(The Times of India via NewsEdge) Due to increasing competition, Indian telecom firms are rapidly deploying undersea cable systems that will enable corporate and consumer customers to get more bandwidth capacities for communications/data connectivity at affordable prices.
Inaugurating Reliance's $400-million Falcon cable system that would connect India with 10 nations in the Middle East and Africa, communications minister Dayanidhi Maran said state-owned phone companies BSNL and MTNL had decided to jointly lay submarine cable system to connect Southeast Asia and Middle East.
That cable would eventually connect the US and Europe, adding that BSNL was about to launch India-Sri Lanka cable.
'The present submarine cable scenario is not very encouraging from the Indian point of view, as there are only four Indian bandwidth providers - VSNL, Bharti, Reliance and BSNL - while there are 33 in London, 32 in the USA, 32 in Germany, 24 in France and 14 in South Korea,' he said.
Built at the cost of $400 million, Falcon, which was already operational, would connect India with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE, Yemen, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Officials said the idea behind connecting the Middle East was to tap into the rapid growth of trade, tourism and communications in the region.
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