The Hindu Business Line : BSNL planning Rs 800-cr undersea cable to West Asia

IN a move that could further erode Tata-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd's international long distance business, State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is embarking on a Rs 800-crore plan to lay an undersea cable linking India and West Asia. The proposed cable is part of BSNL's plan to set up its own infrastructure for foraying into the Rs 4,000-crore international long distance market.

While BSNL has already launched its ILD services, the company is riding predominantly on the network of VSNL. Until 2002, VSNL was the only operator to offer ILD services, but since then the company's revenues from this sector has been on the downswing.

BSNL, with nearly 60 million telephone subscribers, is on its way to go solo and has also floated a global tender to find a long-term partner for carrying its ILD traffic.

The PSU is already working on an undersea cable link between India and Sri Lanka, in a joint venture with the Sri Lankan public sector telecom company. This cable may also be extended up to Singapore, competing with the Bharti-SingTel's Chennai to Singapore cable network.

The cable to West Asia is being planned to have a total bandwidth of 320 giga bites catering to 3.87 million voice channels. With a large number of Indians working in West Asia, the sector is considered to be one of the lucrative route for ILD traffic after the US and the UK sectors.

BSNL officials said that once the cable is laid, it might also share the infrastructure with private telecom operators for a fee. "However, a decision in this regard will be taken as per the prevailing market situation at that time," said a BSNL official.

The BSNL undersea cable will add to the growing dominance of Indian operators in this segment. VSNL, Reliance Infocomm and Bharti Tele-Ventures own six large undersea cable networks across the globe, including Tyco, Flag and Se-Me-We.

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