The Hindu Business Line : Spice plans foray into long distance services

THE B K Modi-group company, Spice Telecom, today said it is planning to enter national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) telephony segments. Spice Telecom, at present, offers cellular services in Punjab.

"We are looking to entering NLD and ILD telephony segments. We are awaiting detailed guidelines from the Government. The ILD and NLD segments look attractive to us," said Mr Umang Das, Managing Director of Spice Telecom.

The Communication Ministry had earlier announced a reduction in entry fee for NLD and ILD players to a uniform Rs 2.5 crore from the existing Rs 100 crore and Rs 25 crore, respectively. The revenue share was also reduced to 6 per cent from 15 per cent of adjusted gross revenues with effect from January 1, 2006.

Mr Das said that Spice would look at a mix of leasing the infrastructure and building its own network for offering ILD and NLD services. Earlier Idea Cellular and PowerGrid had also announced their plans to foray into the NLD segment.

Currently, there are only four players - BSNL, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Telservices - offering long distance services. More than 60 per cent of the market is still controlled by the state-owned BSNL.

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