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Bharti outbids VSNL, grabs BSNL's ISD traffic

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June 20, 2005 18:56 IST

State-owned telecom major BSNL has awarded a major chunk of its international traffic to UK and Europe to Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti, virtually eliminating incumbent carrier VSNL.

According to highly placed BSNL sources, Bharti's bids for the latest round of ILD traffic were lowest followed by Reliance Infocomm.

BSNL has about 60 million minutes of total ISD traffic per month translating into a business of about Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million).

In the previous round of ILD traffic bids, Reliance had emerged as the top carrier for UK and Europe to carry BSNL's ISD traffic.

According to BSNL officials, over 30 per cent of the ISD traffic is carried by Bharti, about 20 per cent by Reliance while the rest 50 per cent is being carried by BSNL itself, which is in the process of starting its own ILD service later.

When contacted, Bharti officials declined to comment on the latest round of bid while VSNL spokesperson confirmed that it had lost out to Bharti.

The latest agreements with Bharti and Reliance have come into effect from June 15, officials said.

According to officials, BSNL was offering about Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) worth of international call traffic to VSNL in terms of total revenue, which had been wiped out during the course of period as and when the competition increased in the ILD telephony.

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