Airtel, China Telecom enter deal to link India, china

Bharti Airtel has entered into a partnership deal with the China Telecom to link India and China with high capacity direct connectivity.

The direct underground terrestrial link will offer seamless connectivity to customers transiting India or China to reach key global destinations.

The new link was announced by Bharti Airtel and China Telecom Corporation, last weekend at the conclusion of discussions, according to a press statement made available to Champion Infotech by the Public Relations Manager, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine.

He said that the underground network would offer data speeds of up to 40 Gega bytes per second (Gbps), would be built on resilient ring infrastructure, and represents Bharti Airtel’s third International Gateway for customers in India.

Bharti Airtel and China Telecom have constructed the network in their respective territories from Siliguri to Nathula border in India and Nathula border to Yadong in China.

The network will address the surging international traffic and diversity requirements of both the nations. In India, the high speed network spans from Siliguri gateway to Nathula via Pedong on one path, and the second path will reach Siliguri from Nathula via Gangtok, forming a ring.

Bharti Airtel has also outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China Telecom to develop the Network-to-Network Interconnect (NNI) which allows for seamless access to the combined regional and global network resources of both the operators.

The chief executive officer of Global Data Business at Bharti Airtel, Mr. Ajay Chitkara, was quoted as saying that the current economic boom in India and China has triggered a huge demand from global as well as domestic customers for connectivity in these nations.

“The launch of this India-China link further strengthens our commitment of creating state-of-the-art network for our customers through innovation, and connects the world’s two fastest growing economies on a low latency path,” Chitkara said.

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