gibreel ferishta
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Bharti Airtel, Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) and Saudi Telecom are investing around $400 million in an undersea cable link -- The Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable. Though the other telecom firms have stakes in other submarine cables, this would be the first undersea cable owned by BSNL in which the company is investing $50 million. Sources said that the company’s board has approved the investment in the project.
Once the cable is up, it would help BSNL offer more competitive rates for its broadband and international long distance tariffs.
BSNL, which is the largest broadband service provider in the country, derives as much as Rs 2,000 crore revenue from the segment, but analysts say that it stands a huge threat from Wi-Max, and the only way forward is capacity expansion which will be best done through participating in such consortiums.
Currently, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel have the bandwidth axis rate control, and for BSNL, investing in undersea cable links, will allow it to keep a check on the costs as it is expected to reduce its reliability on the former two companies.
undersea cables europe india telephony BSNL broadband
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