The two operators will combine their networks to provide data connectivity to 325 enterprises through 370 points of presence (PoP).
The partnership is said to form one of the largest internet protocol virtual private networks (IP VPN) offering data network coverage in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US.
The move will enable both operators to tap into infrastructure assets of the other with the aim to enhance capabilities. “By combining the two networks, we provide 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,” said Lim Seng Kong, managing director of global enterprise business at Singtel Group Enterprise.
Singtel – a major shareholder in Bharti Airtel – claims to own 200 PoPs in 160 cities globally while Bharti Airtel has over 170 PoPs in 165 cities in India, Africa and the Middle East.
Enterprises will have the ability to maintain line of sight of their operations across different regions by using high bandwidth business applications such as cloud applications, unified communications, video conferencing and software-defined networking services. The network multi-protocol label switching feature is also said to enable customers to enjoy fast data speeds.
Manish Prakesh, director for strategic ventures at Bharti Airtel said the collaboration will benefit its enterprise customers with a wider global reach and “the largest reach within India” under a single platform. “In particular, this will benefit companies in the pharmaceutical, IT and IT-enabled services as well as financial services segments, which are branching out to international locations rapidly.”
