The Information & Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA), the Mauritian regulator, approved the reductions in December and Mauritius Telecom, the main provider, applied them Jan. 1.

"This is very important to us," said Vidia Mooneegan, chairman of the Outsourcing & Telecommunications Association of Mauritius (OTAM).

"With the financial crisis hitting the world, this decision will help us to be even more competitive. This will enable us to speed up our bandwidth and to offer more services to our clients," Mooneegan said.

The industry wants more, however.

"The price remains high compared to other countries, who are also lowering their tariffs on a regular basis," Mooneegan said. "We're looking forward to see the tariffs being reduced even more, because we're still a little bit more expensive then others when it comes to bandwidth."

The new monthly rate of a 2Mbps IPLC (international private leased circuit) from Mauritius to Paris costs US$4,900 compared to $6,300 previously. In 2003, the rate was $12,600. An IP VPN (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network) of 128Kbps now costs $700 compared to $1,100 previously.