India's International bandwidth capacity grows 95 pc

India’s International bandwidth capacity grows 95 pc

Posted on September 24, 2006 / 3 Comments

The Hindu Businessline, Thomas K Thomas, New Delhi , July 13Increasing usage of broadband and Internet-based services has prompted Indian international bandwidth providers to raise their capacity by 95 per cent over a one-year period.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, bandwidth owned by various gateway service providers such as VSNL, Reliance Communication and Bharti has gone up to 12.7 Giga bytes in March 2006 compared to 6.5 Giga bytes at the end of the previous financial year.

Explaining the growth, Mr Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said: “Bandwidth requirement is largely being driven by the IT industry, particularly the BPO sector, and also rapid Internet adoption at homes. In addition, it is being fuelled by requirements of a growing economy. Everything is moving towards data and companies that are not IT organisations but are purely into exports, also need to rely on electronic invoices rather than physical invoices, when trading with overseas firms. Moreover, exporters now have the option to send pictures of the sample product (item to be exported) to their overseas clients. Today’s bandwidth needs also revolve around International Trade. The cost of laying fibre has come down due to technology. There is a strong demand story from India.”

Broadband

The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) pointed out that the dial-up Internet users have grown by 24 per cent to touch 6.9 million users, however, the growth in broadband services is the real driver for the increase in international bandwidth.

“Broadband needs more capacity than a dial-up service. Broadband services have grown by over 600 per cent with 1.5 million subscribers compared to a few thousand in 2005. That apart usage of Internet services such as leased lines and Net telephony has also increased considerably,” the ISPAI said.

Internet Telephony has crossed a billion minutes during the fourth quarter of 2005-06 compared to 58 million minutes in the previous quarter.

All of the voice calls on the Internet are international calls. Adding to the bandwidth consumption is the leased line Internet services such as Virtual Private Services.

The number of leased line connections has increased to nearly 15,500 compared to 12,200 last year.

http://www.blonnet.com/2006/07/14/stories/2006071402630400.htm

3 Comments

Divakar Goswami
September 30, 2006, 6:25 pm
TRAI presses for equal access at cable landing stations

Thomas K. Thomas, Hindu Businessline

New Delhi , Sept. 25

In a bid to bring down the prices of international bandwidth, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has urged the Government to speed up its policy on providing equal access to cable landing stations to all operators without discrimination.

The telecom regulator had made a recommendation in December 2005 which had mandated equal access to bottleneck facility at cable landing stations for submarine cables by operators. After more than nine months, the Department of Telecom is yet to take a view on the TRAI proposals.

The TRAI Chairman, Mr Nripendra Misra, in a letter written to the DoT Secretary, Mr D.S. Mathur, said, “In view of the changed scenario where easier entry norms have been prescribed for the international long distance segment, it is imperative to have economical cost-based access to cable landing station so that more and more capacity will be utilised by the operators and various telecom services are available to consumers at lower tariffs.”

More here:
http://www.blonnet.com/2006/09/26/stories/2006092604700400.htm
Divakar Goswami
October 5, 2006, 12:34 pm
VSNL, East African Cable may merge links

Thomas K Thomas

Merged entity to be the second largest joint cable system
The Hindu Businessline

New Delhi , Oct. 4

Tata managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) are in discussions to merge their respective under sea cables linking India and Africa to Europe. The move will make the proposed under sea cable the second largest joint under sea cable after AT&T.

While VSNL is rolling out a 9,000 km direct cable link between India and Europe via North Africa, EASSy will encircle the entire African continent through 9,900 km cable connecting 20 countries lying between South Africa and Sudan. The project envisages interconnecting the two under sea cable systems.

VSNL sources said that the discussions are in initial stages and the project will be completed in about 2 years time.

Read more here:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/05/stories/2006100502020400.htm
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