Australia’s Telstra signs pact with Tata Communications to extend its India reach

Telstra has signed a new network-to-network interconnection (NNI) agreement with Tata Communications, which would help the Australian telecommunications major to boost connectivity to and from India.

The NNI deal will utilise Tata Communications' 116 points of presence (PoPs), extending Telstra's reach to tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities, including Jaipur, Surat, and Trichy.

Today's announcement strengthens Telstra's position of operating one of the most scalable networks across the globe, facilitating access to more than 2,000 PoPs in 230 countries and territories a company release said.

"The new arrangement with Tata Communications was part of Telstra's broader MPLS strategy, which includes NNI agreements in emerging markets that are of high value to customers and the expansion of its own on-net PoPs," Telstra Global Enterprise & Services, head of connectivity and platforms portfolio, Bernadette Noujaim Baldwin said.

India is set to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2030, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' projections in its latest report. "When you combine this with its young and burgeoning working-age population, you've got a compelling consumption boom and a competitive edge that sets Asia's third-largest economy apart from many other countries," she said.

"With these economic and social indicators in mind, we're seeing demand for data connectivity throughout India grow as an increasing number of Asian, European and American headquartered businesses look to India for long-term growth opportunities," she added.

"Telstra is focused on providing services to large multinational companies that are expanding across Asia and the rest of the world, which is why we are leveraging Tata Communications' deep network footprint to extend our service coverage throughout India and provide customers the same security, redundancy and quality of service offered on the Telstra network," she added.

Through the partnership, Telstra and Tata Communications have defined roles and responsibilities for the management of the NNI to ensure the seamless delivery and support for services in the region.

Telstra said by leveraging Tata Communications' domestic infrastructure and global subsea fibre network, customers would see reduced latency and increased network availability.

Tata Communications - a subsidiary of India's leviathan multinational conglomerate Tata Group - is a $3.2 billion global communications and enterprise IT service provider that owns and operates the world's "most advanced" subsea cable network.

The company's latest agreement coincides the completion of its AU$1 billion share buyback, buying back more than 217.4 million shares, with the offer oversubscribed by almost 70 per cent.