Honest 836 Report post Posted June 18, 2008 MTNL gets ILD licence; ISD may come down 18 Jun, 2008, 1936 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Public sector telecom service provider MTNL on Wednesday received the much-awaited international long distance licence, a development which could signal further lowering of ISD rates as the PSU is gearing up to carrying its own traffic in the near future. A senior MTNL official told media the PSU has signed the licence agreement with the Department of Telecom today and would now focus on carrying its own ILD traffic, although for some time the PSU would depend on the other ILD operators' network. MTNL is currently routing most of its ISD traffic through VSNL. At present mobile ISD rates to the US, Europe, Gulf and Africa ranges from Rs 6.40 to 9.20 per minute, while from landline the average rate is 5.99 per minute to the US. With its own network coming up, the official said, the PSU's ISD carriage cost would fall significantly. This would cut down the PSU's operational cost. The ISD segment which already has players like state run BSNL besides private majors like Bharti, Reliance and VSNL, see some more competition with the entry of MTNL. The operator of Mumbai and Delhi circle is also building an undersea cable project to carry its own ISD traffic. Its erstwhile partner BSNL has pulled out of the project, which is to connect India to Singapore and Malaysia. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted September 14, 2008 BSNL to bid for MTNL's ILD tender 14 Sep, 2008, 1050 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL will bid for the outgoing international call routing tender of MTNL. "The company would participate in the tender and there is no PSU angle. It is just commercial consideration as BSNL has ILD infrastructure," a senior BSNL official told reporters. MTNL proposes to invite sealed bids from eligible Indian ILD operators for routing its international traffic of MTNL Delhi and Mumbai to various destinations around the world through an open tender. The bids will open in the last week of September. The likely date is September 23. MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai and holds an ILD licence largely depends on other operator's network as it doesn't have its own infrastructure ready till date. At present the PSU operator's international traffic is mainly routed by Tata Communication. The fresh invitation from MTNL implies that it is looking at other ILD operators who can carry its outgoing ILD traffic at cheaper price than the prevailing rates, said MTNL officials. However, the company is in the process of laying down its own submarine cable which would connect India to other countries like Singapore and Malaysia. The undersea cable can cut down ISD tariffs as the operational costs would fall substantially. At present, the company charges in the range of Rs 6.40 to Rs 9.20 per minute for ISD calls to the US, Europe, Africa and Gulf countries. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata and BSNL are the other ILD operators in the country Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
