Chennai enters BT's IP network

Union minister of communications & IT Dayanidhi Maran switched on remotely British Telecom's (BT) Internet Protocol-centric (IP) multi-services core router platform at Aryapuram near Chennai.

The node, based on multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology, will be one of the six routing platforms to be rolled out of BT's stables in India, with a total bandwidth capacity of 2.5 Gbps and scalability of up to 10 Gbps.

The Chennai node, linked to BT's Bangalore and Singapore nodes, will be part of BT '21st Century Network' programme, and will have 99.99999 per cent uptime to serve the enterprise business needs of companies around Chennai, Andy Green, chief executive officer, BT Global Services, said.

"Data loss and downtime have been almost reduced to nil," Green said.

"Even if a single node on this mesh network fails, the other nodes swing into back-up mode immediately, ensuring minimal data loss. The network connects 160 countries, and has five levels of security to ensure that the quality of voice, video and data streamed across continents does not degrade at any point."

BT has plans to provide corporates with sites in India with VPN-based (virtual private network) services using IP-based technologies like MPLS and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).

"The opening of the new BT node will boost data exchange out of Chennai and should encourage more enterprises to set up shop here," Maran said, adding, "BT's entry into the Indian mobile services market is also a good sign that the market is seeing increasing competition."

BT officials noted that with the Tamil Nadu mobile market alone adding 7 million users per month, the company would be ready with its mobile GSM offerings for the Indian market within four to six weeks.

BT had announced this week that its application for national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) licences to the department of telecommunications (DoT) was granted in February this year. It will enable BT to offer services for the first time directly to multi-site corporate customers in the Indian market.

The telecom giant already holds 74 per cent in a joint venture with Jubilant Enpro. It also holds a 36 per cent stake in Tech Mahindra (formerly Mahindra BT), a joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra.

The company is in the process of closing the acquisition process of Mumbai-based services company i2i Enterprises, which specialises in providing IP communications services.

Through the acquisition, BT plans to build a broadbased platform for growth in India, and create a single BT-branded channel for the Indian market.