MTNL gets ILD licence; ISD may come down

NEW DELHI: Public sector telecom service provider MTNL on Wednesday received the much-awaited international long distance licence, a development which could signal further lowering of ISD rates as the PSU is gearing up to carrying its own traffic in the near future.

A senior MTNL official told media the PSU has signed the licence agreement with the Department of Telecom today and would now focus on carrying its own ILD traffic, although for some time the PSU would depend on the other ILD operators' network. MTNL is currently routing most of its ISD traffic through VSNL.

At present mobile ISD rates to the US, Europe, Gulf and Africa ranges from Rs 6.40 to 9.20 per minute, while from landline the average rate is 5.99 per minute to the US.

With its own network coming up, the official said, the PSU's ISD carriage cost would fall significantly. This would cut down the PSU's operational cost.

The ISD segment which already has players like state run BSNL besides private majors like Bharti, Reliance and VSNL, see some more competition with the entry of MTNL.

The operator of Mumbai and Delhi circle is also building an undersea cable project to carry its own ISD traffic. Its erstwhile partner BSNL has pulled out of the project, which is to connect India to Singapore and Malaysia.