will benefit bulk consumers such as business process outsourcing units, IT enabled services, Internet service providers and large corporate houses, which uses leased lines for internal connectivity.

The discounts applicable in 74 major cities follows a similar cut announced by BSNL on May 1. Leased lines are also used in offering broadband services and virtual private network (VPN) services.

Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had effected up to 70 per cent reduction in domestic leased line tariffs. As per the TRAI guidelines, no operator can charge more than Rs 44,000 per year for a 64-kbps line over 500 km. A leased line with 2 mbps capacity can cost a maximum of Rs 8.50 lakh.

BSNL is the largest provider of domestic leased line. TRAI had intervened in fixing the ceiling on the ground that there was not much competition in the leased line market despite the presence of Bharti and Reliance Infocomm.

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