The Hindu Business Line : Indian telecom operators bag majority bids

Future plans
BSNL is laying its own undersea cable starting with a link to Sri Lanka and is planning another one to Singapore.
It is also setting up its own landing station from where international carriers will be allowed access to BSNL's network.

New Delhi , Oct. 26

Indian telecom operators Reliance, VSNL and Bharti have offered cheaper commercial rates than foreign carriers such as AT&T, Sprint and France Telecom to carry majority of the international long distance telephone traffic from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Of the 50 sectors for which bids were invited by BSNL in October, Indian telcos have offered the lowest rates across 31 destinations including the lucrative ones such as the US and the Gulf region.

While Reliance has emerged as the biggest gainer cornering more than 15 destinations including the US, Canada, Malaysia, Pakistan and Mauritius, Tata-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd has emerged as the first choice for routing ILD calls to more than 10 destinations including Canada, Russia and most of the Gulf.

TeleGlobe, which was recent acquired by VSNL, has also bagged some key sectors.

Foreign carriers such as AT&T have got sectors such as Zambia, Japan, Mexico Yemen, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Telecom Italia and France Telecom have also got a few sectors such as Thailand and Iran.

Earlier VSNL was carrying the entire ILD traffic generated by BSNL until 2004 when BSNL decided to break away from the partnership to take advantage of competition in the market.

Last year, BSNL had invited bids from carriers which could offer international bandwidth through optic fibre cable and satellite links to enable BSNL meet the demand for its ILD voice, and data services. In response, it received expression of interest from eight companies, which were opened on August 26, 2005 and all of them have been empanelled.

The strategy

The move is in line with BSNL's strategy to offer ILD services independently. As part of this strategy, the company is also laying its own undersea cable starting with a link to Sri Lanka and planning another one to Singapore.

It is also setting up its own landing station from where international carriers will be allowed access to BSNL's network. BSNL had shortlisted eight carriers on its preferred list to route ILD calls. This include Optus, SingTel, Telecom Italia and France telecom.

Infrastructure

While BSNL has an ILD licence it does not have its own infrastructure except in four sectors — Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. BSNL has decided to ask for a bid from the shortlisted companies on a regular basis to get a the best commercial rates for routing its ILD traffic pegged to be worth Rs 4,000 crore a year.

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