VSNL slashes international bandwidth tariffs
August 22, 2005

Continuing on the roadmap chalked out in 2002 for rationalising international bandwidth tariffs, VSNL announced another round of aggressive tariff cuts on August 15, 2005. The latest round of tariff rationalisation slashes bandwidth tariffs by up to 45 per cent on the Tata Indicom Cable.

With VSNL’s sixth tariff cut in the last four years, prices of half circuit international private lines (IPLC) have come down from Rs 40 lakh in 2001 to Rs 11 lakh for E1 (2 Mbps), from Rs 725 lakh to Rs 114 lakh for DS3 (45 Mbps) and from Rs 2,100 lakh to Rs. 330 lakh for STM-1 (155Mbps). These prices are for restorable capacities between India and USA. In four years, international bandwidth prices have dropped by 84 per cent.

VSNL’s recent initiatives of building the Tata Indicom Cable and completing the TGN acquisition have provided VSNL with greater control on international bandwidth cost components. VSNL had already reduced prices by about 48 per cent on the Tata Indicom Cable in the six months since it was put into service. VSNL is committed to consistently enhance the quality of its customer offerings and rationalise tariffs.

VSNL pioneered the availability of international bandwidth in India by participating in undersea cable consortium networks. Over the last ten years, VSNL has participated in the construction of several undersea cable networks into India. In late 2003, VSNL embarked upon its first undersea cable between India and Singapore, which was completed in a record time of ten months. Further, in July 2005 VSNL completed the acquisition of TGN, the world’s most advanced submarine cable system. The Tata Indicom Cable and the TGN acquisition have enabled VSNL to make aggressive tariff offerings.

VSNL operates nearly 340 GBPS of undersea cable capacities landing in India. The total undersea cable network of VSNL spans over 60,000 km across four continents and is amongst the largest cable networks in the world.