Verizon offers direct connections through Mumbai, Chennai gateways

WASHINGTON - Verizon Business, a global leader in communications and IT solutions, plans to offer direct connections to one of the world’s largest global networks through its two international gateways in Mumbai and Chennai.

This follows approval from the India government’s Department of Telecommunications to operate these under its international long-distance license, the New Jersey based company announced Friday.

The approval allows Verizon Business to offer its suite of private line services to multinational customers and to activate the company’s wholly owned submarine cable capacity to India, providing direct connections to Verizon’s global network, it said.

Earlier it had to route its international traffic through local Indian telecom carriers.

‘Receiving the international gateway clearance is a major milestone for Verizon Business in India,’ said Yali Liu, director of Asia-Pacific network planning for Verizon Business.

‘We worked diligently on this gateway project so we could offer our customers more products and services. The services we offer on our network will help our customers meet their critical communications needs in India and their offices worldwide,’ Liu added.

The company will continue its aggressive expansion in India this year by deploying a new Private IP MPLS node in Pune during the second half of 2009, expanding its backbone network and rolling out new services for multinational customers with operations in India, as well as India-based companies.

‘We have been focused on this fast-growing telecom market for years,’ Liu said. ‘Our infrastructure work in India and this recent approval for the international gateways definitely give Verizon Business an opportunity to add needed capacity and improve network performance as we expand our presence in the country. India is a key global telecommunications and transit hub country.’

The gateway approval also gives Verizon Business the opportunity to maximize its investment in the 20,000 kilometre Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4 undersea cable network and other submarine cables including the Europe India Gateway (EIG), currently under construction, from Britain to India.

Verizon Business is the only US-based company that is a member of the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable consortium. The company can now activate wholly owned capacity on SEA-ME-WE-4 and other existing submarine cables into India. The EIG submarine cable network is scheduled to be in service in 2010.

‘All of our work in India is part of our global network strategy of investing in infrastructure assets and capabilities to support our customers’ business growth,’ Liu said.

Since receiving its international and national long-distance licenses in India in January 2008, Verizon Business has begun an aggressive infrastructure expansion. The company deployed a Private IP multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network in five major cities in India: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.