By Airtel

Bangalore: Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecom services provider today announced the readiness of its Middle East Connect network, to serve global carriers in the region. The only outside operator with capacities on multiple cable routes in the region, Bharti Airtel offers the unique advantage of at least 3 multiple paths on every cable route. Over the last two quarters, Bharti has added over 17 GBPS capacity to the region and has made investments that connect the India-Middle East-Europe route via three alternative paths on SEA-ME-WE 4, I-ME-WE and EIG. These paths will provide the much needed diversity and capacity to the region.

In addition to its existing international fibre infrastructure, Bharti Airtel is also building a regional backbone connecting major markets, made easy by its ownership of capacity. With India emerging as a hub for IP connectivity, Bharti Airtel finds itself uniquely positioned to offer flexible IP solutions to carriers in the Middle East to meet their growing needs. With the Middle East Connect Network, carriers can extend their global Internet capacity and hub at multiple points to get better peering and diversity in case of any disaster. Carriers can leverage Airtel’s leadership position in the global wholesale market to address their IP (internet protocol) requirements and that of their customers in India. The initiative is a culmination of Bharti Airtel’s investments over the last two quarters in enhancing its network infrastructure in the region.

According to Mr. Rajan Swaroop, Executive Director, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel, “The launch of our global wholesale services for the Middle East is a significant step in our journey of becoming a global network solutions provider. We operate on a multiple partnership model ranging from simple interconnects to joint development of new products. The Middle East is home to some of the biggest economies and represents one of the most dynamic wholesale markets today. Bharti Airtel’s strengths in this business have always been flexibility and innovation in developing solutions for global wholesale, which we believe will create winning propositions for our customers.”

The Middle East has seen the introduction of a wide variety of innovative value added services. Consistent to its core values of flexibility and diversity, Bharti Airtel unveiled its suite of products in the area of Global Transmission and IP Services that include Submarine Capacity, Global leased circuits, Ethernet and Backhauls, Global IP Transit, Regional IP Transit, AS IP Transit, Managed Internet, Bandwidth on demand for customers in the Middle East.

Bharti Airtel’s international infrastructure includes ownership of the i2i submarine cable system, consortium ownership of the SMW4 submarine cable system and investment in a number of diverse submarine cable systems across transatlantic and transpacific routes. Each of its routes- India-ME-Europe, Atlantic, India-Singapore, Singapore-Japan and Japan-US offer customers’ three alternate paths that address dual needs of expansion and diversity. Bharti Airtel has also built terrestrial express connectivity to countries in the SAARC region, such as Nepal and Bhutan. The initiative enables enterprises in land locked countries like Bhutan, Nepal, to reach out to the world, by accessing Bharti’s cable assets through its International cable landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai.

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is among Asia’s leading integrated telecom services providers with operations in India and Sri Lanka. The company has an aggregate of over 118 million customers as of end November 2009, including 116.01 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by Business Week.

Bharti Airtel is structured as four strategic business units – Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s national high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 113,326 Rkms covering all the major cities in India. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai that connect two submarine cable systems – i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit www.airtel.in.