By Reliance Globalcom

Hong Kong – Reliance Communications and China Telecom have today announced the opening of the first direct terrestrial cable link between the Chinese and Indian domestic markets.

The Reliance Communications and China Telecom constructed cable was the first cross border terrestrial connectivity project to be planned between India and China, and was completed earlier this month. The cable passes through the inhospitable terrain of the Nathula Pass, linking Yadong in China to Siliguri in India. The cable will provide direct, enterprise class connectivity between all major Indian and Chinese locations as well as expanding high-bandwidth coverage to more rural regions and cities in both countries. Neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and even Pakistan and Bangladesh will also benefit in the longer term, through increased bandwidth availability and global termination options.

Reliance Globalcom, the global arm of Reliance Communications can now offer the additional protection of two separate cable routes between India and China with considerable less risk from natural disasters. Both international businesses and consumers in the region will benefit from improved internet connectivity, lower latency and improved voice clarity calls. Previously, the only available option for high-bandwidth connectivity between the two countries was via undersea cable routes through Hong-Kong or Singapore. The disruption to major international services in the region due to the recent typhoons and earthquakes has clearly exposed an associated risk with complete dependence on these cables. This new terrestrial link enables Reliance Globalcom to provide business critical service provision to its customers by offering dual cable route diversity between India and China for the first time.

“This announcement and cable connection is a landmark which represents many years of planning and hard work,” said Mr. Han YiHu, Managing Director of China Telecom. “We are very pleased with the increased dedicated bandwidth availability, connection speed and security this cable will provide to Chinese based enterprises and consumers. It will greatly assist our customers to become global industry leaders, while improving opportunities for international business development in both India and China.”

This new link increases the reach and diversity of Reliance Globalcom's largest privately owned global cable network – by providing direct, dual cable route connectivity from emerging business locations within China to other international business hubs in Europe, Middle East and the East Coast US. Similarly Indian companies looking for connectivity to South East Asia, Japan and the West Coast US can now go via the terrestrial cable system to Hong Kong and then on a submarine route, enabling lower latency and improved network resilience.

“India and China represent the largest growing economies in the world, and the current global economic environment requires ever increasing high-bandwidth, converged applications to be run between these markets” said Punit Garg, President, Reliance Communications.

“This new cable will help our customers across Asia and beyond to effectively compete on a global scale by providing increased network availability and secure connectivity from the world's key business centres to these high growth markets. We are very pleased that Reliance Globalcom's global network will play a major role in the development of international business opportunities in the region,” he added.

About China Telecom

China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom) is an extra-large State-owned telecom operator in China, and was selected into the Top 500 Global Corporations for many years. China Telecom mainly provides the integrated information services including the fixed-line telephone, mobile service, Internet connection and applications services. By the end of 2008, China Telecom owns 214 million fixed line telephone subscribers, 35.44 million mobile subscribers, and 47.18 million broadband customers. The total asset of China Telecom is 632.2 billion yuan, and the yearly turnover revenue is more than 220 billion yuan. There are 670 thousand employees in total in China Telecom. China Telecom was ratified as the Class-A Enterprise for four consecutive years since 2004. China Telecom was rated respectively as the “World Most Admired Enterprise”, “Best Fixed-Line Telephone Company in Asia”, “Best Telecom Company in China” by the magazines of “Fortune”, “Asia Finance”, “EUROMONEY” and “Capital Magazine”, etc. Also, China Telecom was awarded with the titles of the “Best Managed Company”, “Best Enterprise Governance”, “Best Dividends Promise-Keeping company”, “Best Institutional Investor Relations Awards” and “Most Trusted Strategy in the Company”. China Telecom has subsidiary companies in 31 provincial (municipal and autonomous regions) and branches in the Americas, Europe, Hong Kong and Marco, covering the whole country of China and reaching every corner of the world. China Telecom is capable of providing all telecom services and multiple convergent services and sales channels, with the network reaching every corner of the world and many branded products such as “BizNavigator”, “My e Home”, “Tianyi”, “Best Tone” and “ChinaVNET”, etc. China Telecom has two holding companies, “China Telecom Corporation Limited” and “China Communications Services Corporation Limited”. Both of them were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchanges, New York Stock Exchanges in 2002 and in Hong Kong Stock Exchanges in 2006 respectively. Therefore, the operation structure of main business and sideline business came into being with both companies listed on the public stock market.

About Reliance Globalcom

Reliance Globalcom, a division of Reliance Communications, spearheads the Global Telecom operations of India's largest Integrated Telecom Service Provider. Reliance Globalcom brings together the synergies of Reliance Communications' Global Business encompassing Enterprise Services, Capacity Sales, Managed Services and a highly successful bouquet of Retail products & services comprising of Global Voice, Internet Solutions and Value Added Services. The company serves over 2100 enterprises, 200 carriers and 2.2 million retail customers in 163 countries across 6 continents. Reliance Globalcom owns the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning 65,000 Kilometres seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications' domestic optic fibre running over 190,000 Kilometres, providing a robust Global Service Delivery Platform connecting 40 key business markets in India, USA, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. With its recent acquisition of eWave World (now Reliance WiMAX World), a pioneer in the global WiMax space, Reliance Globalcom has the capability to launch 4G services in over 50 countries. It has also acquired the Vanco Group (now Reliance Vanco Group), enabling the company to provide managed services to over 230 countries and territories across the globe. For further information, please visit www.relianceglobalcom.com

About Reliance Communications

Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 63,000 crore (US$ 13.6 billion), cash flows of Rs. 12,000 crore (US$ 2.8 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,400 crore (US$ 1.8 billion). Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company, with a customer base of over 85 million including over 2.2 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 10 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers. Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 20,000 towns and 500,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 175,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.