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Telecommunications

Efficient telecom infrastructure is a vital input for the IT industry – be it for IT enabled services, other IT Services or software exports. The Government of India has steadily been opening up the telecom sector to more competition and thereby improving efficiency and ensuring lower cost of service.

The Government of India has recently divested its stake in the monopoly operator, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), India’s telecom gateway, to the TATA Group, one of India’s largest private sector business houses. The Government of India is also opening up the entire international telecom carrier business to competition. This is expected to bring down international tariffs, as it did in the domestic tariffs, both local and long distance.

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Telecom facilities within the state of West Bengal are noteworthy. The state has three international satellite earth stations supported by two gateway switches for total global reach. These earth stations, two located at Kolkata and one at Halisahar, serve the entire eastern region. In Kolkata, one earth station (F2) is located on top of the SDF building at Salt Lake. This earth station is used to operate IDR/ DCME carriers and has the capability of radiating a number of 2 mb carriers in different directions. The other is located nearby at Videsh Sanchar Bhawan (VSB) in Ultadanga and has a capacity of 240 PSTN CCTS. Halisahar is the largest earth station facility and is equipped with a modified Std A earth station (C & Ku Band). Located very close to Kolkata, it has a capacity of 1350 PSTN CCTS plus 2 compressed Digital TV channels.

The total capacity of the International Gateway Switch in Kolkata is 11000 circuits of which 4500 circuits are now in use. The Software Technology Park of India (STPI) is installing two more earth stations in Durgapur and Kharagpur.


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