Bharti to sell use of cables: WSJ

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Ltd is planning to launch a "global wholesale service" in Singapore that will open its approximately 200,000 kilometers of international fiber-optic cables to carriers around the world.

Carriers will use Bharti Airtel's network but market their services using their own brands, a Wall Street Journal report said today.

Carriers that have signed on for the new wholesale service include Saudi Telecom, PCCW of Hong Kong, and Oman Telecom, according to Bharti Airtel, it said.

The aim of the new service is to give international carriers access to Bharti Airtel's extensive fiber-optic cable network abroad, the report quoted David Nishball, president of enterprise services at Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel, which has emerged as the top telecom provider in India, is also in merger talks with South Africa's MTN Group, thus aiming to create the world's third-largest mobile operator. They had recently extended their talks by a month to August 31.

Bharti had also recently revealed that its enterprise services division is now targeting to deploy 10,000 Mobile Application Tool for Enterprise (MATE) from the current 1500 deployments.

The company is of the feeling that the global economic downturn will drive more carriers to consider using wholesale services. "During a recession, people look more toward an operations-expenditure model rather than a capital-expenditure model," WSJ quoted Ajay Chitkara, chief executive of the global data business in enterprise services at Bharti Airtel, as saying.