The Hindu Business Line : Data Access eyes NLD

AFTER making a splash in the international long distance (ILD) segment, telecom major Data Access (India) Pvt Ltd is eyeing the lucrative national long distance (NLD) segment, intending to ride on the backbone infrastructure of rival Reliance Communications Ltd.

According to Mr Siddhartha Ray, Managing Director, Data Access, the company will be following the same business model that it has successfully implemented for its ILD operations i.e. spend the minimum on infrastructure backbone, and instead lease the network services from other operators in the market.

"In the telecom sector, rival telecom companies have to complement each others' networks, otherwise they won't grow. We hope to be Reliance's biggest customer as far as the backbone infrastructure is concerned once we launch our NLD services in the next couple of months. Hopefully we will be leasing 10GB capacity from Reliance once its own network is in place", he told Business Line in an exclusive interview.

Mr Ray stated that in the ILD operations, the company had consciously decided not to lay its own fibre optic network and instead obtained it from other infrastructure providers such as PowerGrid and Gas Authority of India Ltd.

For transmission purposes it was relying on satellites. That way it had been able to meet tight deadlines, even while ensuring that the drop rates of the customers were the minimum, he said.

He pointed out that unlike the other ILD operators such as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and Bharti Telesonic, the company was avoiding the retail segment and restricting itself to being a wholesaler.

In the near future, it hoped to corner 25 per cent of the market, up from two per cent right now.

At the moment, 90 per cent of the traffic (60 million minutes in September) on the network came from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Hutch and Hughes Tele.com.

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