Bharti, Singtel team up for global enterprise network

Mumbai: Singapore Telecommunications and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to deliver high-speed, secure enterprise data network coverage in the Asia-Pacific, West Asia, Africa, Europe and the US.

The two companies have combined their resources into one network to provide data connectivity in 325 cities across the world through 370 points of presence (PoP). This will form one of the world’s largest Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IP VPNs).

Singtel’s 200 PoPs in 160 cities and Airtel’s 170 PoPs in 165 cities in India, Africa and West Asia will form a new network that offers a connectivity backbone across Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.

“Joining forces makes sense. By tapping into one another’s infrastructure we enhance each other’s capabilities,” said Lim Seng Kong, managing director of global enterprise business at  Singtel Group Enterprise.

“With its wide coverage of cities in India, this network paves the way for our international customers to enter one of the world’s most vibrant economies. Conversely, this partnership also opens the door for Indian companies to expand abroad,” he said.

"By combining the two networks, we provide integrated, fully-managed and secured networking service to help multinational corporations simplify their communications needs. Businesses only need to deal with a single contract and customer helpdesk on the back of one network to manage their communications across multiple countries," he added.

Under the strategic alliance, the newly created global network will enable multi national enterprises streamline their operations across different regions by using high-bandwidth business applications such as cloud applications, unified communications, video conferencing and software-defined networking solutions.

Through this partnership, while Singtel strengthens its lead as the largest IP VPN provider in Asia Pacific with strong domestic data network in Australia, India and Singapore, for Bharti Airtel, it bolsters the the company's enterprise offering.

"This association will strongly enhance our value proposition for enterprise customers by offering them a wider global reach and the largest reach within India under a single platform," said Manish Prakash, Director for Strategic Ventures at BhartiAirtel adding that the new arrangement is expected to benefit companies in the pharmaceutical, IT and IT-enabled services as well as financial services segments, which are branching out to international locations rapidly.

"Combining this unified customer service together with a very high network availability and reliability, customers can have the assurance of operating over a stable network," he added.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.