Indian phone firms black marked

NEW DELHI: Indian state-run phone firms are rated the lowest in Asia on quality of local access lines, putting at risk the nation's potential of becoming a leading outsourcing hub, consultancy firm Gartner said.

The survey that mapped responses by 139 multinational managers on 20 leading Asian carriers said reliability and performance of local access lines provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd were at the bottom of the list.

"The last mile continues to be the weakest link," said Gartner telecoms analysts, To Chee Eng and Kobita Desai in the report.

"The country needs to improve its service quality quickly if it wants to be the IT and outsourcing hub for multinational corporations," a statement from Gartner said.

It said more competition in local services could improve the quality of such facilities.

Apart from the unlisted BSNL and MTNL, also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a clutch of private telecoms players also provide landline services in the country.

Despite teething problems in the domestic telecoms sector, India is fast becoming an outsourcing giant for global companies thanks to its cost competitive English-speaking workforce.

Companies such as General Electric, American Express Co and Dell Computer have set up huge backoffice units in the country, employing thousands of Indians to do low-end services such as claims and payroll processing.

The firms deploy high-speed telecoms networks to link their offices, mainly in western countries, to these units.

Reuters