Reliance Jio in pact to use Bharti’s undersea cable network
23 Apr 2013
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, will use Bharti Airtel's submarine cable network to provide data connectivity across Asia Pacific, the two Indian companies said on Tuesday.
The i2i cable network connects India to Singapore and is wholly owned by Bharti, India's leading mobile phone carrier.
Bharti and Reliance Jio will continue to build on this "strategic framework" and consider other mutual areas of cooperation and development, they said.
"Reliance Jio will utilise a dedicated fibre pair on Bharti Airtel's i2i submarine cable that connects India and Singapore," Bharti Airtel said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
"The state-of-the-art i2i cable system will provide Reliance Jio direct access and ultra-fast connectivity to major hubs across Asia Pacific, helping the operator to meet the bandwidth demand and provide ultra-fast data experience to its customers," it added.
The deal marks Reliance Jio's continued efforts to rapidly grow and expand both its international and domestic network and infrastructure across borders.
Earlier this month, Reliance Jio signed a deal worth Rs1,200 crore to share the fibre optic network of Reliance Communications Ltd, controlled by Mukesh's brother Anil Ambani, to roll out its 4G services.
