State-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will sign its first agreement outside India to buy bandwidth from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company to provide internet services in the northeast. It is also exploring South Africa for expansion, and may pick up equity stakes in one of the country’s telecom service providers.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company has agreed to sell its unused bandwidth to BSNL for $1.2 million a year. Initially, BSNL will buy 10 Gbps (Gigabits per second) capacity, which will be increased to 40 Gbps over time.
The agreement between the two companies is likely to be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka that starts tomorrow, according to an official from the department of telecommunications.
BSNL provides bandwidth from West Bengal to the northeastern states. Once optical fibre cables are laid from Agartala and Dhaka, to be joined at the border, Internet users in the northeast will have faster speeds.
“Once the agreement is signed, the execution will take about six months,” the official said.
BSNL has sent one of its directors to South Africa to explore business opportunities. “BSNL has also written to government telecom operators of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations expressing interest in their telecom market,” a BSNL executive told Business Standard.
“We could acquire equity stakes or enter into an agreement or participate in bids in the overseas market. The talks are preliminary but foraying overseas is part of our vision document for the current financial year,” the executive added.
“The focus is on increasing our topline in India through data services and foraying into telecom markets outside India to create additional streams of revenue. We are also eyeing consultancy projects in foreign markets,” he added.
BSNL was earlier in the race for Ethiopian Telecommunications, a state monopoly. In 2009-10, BSNL bid for Zambia's lone fixed-line operator Zamtel and was also in the fray to buy Luxembourg-based Millicom's Sri Lankan mobile network. None of the deals worked out because of issues over pricing and policy. “By early next year, we will be able to finalise our strategy for an overseas foray,” the official added.