Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 04, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 04, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Info-Tech
-
Telecommunications VSNL, Bharti sign pact to share undersea cables Thomas K. Thomas
New Delhi , Aug 3 TATA-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd has entered into an agreement with competing Singtel-Bharti's joint venture under sea cable company, Networki2i, for infrastructure sharing. The agreement will enable both companies to use each other's under sea cable network in the event of a snag in one of the cables, making it more robust. While VSNL has a 3,175 km under sea cable system connecting Chennai to Singapore called the Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable (TIISC), SingTel and Bharti Tele-Ventures jointly own the Networki2i cable system on the same route. "With this arrangement both Bharti and VSNL will be able to provide quality international bandwidth to their customers. This is a first of its kind agreement anywhere in the world," said a VSNL official. Disruption in service due to snags in the cable system is a common occurrence around the world, since it is very difficult to predict under sea activities. Anything from a ship to shark bite can cause the cable to snap. Though repair ships are located at various points, it takes several days before the link is restored. The VSNL-Bharti arrangement envisages automatic restoration of services if one of the cables develops a snag. "The arrangement between TIISC and Networki2i is probably the first automatic restoration arrangement of its kind where two different cables have formed an automated ring out of their capacities to restore each other's traffic," said a VSNL source. Earlier, in a consultation paper on international bandwidth prices, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested infrastructure sharing as a means to increase competition and better quality of service. "Such arrangement if facilitated will enable operators to have redundancy in a cost-effective manner and also allow them to offer better Service Level Agreements," said a VSNL source. Recently, a single line cable system that connects Pakistan to the rest of the world developed a snag that shut down the country's Internet connectivity for almost a week.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|