Bharti bags long-distance phone license

MUMBAI: Bharti Telesonic, a subsidiary of Bharti Tele-ventures of the

unlisted telecoms group Bharti Enterprises, said on Thursday it has been awarded

India's first private national long distance (NLD) telephony license.

Bharti paid a fee of Rs one billion and submitted bank guarantees for Rs four

billion to the government for the license. It has already laid out over 10,000

km of fiber optic network covering 50 towns.

India threw open the NLD business, which was a monopoly of the government, to

private competition last year. State-run, monopoly overseas telecoms carrier

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and India's largest business conglomerate, the Reliance

Group, are the other firms which have applied for the NLD licenses.

VSNL has been promised free entry into the NLD business to compensate for the

loss of its monopoly on its mainstay overseas calls business next April ahead of

schedule.