VSNL to enter national long distance telephony

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI, NOV 2. Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL), the country's sole provider of international communications, today formalised its plans to enter the national long distance (NLD) communications arena.

The company today applied for a NLD licence to the Department of Telecommunications following approval to the proposal by its board of directors on October 30. It expects the letter of intent (LoI) to be issued shortly.

The company plans to launch its services by the second quarter of 2002 in eight cities where it has a presence in the form of switches (digital exchanges).

VSNL has decided to tie-up with an existing infrastructure provider for leasing the requisite infrastructure such as transmission links and other systems.

Nation-wide deployment of infrastructure would have been a time- consuming and costly exercise had the company decided to go it alone.

VSNL officials said it would not only meet the roll out plan stipulated by DoT but endeavour to complete it before the phased deadline prescribed by the Government for establishing an all India presence.

The DoT has asked all NLD licensees to cover the entire country in a phased manner to ensure that less developed areas are not left out during telecom deregulation.

The licence will be virtually free for VSNL because the Government has already waived the licence fee and other formalities as compensation for preponing the dismantling of its monopoly on international communications from the year 2004 to 2002.

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Section  : Business
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