Call Us At 83 Paise A Minute!

[robbyji 2]

International long distance (ILD) telephone tariffs are set to fall with Reliance Infocomm bagging the contract from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for carrying ILD traffic, according to a newsreport.

Reliance Infocomm has offered 83 paise per minute across five sectors, including the United States and Canada.

In the bargain, Reliance edged out its arch rival, the Tata-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which until now has been carrying BSNL's entire international long distance traffic across all the 11 international sectors.

The move has revenue implications for VSNL which stands to lose revenues of about 20-30 per cent accruing from ILD business. The revenue loss is in spite of the fact that it has managed to regain six sectors.

VSNL has offered to carry ILD calls to sectors such as West Asia at 93 paise per minute.

The news report, which quoted sources in VSNL, said that the net impact on its revenues would only be to the extent of 20 per cent, while BSNL officials said that about 40 per cent of the ILD traffic will now be routed through other companies.

VSNL may have to take a hit of up to Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) with the Tata-controlled company losing substantial ISD traffic originating from BSNL to Reliance Infocomm.

After a fresh round of bidding, Reliance Infocomm has emerged as the first choice for carrying ISD calls of BSNL to the United States, the most lucrative destination, followed by Bharti and VSNL, sources associated with the development said.

Both VSNL and BSNL differed over the traffic loss to Reliance Infocomm or Bharti. BSNL officials said 30-40% ISD traffic would now be carried by Reliance Infocomm and Bharti to different locations while VSNL officials said they would lose about 20% traffic.

Reliance is the first choice of BSNL for carrying traffic to the US and Canada while VSNL has retained the number one position for carrying the traffic to Europe and the Middle East.

BSNL gives nearly 50 million minutes of ISD calls per month.

"The new rates will allow BSNL to rejig its ILD tariffs. An announcement to this effect is expected on May 17 on the occasion of the World Telecom Day. BSNL had invited bids for 11 ILD sectors from long distance operators," the report said.

India's ILD market size is around Rs 4,300 crore (Rs 43 billion), of which BSNL's 42 million fixed line subscribers account for a significant share.

PTI & Agencies

Edited May 13, 2005 by robbyji

[anujit 0]

Thats just the carrier charge which is currently around Rs. 2.40 or 1.40 now. That doesnt mean the call will cost 0.30p!

[Beetle 0]

Reliance India Call charges 12.9cents/min (13+ if you add tax). Thats a bit less than 7Rs per minute.

If this reduction is passed on to customers, I beleive it might be cheaper to call US from India (ignore VOIP) than from US to India