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INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - May 2005
THE MONTH THAT WAS
BSNL CUTS ISD RATES BY 33%
In a bonanza to its over four crore subscribers, BSNL today announced 33% cut in its international long distance calls charges to Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Gulf and SAARC countries to Rs 12 per minute from the existing Rs 18 a minute.
The new tariffs will come into effect from midnight of May 20 and the reduced rates will be applicable from landline, cellular and WLL networks of BSNL, CMD A K Sinha said adding the highest ISD tariff to any part of the world from BSNL network will be Rs 12 per minute.
BSNL's tariff for the US and Canada is Rs 7 per minute. BSNL was widely expected to rejig its ISD plans after it opened its bids for 11 ILD sectors from long distance operators. Reliance Infocomm had edged out its arch rival, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which until now has been carrying BSNL's entire international long distance traffic across all the 11 international sectors in certain sectors, like the US.
India's ILD market size is around Rs 4,300 crore, of which BSNL's 4.2 crore fixed line subscribers account for a significant share. Speaking on the occasion, communications minister Dayanidhi Maran said that BSNL would have to survive in the telecom market on its own strength with no special dispensation.
BSNL also announced a hefty 25% discount on domestic leased lines (bandwidth) on 2 mbps, 8 mbps and 45 mbps and above. BSNL had to revise the discount upward on two categories of 8 and 45 mbps after Mr Maran asked BSNL CMD to standardise the discount on all categories.
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