Tata Communications expands service to China

Tata Communications Ltd on February 26, 2008 has announced the expansion of its Global VPN service to China through an NNI (Network to Network Interface) agreement with China Enterprise Netcom Corporation Ltd (China Entercom or CEC), a value-added telecommunication services and integrated IT solutions provider and subsidiary of CITIC (China International Trust and Investment Corporation).

Through this NNI, Tata Communications and China Entercom have interconnected their respective MPLS (Multi- Protocol Label Switching) infrastructures, allowing Tata Communications' multi-national corporation (MNC) customers VPN connectivity reach beyond the existing 120 cities in India and 19 major business centers across North America, Asia, and Europe to now also include 347 cities throughout China. Additionally customers can connect with dual PoP locations in tier-one cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

"Tata Communications' agreement with China Entercom allows us to serve our many global and India MNC customers who require a single scalable and reliable global VPN with deep reach into both India and China, and broad reach around the world," said Vinod Kumar, President, Global Data & Mobility Services, Tata Communications. "China and India are the engines driving the globalizing information economy, and, it is critical for MNC's to establish reliable infrastructure in these markets. Tata Communications' unmatched depth and reach throughout India coupled with our new, extended reach into China allows us to support the needs of our customers seeking to achieve seamless coverage in these markets and to major cities throughout the world."

Mr. Kumar added, "Carrier partnerships are critical to provide the deep global reach our customers' networks require. Our agreement with China Entercom is part of a larger MPLS expansion plan that will include other NNI agreements, as well as the expansion of Tata Communications' international on-net in key strategic regions and emerging markets that are of high value to our customers, including the Middle East, South Africa, Philippines, and Malaysia."

Tata Communications is the leading service provider, offering a Global VPN on-net solution with four classes of service options which provides a deep and broad reach across India as well as to major cities across the world. This partnership with CEC will offer customers additional reach into and across China allowing international and Indian MNCs to be seamlessly served with a single VPN that covers India, China, and major metropolitan areas worldwide. The service is available with both managed and unmanaged options, supported by 24/7 end-to-end network management, and tied to a stringent and unified Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Tata Communications' global IP network touts 570Gbps of high speed OC48/192 MPLS Backbone Capacity and 500G of customer connectivity throughout North America, Europe and Asia. It reaches overland, sea and sky, in 5 continents and over 195 countries, carrying more then 300 petabits of traffic globally per month.