Large enterprises fuelled by the boom in information technology and outsourcing services will drive the demand for telecom services in India, but the country must improve the quality of its corporate data services, which lags far behind international standards, IT research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Gartner, in a survey of 139 network managers in MNCs, rated Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd significantly below the industry average for international leased lines and for local lines. Both VSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd were rated lowest among 20 major Asian carriers.

"India still has a long way to go in terms of telecom service quality," Gartner principal telecom analyst Chee Eng said in a statement in Bangalore.

"The country needs to improve its service quality quickly if it wants to be the IT and outsourcing hub for multinational corporations," Chee said.

The 139 network managers evaluated services based on reliability, performance, support, installation and repairs, optional features and pricing, Gartner said.

However, Gartner identified some bright spots, despite the last mile continuing to be the weakest link.

"International service quality has actually improved. But it is inconsistent, often due to problems in the local access lines. Prices have also come down significantly. They are far from cheap, but are not expensive either -- even by Asian standards," co-author of the Gartner report and principal telecom analyst Kobita Desai said.

Gartner said both BSNL and MTNL were rated fair and below for reliability, performance and support for installation and repairs.

It said to circumvent the problem, an increasing number of enterprises and international carriers are seeking out alternative carriers such as Bharti, Reliance and Tata to provide the access circuits.

"This will put pressure on the dominant carriers to improve their service or lose market share as alternative carriers expand their local loop," Gartner said.

Desai said the best way to improve quality was competition and which was beginning to happen in international and long distance services.

"It will take longer to happen in the local loop due to the high investment and long rollout times. But if this market is not addressed well, it will create an opportunity for new players to enter the market," Desai said.

Gartner said Hong Kong's PCCW was rated best in service quality for local access lines, followed by Singapore Telecom and NTT. For international services, Singapore Telecom was rated top in leased lines and ATM, NTT for frame relay, and KDDI for IP-VPNs.