Foreign telcos ask TRAI to fix bandwidth price
20-12-2009
indiabandwidth feels that only a public sector terabit cable will significantly bring down bandwidth prices
It is indiabandwidth's long held view that only a public sector terabit cable will significantly reduce bandwidth prices in India. Unless the Prime Minister of India commits to such a cable, it won't materialize
In the meantime, global long-distance carriers BT, AT&T and Cable & Wireless have sought the intervention of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to create a wholesale bandwidth-pricing regime to regulate "higher bandwidth prices in the country"
They argue that a wholesale pricing regime would cut down bandwidth cost for the end-consumer.
There are nine submarine cable networks that offer bandwidth to long distance carriers here. Tata Communications owns five submarine cables, Bharti has two, Reliance Communications one and the consortium of Bharti and Reliance owns another network. Long distance carriers like BT, AT&T buy bulk of bandwidth from these wholesale vendors and retail it to end-consumers.
A senior TRAI official told Financial Chronicle that the global carriers had written to the regulator to set up a wholesale pricing regime. "At present, we have retail pricing on bandwidth but there is no regulation on wholesale pricing. The regulator is looking at the recommendations made by the carriers on wholesale pricing" he added. He said "bandwidth prices in India today was $5-9 million per 10 gigabytes compared to $1.5-1.7 million in other countries in Asia"
Commenting on the need for a wholesale pricing regime, former TRAI advisor, S N Gupta, said "Once the regulation on wholesale pricing is done, service-based competition will increase leading to a cut in prices. Asked if entry of new vendors would ease the pricing, he said entry of new players would not bring competition in this space but would only increase capacity.
Asia's privately-owned submarine cable network, Pacnet, is setting up a submarine cable network in India under the West Asia Crossing (WAC) project. With the entry of Pacnet there will be 10 cable networks in the country.
Some inputs from www.mydigitalfc.com
It is indiabandwidth's long held view that only a public sector terabit cable will significantly reduce bandwidth prices in India. Unless the Prime Minister of India commits to such a cable, it won't materialize
In the meantime, global long-distance carriers BT, AT&T and Cable & Wireless have sought the intervention of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to create a wholesale bandwidth-pricing regime to regulate "higher bandwidth prices in the country"
They argue that a wholesale pricing regime would cut down bandwidth cost for the end-consumer.
There are nine submarine cable networks that offer bandwidth to long distance carriers here. Tata Communications owns five submarine cables, Bharti has two, Reliance Communications one and the consortium of Bharti and Reliance owns another network. Long distance carriers like BT, AT&T buy bulk of bandwidth from these wholesale vendors and retail it to end-consumers.
A senior TRAI official told Financial Chronicle that the global carriers had written to the regulator to set up a wholesale pricing regime. "At present, we have retail pricing on bandwidth but there is no regulation on wholesale pricing. The regulator is looking at the recommendations made by the carriers on wholesale pricing" he added. He said "bandwidth prices in India today was $5-9 million per 10 gigabytes compared to $1.5-1.7 million in other countries in Asia"
Commenting on the need for a wholesale pricing regime, former TRAI advisor, S N Gupta, said "Once the regulation on wholesale pricing is done, service-based competition will increase leading to a cut in prices. Asked if entry of new vendors would ease the pricing, he said entry of new players would not bring competition in this space but would only increase capacity.
Asia's privately-owned submarine cable network, Pacnet, is setting up a submarine cable network in India under the West Asia Crossing (WAC) project. With the entry of Pacnet there will be 10 cable networks in the country.
Some inputs from www.mydigitalfc.com
