The Hindu : Business : Maran urges VSNL to cut bandwidth prices

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Friday, Jul 29, 2005

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Business

Maran urges VSNL to cut bandwidth prices

BSNL has undertaken Chennai-Sri Lanka undersea cable work

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

FRUITFUL INTEGRATION: The Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and the Chairman of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, at the TGN-VSNL integration ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday asked Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata group, to reduce the international bandwidth prices in view of the huge potential for India-centric BPO services. The request was made by Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Mr. Tata assured the Minister that VSNL would not like to play a monopolistic role, but added that the matter of reducing the bandwidth prices was to be decided by the VSNL management.

"VSNL has made huge investments to fuel the capacity and we are making it truly a global company... We do not plan to play a monopolistic role... We would also like BSNL to share its capacity for achieving the goal,'' he said.

While announcing the integration of VSNL with Tyco Global Network, which the Tata group company acquired for $130 million, Mr. Tata said VSNL had been and continued to be in a close partnership with the Government to achieve the goal of making the company a truly global one.

Mr. Maran pointed out that the tariffs for international bandwidth in India were high compared to the international benchmarks, especially for the high bandwidth circuits.

"I am informed this is unfavourable to India. This puts India in a competitive disadvantage. India's other advantages get nullified by this factor,'' Mr. Maran said.

"I shall be extremely happy if Mr. Tata's integration with Tyco can bring Indian costs at least on a par with other countries,'' he added.

He also announced that the BSNL had undertaken the work of laying an undersea cable from Chennai to Sri Lanka and to connect Andaman and Nicobar to Singapore.

VSNL completed the acquisition of undersea cable network company Tyco Global Network earlier this month.

Tyco has over 60,000 km undersea cable network in of North America, Europe and Asia.

The ongoing management responsibility of Tyco Global Network would be assigned to VSNL International, a division leading VSNL's expansion into the e-global market.

Marginal rise in net profit

VSNL has reported a marginal rise in the net profit at Rs. 127 crore in the first three months of this fiscal against Rs. 126 crore in the first quarter of the previous year, the company said in a statement. The total income during the period under reference went up by 15 per cent to Rs. 944 crore from Rs. 819 crore in the year ago period.

— PTI

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