VSNL Announces Intra Asia Cable System

Singapore, Singapore, November 1, 2007 -- VSNL, a leading communications solutions provider, announced that it is proceeding with the construction of the TGN-Intra Asia cable system, which will be constructed by Tyco Telecommunications (US) Inc., an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services. The TGN-Intra Asia submarine cable is a new 4 fibre pair cable system linking Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan with an additional connection to the Philippines, and potentially Vietnam. This cable will provide up to 3.8 Tbit/s of capacity to the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific market, allowing VSNL's global customers doing business in and with the region to obtain additional bandwidth, increased route diversity and extended geographical reach.

The TGN-Intra Asia cable, when combined with the Tata Indicom Cable System (TIC) and the TGN-Pacific cable system (both of which are capable of supporting 7+ Tbit/s of traffic), will complete VSNL's multi-Terabit capability from India to Asia and onward to the US. The cable will provide a direct connection from Singapore to VSNL's Transpacific Network in Japan, avoiding any other landing points and connecting to the TGN-Pacific cable system directly at the landing station. With Globe Telecom as the exclusive cable landing party in the Philippines, the Philippines will also be linked to Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore with onward connectivity to Guam and the US.

"This is the first and only cable system that provides a direct fiber link between Singapore and Japan," said Vinod Kumar, President, Global Data Solutions, VSNL. "The cable's direct connection to the TGN-Pacific cable system enables the most cost effective, highly resilient connections from Asia to the US West Coast and Guam. This extensive infrastructure build out, which is already underway, will serve the increased and rapidly growing demand for bandwidth in the region and provide our customers with unparalleled high performance bandwidth capabilities and increased options for route diversity and redundancy."

Michael Rieger, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Project Management, Tyco Telecommunications (US) Inc. said, "We are pleased to be working with VSNL on this critical Pan-Asian cable infrastructure system. The TGN-Intra Asia cable design will facilitate high quality transmission and reliability throughout the region, and paired with the VSNL global network, it will significantly enhance communications capabilities from Asia throughout the globe."

Mr. Gil B. Genio, Head of Carrier Services for Globe Telecom and CEO of Innove Communications commented, "Globe's investment participation in VSNL's TGN-Intra Asia Cable System allows us to significantly increase our Asian capacity to meet the growing demand, and provide resilient and geographically diverse supply. When combined with investments in the TGN-Pacific cable system and associated new cable landing station and backhaul, we will significantly improve the competitiveness of the Philippines as a prime destination for outsourcing companies."

"PCCW is committed to investing in the TGN-Intra Asia Cable System in order to meet promising market demand from enterprises and service providers," Marc Halbfinger, Chief Executive Officer of PCCW Global remarked, "PCCW has forecast an increasing demand for highly resilient networks in the Intra-Asia region and the Intra Asia cable is well positioned to support the growing demand for telecom services. PCCW intends to integrate the additional capacity into our robust Asia backbone and further extend the interconnection to our global network."

"EVNTelecom decided to join with VSNL in the Intra Asia project because International Interconnection is playing an important role in Vietnam open market," said EVNTelecom CEO, Nguyen Manh Bang. "EVNTelecom is proud to be the second Vietnamese Telecom provider to have Submarine cable to land into Vietnam as this cable will supplement significant international capacity to be interconnected to Vietnam."

The Intra-Asia cable will also support VSNL's IP transit and Dedicated Global Ethernet services. VSNL is currently evaluating plans to develop future extensions of the cable system into Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and China, and has obtained commitments for other investment partnerships that will be announced in the near future. The TGN-Intra Asia cable is currently under construction and on schedule to be completed by June 2008.

About VSNL:
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, along with its global subsidiaries (VSNL) is a leading global communications solutions company offering next-generation voice, data and value-added services to enterprises, carriers and retail consumers. A member of the $ 29 billion Tata Group, VSNL was voted the Best Wholesale Service Provider at the World Communications Awards, 2006. VSNL is one of the world's largest providers of wholesale international voice services and operates one of the largest global submarine cable networks. VSNL's customer base includes 1,500 carriers, 450 mobile operators, 10,000 enterprises, 500,000 broadband and Internet subscribers and 450 Wi-Fi public hotspots.

Rated amongst the Top 100 Emerging Global Challengers by the Boston Consulting Group, VSNL has offices in over 35 countries including the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and India. VSNL's global transmission network of over 200,000 route kilometers and its IP core with 200 points of presence, enable a range of services that include voice, private leased circuits, IP VPN, Internet access, global Ethernet, hosting, mobile signaling and other IP services.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India, and its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: VSL).

www.vsnl.com

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News Source: Business Wire India