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G. Rambabu

SINGAPORE, April 8

AFTER being the first private telecom company to launch cellular, basic and national long distance services in India, the Bharti group has once again beaten the other telecom companies by its `soft-launch' of international long-distance services in the country.

For the first time since international long-distance services were opened up on April 1, an international call was transmitted on a private operators network and carried within the country. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, made the historic telephone call from Singapore to the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Mr. P.S. Rammohan Rao, in Chennai, which was carried through on the submarine cable network i2i - a joint venture between Bharti and SingTel.

The international call, made in the presence of Mr. Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of Singapore, commemorated the successful completion of Network i2i - the largest submarine cable in terms of capacity as well as the first private cable to link India and Singapore.

The 3,200-km-long submarine cable was set up at a cost of $259 million and utilises the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology. The 8.4 terabits cable system can support the 130-million Internet dial-up communications simultaneously. This project is expected to give an impetus to the company's international long-distance foray. The company holds an ILD licence and is in the process of working out interconnect agreements with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and various foreign carriers. It is expected to fully launch its services once these agreements have been reached by the end of the month.

The submarine cable project is expected to help the group capitalise the international bandwidth due to the rapid growth of the technology and Internet-related industries in the country by providing international bandwidth access through its submarine cable landing station. The station at Chennai will also provide customers international bandwidth access for both data and voice services. It will connect Bharti's telecommunication network in the country to the submarine cable systems developed by other infrastructure providers to facilitate transmission of international traffic.

The company also plans to sell international bandwidth directly to other telecommunication service providers. The target customers include software companies, corporate houses, Internet service providers, Internet data centres and call centres.

Speaking at the commemoration ceremony, Mr. Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises, noted that although "full-fledged" international services have not commenced, the company will officially launch ILD services sometime next week.

"As in the case of national long-distance services, we will again seek to bring about a sharp revision in call rates. For international call, our charges will be close to 50 per cent lower than those prevailing at present", he said. He noted that the successful completion of the submarine cable is a testimony to the fine partnership between both the countries. "It is also a tribute to the New Telecom Policy 99 and Bharti's strategy to emerge as a leading integrated telecom company."

The cable will create huge bandwidth capacities that will help in making the Indian business environment increase productivity and fuel economic growth.

Domestic and international long-distance markets in India were liberalised on April 1, 2002. Network i2I expects this development to stimulate demand for telecommunication services.

Mr. Lee Hsien Yang, President and CEO of SingTel, said: "The i2i cable network is a product of SingTel's successful collaboration with Bharti. The cable is linked to SingTel's extensive network in Asia Pacific and will enhance telecommunications connectivity between the Indian sub-continent and East Asia". Mr. Lee added that "the completion of the i2i cable coincides very nicely with the recent liberalisation of India's international long-distance market. The cable will support Bharti's introduction of international services, another important step in Bharti's vision to be a leading telecommunications provider in India".

Tie-up extended: Mr. Lee and Mr. Mittal also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on behalf of SingTel and Bharti to extend partnership between the two companies. As part of the MoU, both the companies will study the possible enhancement of the i2i cable network to other parts of Asia, including West Asia and Europe. This can be achieved either through new infrastructure or acquisition of the capacity on other cable systems. The two parties will also develop joint programmes to market the i2i cable, and, in support of market liberalisation in India and Singapore, enable open and non-exclusive access to the cable for all carriers in the two countries.

As of now, SingTel is the largest strategic investor in the Bharti group, having invested $ 650 million and currently has an effective stake of 28.5 per cent in Bhart-Televenture, the listed vehicle of the group.

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