Hong Kong-based Pacnet and India's Bharti Airtel will spend $120 million to combine their networks for a new direct link between India and the US.
The companies revealed plans to create the pathway by combining Bharti Airtel's i2i cable system with Pacnet's EAC-C2C.
The network link will run between landing points in Chennai and Los Angeles. Pacnet CEO Bill Barney said the deal was designed to increase the capacity and diversity of both companies' IP networks.
“Increasing network capacity westward of Singapore is an important step forward in ensuring we are able to deliver on our customers’ requirements and keep pace with the growth momentum which we are seeing across India,” he said.
Pacific Fibre to go it alone
Earlier this week, New Zealand subsea cable start-up Pacific Fibre revealed it would forge ahead alone with plans to build a cable linking Australia, NZ, Samoa and the US, after Pacnet withdrew from the project.
Pacnet and Pacific Fibre had intended to split the estimated $400 million cost of the cable, in a partnership announced in July last year.
But Pacific Fibre CEO Mark Rushworth on Wednesday revealed that the MoU the pair had been working under had expired earlier this year.
But as he announced an invitation to tender for the cable project, Rushworth said Pacific Fibre had been “assuming a solo-build system for several months now.” He said the project is still on track to be completed by 2013.