International long distance telephony call rates of Bharat Sanchar Nigam are likely to fall by up to 20 per cent after March as the telecom monolith is all set to put its own long distance infrastructure in the four metros and lay its own cable in partnership with Sri Lanka Telecom.
At present, BSNL routes its ILD traffic through other private ILD operators.
"This will be replaced by our own Long Distance TAX (trunk automatic exchange) at four metros for which the current upgrade is going on. The joint venture with Sri Lanka Telecom cable will connect us from Tuticorin to Colombo and will provide us enough capacity," BSNL director (commercial and marketing) G S Grover told PTI.
With these two major cost overheads slated to be taken care of, ILD charges may be cheaper by 10-20 per cent by March, he said.
The 325-km submarine cable between India and Sri Lanka, at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million) will have a capacity of 20 Gbps initially. The proposed cable will carry data as well as video communication too.
The cable would benefit both the sides, as it would carry telecom traffic not only between the two countries, but also from other countries and will provide BSNL long-awaited submarine cable landing station.
Apart from this, ILD rates of telecom operators including BSNL can also be reduced due to the lower revenue share and annual licence fee, which, according to the government should result in a 9 per cent drop in tariffs.
BSNL's ILD call rates are Rs 7.20 a minute for a 10 second pulse to the US, UK, and Canada while to Europe, (other than UK), Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong, it is Rs 9.60 a minute for 7.5 second pulse and to Rest of the World and Sri Lanka, it is Rs 12 a minute for a six second pulse.
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