Communication is central to our lives whether for business or personal reasons and telecommunications technology has reached a stage where voice, pictures and data can be transported and received in milli-seconds on computers, handheld terminals or telephones anywhere in the world. These services can also be provided more and more cheaply. Competition between major telecommunications companies is intense and the focus of the future will be on total connectivity, highest quality, lowest price and best value addition.
As a major economy India will need to be totally connected. With our technological and computer skills, our physical position between Asia and Europe / Americas and our economies of scale, India has the opportunity to become a major competitive force within the telecommunications arena.
VSNL, as Indias exclusive provider of international telecommunications services, has the opportunity to play a central role in the future of international telecommunications and Indias business integration with the rest of the world. This has been recognised by the Government of India and VSNL has been selected as one of the Navaratnas, Indias nine companies destined to have a global future and given special financial and managerial freedoms to aid the achievement of this.
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VSNLs mission is to create a global and seamless network of information superhighways: to connect people and computer cost - efficiently; anytime, anywhere. Its growth and investment plans are designed to ensure that VSNL efficiently meets the full demand of users for its services; optimises the utilisation of facilities and as a result the revenue derived from them is positioned for significant participation in an increasingly liberalised Indian telecommunications industry and to exploit opportunities to provide international telecommunication services and facilities outside India.
The future of telecommunications will not include government monopoly providers and VSNL is more than aware that it has only a few years to build the company into a globally competitive one. The three essential elements of achieving this will be total connectivity and the provision of value-added services to customers through quality and cost-effectiveness. These are at the heart of VSNLs strategic vision and business strategy.
Total connectivity
Total connectivity means a number of things. Firstly it means ensuring that India is connected to everywhere else in the world with enough circuits and switches whether through cable or satellite, at necessary bandwidths to service all customers whether through are in India or outside. At present there are four international gateways. VSNL is investing inner gateways at Bangalore, Ernakulam, Jallendar, Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad and new digital switches have been commissioned at Mumbai , Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai. VSNL also plans to established India as a regional telecommunications hub providing transit services to countries worldwide and services to neighbouring countries which cannot afford huge telecommunications investments but will have increasing demands for telecom services as their economies grow
Value addition
VSNL has already .;introduced a number of value-added services such as leased lines, E-Mail, Internet, frame-relay, ISDN and video conferencing. In fact VSNL was rated in to the top 20 providers of leased lines internationally in a user survey in Data Communications magazine in May 1997 and scored higher than most European countries.
New plans
Other key networking services for VSNL customers coming soon are Global One (incooperation with Sprint International) which offers Packet Switched and frame relay services, globally managed data services (jointly with Tele Media International, a wholly owned subsidiary of telecommunications Italia) VSNL will soon offering IBM global network services such as frame relay.
So shortly, whether a customer is miles from a mixed from a fixed phone in the desert of Rajastan or on a leased line from the central business district of a major metro. VSNL will be able to offer total telecommunications connectivity.
Over the next five years VSNL plans to invest Rs 50 million including Rs 20 million in expanding transmission capacity.