Bandwidth in India more expensive than Asian hubs: Gartner

International leased line prices in India are five times more expensive because of less competition, as compared to Singapore-Hong Kong or Singapore-Tokyo. This was the finding of Gartner Inc's report on international bandwidth pricing trends in the APac region.

The report also stated that international bandwidth prices in the Asia-Pacific region would continue to decline by 20% to 25% annually in the next three years. This is because of aggressive competition for enterprise business and excess capacity across Asia. 

According to Gartner, for the Indian market, submarine cables like TICS (Tata Indicom Chennai Singapore), Flag Falcon (Reliance) and SMW-4 would add capacity on both the western routes towards Europe and eastern routes towards Singapore. This would result in a 40% to 50% annual price decline for international connectivity from India. 

In open markets like Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, the monthly recurring charge for a 1 Mbps international leased line is $700 to $900. The prices from the hubs to developing markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and India are more than
five times higher."

According to Gartner, the most competitive markets for international bandwidth are Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, whereas the least competitive markets are Indonesia, Malaysia and India. 

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