Bandwidth blues ahead for BPOs

As the BPO industry is set to witness high growth, it is heading for a major bandwidth shortage in the next one year, which may put it at disadvantage vis-a-vis BPO firms in other Asian countries like the Philippines, Nasscom predicts.

Nasscom also foresees that the higher costs of bandwidth in India, more than six to seven times that in other Asian countries, would work to its disadvantage.

Disclosing this here at a media conference on the concluding day of the two-day Nasscom summit "� iTECH 2004 "� here yesterday, Nasscom vice-president Sunil Mehta said that at present the Indian companies were using 2 mbps lines and as they would ramp up their capacity, the higher costs would impinge upon their pricing strategies.

At present, India has about 15-16 GB international connectivity and there would be need for another 4-5 GB international capacity in the next few months.