Date:27/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/27/stories/2008022754651600.htm

Business

Bharti Airtel to lay new undersea cable

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it would set up a new undersea cable linking the U.S. with Asia.

To be laid in partnership with five global telecom firms, the $300 million undersea cable, Unity, would address the broadband demand by providing capacity to sustain the growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the U.S.

In a statement, Bharti Airtel said the five participating firms include the U.S.’s Internet search company Google, Japan’s telecom company KDDI Corp, Malaysia’s Global Transit Ltd, Singapore’s Pancet and Singtel.

The consortium has selected NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications to construct and install the system that would be ready for commercial use in the first quarter of 2010.

Bharti already has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems-i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE to Singapore and Europe, the statement added.