VSNL, Bharti sign pact for national long distance

NEW DELHI: State owned international gateway, VSNL has signed a right to use agreement with Bharti for 23,000 route Kms or 100,000 fiber Kms capacity on an existing advanced fiber optic domestic long distance backbone. The capacity agreement marks the first of its kind accord between two leading telecom service providers in India to optimize capacities in the national long distance (NLD) segment.

"This agreement along with our own submarine cable, will ensure that our enterprise and broadband subscribers get end to end connectivity on our robust Gigabit network," said VSNL, MD, SK Gupta. "Our existing business segments will have a captive source of domestic bandwidth for present and future growth drivers, resulting in significant cost savings. In addition, a self managed domestic backbone will also equip us with greater control on quality, reliability and uptime of our services."

The NLD backbone will further enhance VSNL's leadership position in the corporate business segment and Internet services and give an immediate boost to its retail broadband plans. VSNL's wholesale business segment, primarily catering to voice solutions, will also benefit from the augmented NLD backbone. The domestic backbone will offer considerable cost optimization benefits, as all the three business segments - wholesale, corporate and retail - consume significant NLD bandwidth.

Prior to the agreement for this capacity, VSNL had network spanning over 6,000 route kms. The combined capacity will provide alternate path on existing routes thus enhancing the diversity, redundancy and reliability of VSNL's NLD backbone. The 1,00,000-fiber km NLD backbone will cover over 200 Long Distance Calling Areas (LDCAs) and keep VSNL much ahead of its NLD rollout obligations.