(Economic Times via NewsEdge) India's BSNL has opened its optical fiber gateways to Nepal allowing the land-locked neighbour to connect its telecom, IT and Internet networks to other countries.
For Nepal, which is dependant on expensive satellite communication for telecom and IT data transfer, the move would result in over 75% drop in current bandwidth rates.
According to sources, Nepal is also set to ink a similar deal with the country's largest private operator, Bharti Airtel, for an additional 34 Mbps of bandwidth.
Following this, Nepal feels its Internet rates can be slashed even further to about a fifth of the current tariffs.
Additionally, Nepal will also be able to set up its proposed superhighway for cross-country data transfer, as bandwidth from BSNL and Bharti will help reduce costs of Internet services, making it affordable and accessible for its citizens to connect to the national network.
The deal will also allow Nepal Telecom to "ride" on BSNL's undersea cable to Sri Lanka and subsequently to other countries.
Nepal Telecom executives also said that fiber connectivity to India would be a big boost to small companies requiring high-speed data connectivity and aid small ISPs
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