Bharti Emerges Leader In Std, Isd Traffic

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Bharti emerges leader in STD, ISD traffic

30 Aug, 2008, 0000 hrs IST, ET

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has stolen a march over its rivals in carrying both national and international long distance calls. While state-owned BSNL has a larger fibre network in India, Trai data reveals that Bharti earns more revenues than the PSU for carrying STD traffic.

Similarly, Tata Communications (VSNL) and Reliance Communications (RCOM) may have larger international long distance networks (under sea submarine cables), but Bharti’s revenues in this segment are significantly higher that that of its competitors.

According to Trai, Bharti earned Rs 1189.6 crore for carrying STD calls and Rs 624.1 crore for ISD calls for the quarter ended June 08. In comparison Rcom had revenues to the tune of Rs 591.4 crore and Rs 426.5 crore from carrying STD and ISD traffic respectively during the same period.

State-owned BSNL which has traditionally been the largest player in this domestic long distance segment earned Rs 721.5 crore as STD revenues and Rs 179.4 as ISD revenues. Similarly, the Tata Communications (VSNL) which was earlier the dominant player in the international long distance segment had revenues only to the tune of Rs 417 crore from carrying ISD calls. An analysis of Trai data also reveals that Bharti has taken the slot only over the last couple of months.

As of 2007-end, BSNL was the largest player in the STD front and Tata Communications (VSNL) in the ISD space. Market watchers attribute several reasons which has helped Bharti pull away from its rivals in both the national and international long distance space. First, Bharti has nearly a 20 million lead over its rivals in customer numbers.

This combined with a strong subscriber base in metros and large cities, Bharti has an unique advantage as its own subscribers account for large volumes of the company’s STD and ISD traffic. (Bharti’s cellular services extend to all the 5,100 census towns in the country). Importantly, many of the regional operators route their STD traffic on Bharti’s domestic network.

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Go airtel go!!