BT bags ILD, NLD licences

British Telecommunications (BT) has received both international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) licences that will enable it to offer telephony services in the country.

The company is also planning to increase its employee strength in the country by hiring an additional 6,000 people in the next two years. The company is planning to roll out its services immediately and through its newly formed joint venture BT Telecom India.

It will enable the company to offer services directly to multi-site corporate customers in the Indian market. BT plans to provide corporate customers who have sites in the country with virtual private network-based services using technologies such as internet protocol-based multi-protocol label switching and ATMs, BT said in a release here today.

"It is great news and our customers here wanting to access a BT-managed network, which is connected to our comprehensive global network across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America," BT Global Services CEO Andy Green was quoted as saying in the release.

Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister of communication and IT, said, "To further promote investment into India and enhance business opportunities for domestic companies operating overseas, we must have the best and latest infrastructure.

These licences will allow BT to bring its 21 CN services to India's IT and ITeS sector and increasing their competitiveness through connectivity, availability, quality and responsiveness on a global scale.¿

BT had earlier announced strong growth plans for its Indian operations in September 2006, predicting that its revenues from India will be $250 million by 2009.

Earlier this month, BT signed an agreement to acquire i2i Enterprise, a Mumbai-based provider of internet protocol (IP) communications services.