Telecom firm Bharti has indicated it might reduce the bandwidth tariffs for data traffic after getting security clearance to start commercial services of its undersea cable project, Network i2i.
The move will put further pressure on the Tata-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which controls the international-bound voice and data market.
Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Enterprises, said, "We've got the clearance for beginning commercial services for carrying data traffic from India. Already, Internet service providers and software companies like Infosys and Wipro have approached us for bandwidth. We will be announcing the new tariffs in a week."
Bharti will be offering various data services like private leased line circuits. The Bharti-SingTel undersea cable envisages a bandwidth of 8.4 terabits capacity, linking Chennai and Singapore.
"At present, we will be offering a capacity of 160 giga bits per second," Mittal said.
The project, jointly owned by Bharti and SingTel, had earlier envisaged a link from Singapore to Mumbai as well, but kept it on hold. Mittal said the second leg of the project was still on hold.
While the Bharti chairman refused to reveal the magnitude of the reduction, he said: "It will be significant and will be announced within a week."
In a joint press conference with Singapore Telecom president and chief executive officer, Lee Hsien Yiang, Mittal said the controversy surrounding the telecommunications sector would be put to rest by March.
Yiang said regulatory flip-flops continued to be an area of concern, but was confident the issues would be resolved amicably.
The SingTel president also said if the government relaxed the foreign direct investment cap, it would be good for the sector.