Four majors in fray for Rel Comm order

Four global telecom majors "" NEC, Tyco, Alcatel-Lucent and Fujitsu "" are in the race to bag the $1.5-billion (around Rs 7,000 crore) submarine cable contract from Reliance Communications (RCL).

The contract is likely to be awarded to one of the four bidders by the month-end, with an offer to commence on-ground implementation by March.

The Anil Ambani group company floated a request for proposal (RFP) on Monday and had received 12 applications at its Asia-Pacific office. The company finalised the four vendors this morning, sources close to the development told Business Standard.

Other global players including France Telecom were also in the fray, but this could not be confirmed.

The short-listed company will have to source equipment and infrastructure for the project. The project entails laying over 50,000 km of optic fibre cables connecting over 60 countries across the world. This is also one of the challenging feats as the cable would have to be laid as deep as 10 km below sea level.

RCL is also believed to have completed the deep-water survey for the 50,000 km cable project.

Meanwhile, RCL has called for a meeting next week in Mumbai to hold advanced discussions on the technological deployment, timelines and cost of the submarine cable project.

A Flag spokesperson declined to comment on the development. He, however, added that the company was "ahead of the deadlines".

NEC and Fujitsu of Japan, Tyco Submarine Systems (a subsidiary of US-based Tyco International) and Alcatel-Lucent are the world's leading submarine cable companies. Tyco Submarine Systems is also credited with the launch of the first submarine cable system in the world.

Announcing the new submarine cable, RCL chairman Anil Ambani had said: "Over the next three years, Flag Telecom will build the world's largest internet protocol (IP) network over submarine cable systems. Termed FLAG-Next Generation Network (FLAG NGN), the project will cater to over five billion customers across the globe".

Next Generation Network (NGN) is a broad term used to describe some key architectural advances in telecommunication core and access networks.

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MAPPING THE WORLD

NEC, Tyco, Alcatel-Lucent and Fujitsu are the four companies in the race to bag the Rs 7,000 crore submarine cable contract

The contract is likely to be awarded by month-end, with an offer to start implementation by March

The project entails laying of over 50,000 km of optic fibre cables over 60 nations