Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is sitting on an idle bandwidth capacity of around 300 mbps with several internet service providers developing cold feet.
"The earlier euphoria on bandwidth demands seems to have diminished. Now we have an idle capacity of around 300 mbps against our total capacity of one gbps. The main reason for this situation is lack of demand from ISPs," KP Tiwari, officiating director of VSNL, said.
Tiwari said: "The hue and cry made by ISPs last year because of the lack of availability of bandwidth capacity from Videsh Sanchar has diminished, though we are fully committed to expand our capacities."
In India, internet bandwidth is costly because VSNL buys connectivity from the US. But in the US, it is internet centric. "Indian customers should change their strategy on hosting in the US for their internet purposes. This will result in low requirement of connectivity to US, thus reducing over all cost of bandwidth," he added.
Tiwari said, "Content providers should bring their content to India rather than hosting in the US. Even if the site is intended for the US, they should co-locate in India as outgoing pipe of VSNL in free. VSNL is trying to connect through pacific ocean for redundancy. VSNL backbone is readying for future technology of tomorrow."
According to Tiwari, the bandwidth usage is data centric with more than 70 per cent of data transmitted globally. The trend is likely to continue in India. Around 70-75 per cent of bandwidth is on optic fibre, while utilisation of satellite is less. The main reason for using fibre is better quality, low latency, suitable for interactive and multimedia.
In India, call centre is one of the prime businesses connecting on optic fibre. VSNL uses all major sources for enhancing its bandwidth capacity. "Companies like Reliance, Tatas, Bharti, HFCL are expected to come out with their backbones early next year. Some small players are developing their own backbones," Tiwari added.
