Tata Communications has announced that it has invested $11.5 million in covertible debt in BitGravity, a US-based firm which is specialises in Content Delivery Network (CDN). This investment is a futher consolidation of a co-operation between these two firms after a strategic partnership which was signed during March 2008.
BitGravity builds technology to deliver video on demand, live broadcasts and interactive applications for massive audiences on the Internet. This technology enables consumers to play streaming videos instantly and live video with no buffering on the internet.
With this technology, Tata Communication now offers this service throughout Europe, North America and India. According to a media statement from Tata, this CDN service delivers immediate access to content, including High-Definition Video, without delay or jitter, and good levels of throughput for end users.
"Video will soon become over 80 per cent of the traffic on the Internet and content delivery will become strategic for every carrier. Carriers without a CDN strategy will inevitably become insignificant and will lose the economy of scale required to be competitive. This is a strategic endeavor for both Tata Communications and BitGravity and sends a bold message to the
global CDN market," said Berge Avayzian, Chief Strategy Officer of Yankee Group, a global research firm.
Tata Communications' global reach includes a national fiber backbone network and access to network in over 60 cities in India, strategic investments in South African converged services operator, Neotel, Sri Lanka and Nepal and, subject to fulfillment of conditions precedent, a 50 per cent ownership in China Enterprise Communications (CEC) providing full country VPN coverage in China.