Verizon Eyes Indian Telecom Market

[Honest 836]

Verizon Eyes Indian Telecom Market

Since the government's opening-up of the long distance sector in December 2005, reportedly over 25 applications for NLD (national long distance) and ILD (international long distance) licenses have been received, with many having been cleared by the DoT (Department of Telecommunications).

Now, two more players - Verizon and Cable & Wireless (C&W) have joined the fray...

According to a Times News Network (TNN) report dated today, US-based global telecom service provider, Verizon, has applied for a NLD license in the country. Whereas, UK-based telecom major, Cable & Wireless (C&W) has already obtained permission to begin long distance telephony services.

C&W awaits license approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to start NLD and ILD operations in the country, subject of course to obtaining license from the DoT.

On the other hand, Verizon has just applied for NLD license, and is also awaiting ILD license, for which the company had applied several months ago to be held up due to incomplete documentation.

According to DoT sources, both licenses for Verizon are now likely to be processed together.

Once licenses are obtained, there would be in all four such international telecom players, including US-based AT&T, British Telecom (BT), C&W, and latest entrant, Verizon.

Which in turn makes for a very crowded telecom market, with both international players and Indian players VSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, BSNL, etc, vying for space.

The other way to look at it is the VPN/MPLS market is becoming attractive enough to net global service providers, thus also making Indian telcos revisit their growth strategies.

[copperco2 24]

verizon is trying for some time to be ehere... it is also setting up a abse slow and steady.

lets hope call charges come down as the handset prices have seen the southwards dive..

[Honest 836]

^^^

Yes my dear friend, it all will be in benefit of the users.

Regards.