NEW DELHI, India-Two Indian companies, Data Access and Reliance Communications, have been awarded carrier licenses in the United States, enabling them to offer long-distance connectivity to Indian mobile companies.
The two companies will be able to offer national and international long-distance service in the U.S. market. This will have a direct impact on tariffs for long-distance calls from India to the United States over mobile networks. Already BPL, the GSM service provider in Mumbai, has reduced its U.S. tariff from 24 rupees (US$0.50) a minute to 18 rupees (US$0.38), for users who sign up for data access.
Reliance too is planning to offer cheaper international call tariffs for its CDMA customers, using the U.S. license it has obtained. Bookings for Reliance’s wireless local loop (WLL) service in India began on Thursday.
A major chunk of long-distance traffic from India is directed to North America.
