New Delhi, Sept 23: Faced with stiff competition from
private telecom operators, BSNL is considering to offer
reduced rates for carrying long distance calls of MTNL, a move
that would benefit both the public sector undertakings.
According to sources, BSNL will reduce carriage charge to
54 paise from current 65 paise for long distance calls
originating from MTNL's network. It is also likely to reduce
rates for the distance below 50 km to 18 paise from 20 paise
for MTNL.
With this, MTNL will be able to save extra payment to
BSNL while the latter would continue to retain its market
share in terms of usage of network over the private operators.
MTNL had floated tenders inviting bids from std carriers
like Bharti, VSNL, Reliance and BSNL for carrying MTNL's
long distance traffic from Delhi and Mumbai.
When contacted, BSNL officials confirmed the development
and also said that "negotiations are going on and the company
is considering to offer a package for interconnectivity rates
to MTNL."
In the last round of bidding, BSNL had lost part of its
market share in MTNL's traffic to private operators like
Reliance and Bharti as MTNL had refused to pay higher carriage
charges in the competitive era.
Bureau Report
