Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), the public sector telecom service provider, acquired international long distance licence on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. Experts state that this development could lead to further slashing of the international subscriber dialling (ISD) rates as MTNL is now preparing to handle its own traffic in the coming time. An official, who did not want his name to be disclosed, confirmed that MTNL has signed the licence bond with the department of telecom.

He added that henceforth MTNL will concentrate on carrying its own international long distance (ILD) traffic. Presently it is through the Tata Communications Ltd. that maximum traffic of the MTNL is being routed. The ISD rates of mobile to US, Europe, Gulf and Africa currently exists between Rs 6.40 and Rs 9.20 per minute. The average ISD rate to the US from landline is Rs 5.99. Since MTNL’s own network will soon come up, the official said that its ISD carriage cost will drop crucially. This will lower the operational cost of the company.