Bharti joins consortium to build high-speed data network

26 February 2008

Mumbai: Bharti Airtel is joining a consortium, which includes Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel to form the Unity Bandwidth Consortium that will build a high bandwidth undersea fibre-optic cable linking Asia and the US. The cost of building the cable would be approximately $300 million (Rs1,200 crore).

Unity will carry data and Internet traffic between Asia and the US.NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications have been selected to construct and install the system.

Bharti Airtel said in a release that the construction of the cable system will begin "immediately" while initial capacity would be available in the first quarter of 2010.

David Nishball, president, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel, said: "This investment is in line with our strategy to extend our international footprint across the globe to provide seamless connectivity to customers through partnerships with leading global companies.

The Unity cable system will address the demand for increased bandwidth between Asia and the US as more and more services migrate to an online environment. This partnership will also provide alternate routes to meet the demands of our customers for increased levels of network resiliency and redundancy."

The setting up of the cable is expected to initially increase Trans-Pacific operational cable capacity by about 20 per cent, with the potential to add up to 7.68 terabits per second of bandwidth across the Pacific, according to Unity.