The Hindu Business Line : BSNL slashes leased line Net port tariffs

Revised plans
A 45 Mbps leased line will be available to a non-ISP entity for Rs 1.8 crore per annum
A one Mbps line will cost Rs 4.25 lakh
ISPs will have to pay Rs 5.1 lakh for a one Mbps line

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Jan. 28

In a move that would make domestic bandwidth cheaper Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to reduce tariffs for leased line Internet ports by up to 33 per cent. Leased line Internet ports are primarily used by corporates, Internet service providers and IT-enabled service companies to link their various offices or clients.

As per the revised plans, a 45 Mbps leased line will be available to a non-ISP entity for Rs 1.8 crore per annum from February 1 compared with Rs 2.7 crore, at present. A one Mbps line will cost Rs 4.25 lakh under the new scheme compared with Rs 7.1 lakh currently. ISPs will have to pay Rs 5.1 lakh for a one Mbps line compared with Rs 8.5 lakh, at present.

Even lower bandwidth users have something to cheer about. While there is no change for the 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps categories, BSNL has reduced tariffs for 256 Kbps leased line from Rs 2.7 lakh per annum to Rs 2 lakh.

In a bid to attract educational institutions, BSNL is offering a 20 per cent discount for bandwidths less than 2 Mpbs and 40 per cent for leased lines more than 2 Mbps.

BSNL is facing stiff competition from the private operators in the domestic leased line market, which may have triggered the rate cuts.

As many as five new players have entered the fray, including multinational majors such as BT.

Some of the ISPs such as Sify, Net4India and Tulip IT have also taken long distance telephony licence to get into this lucrative market.

BSNL, which was the only operator in this segment till a few years back, is slowly loosing its market share to the private telecom players who are aggressively taking away the enterprise clients from the state-owned company.