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Tag: Flag Telecom

  • Flag Telecom founder to establish Indian Ocean subsea cable

    Flag Telecom founder to establish Indian Ocean subsea cable

    MUMBAI: A new subsea cable will connect Singapore to Mumbai on India’s west coast. Apart from this one, cable entrepreneur Sunil Tagare recently announced another new subsea cable project, designed to connect Marseille to New York directly.

    Without giving funding details, Tagare, in LinkedIn posts, stated that his company Sing-India-Sing Cable would bypass India’s Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) rules. It would land in an open cable station in Mumbai where the RIO charges would be zero and any carrier would be able to access the cable landing station, he added.

    On the Mumbai-Singapore cable, Tagare said that he would sell only full fibre pairs, but on the Marseille-New York cable you could buy a full, half or a quarter fibre pair and have complete control over upgrades and your equipment.

    And, Tagare, who has a record in cable projects, stated that Open India would also be an internet exchange where customers could freely choose the carriers and create real competition on the ground.

    In 1989, Tagare began the privately financed Fiber Optic Link Around the Global (Flag), which Verizon sold to Reliance Communications; now called as Global Cloud Xchange. Tagare, who quit Flag Telecom in 1996, later founded Project Oxygen cable project unrelated to the current Google operation of a similar name. He later established BuySellBandwidth capacity trading business.

    Tagare’s NY project will be called Brexit-1, he declared. It would connect over a dozen cables landing in Marseille from the Middle East, India and Asia to New York bypassing the United Kingdom, he added.

    It would be the lowest latency cable between Marseille and New York, he professed, adding, with the chaos around Brexit, it was virtually impossible to know how it would shake out over the next few years. The best bet right now was to avoid the UK totally.

    Brexit-1 cable has been designed to run through the Straits of Gibraltar, a decision that has set off a discussion online. Tagare said that route diversity was a critical element of network planning. Almost half a dozen cables already traversed the Straits of Gibraltar. Burying the cable would also enhance security.

    In his blog, Tagare stated:

    “The first cable will be a direct cable linking Mumbai, India to Tuas, Singapore called Sing-India-Sing. The second cable is called Brexit-1.

    I believe that India represents the biggest opportunity for new submarine cable deployment. The only reason it has lagged behind the rest of the world is the arcane RIO (Reference Interconnection Offer) regulations that enabled carriers to charge atrocious access charges. This was reflected in IP Transit rates more than an order of magnitude higher than those in Europe and the US — thereby significantly hurting businesses in India.

    So, recently, TRAI won a court case filed by Tata Communications and Bharti Airtel which now will force the carriers to drop their RIO charges by 90%. And TRAI is not done. It wants to pursue this further and get the carriers to drop the RIO charges by 98%.

    But as anyone who has done business in India knows, RIO is just one problem faced by customers. Basically, it is almost impossible to move between carriers for lack of Internet Exchanges. So you end up with having no choice from a practical perspective.

    It is quite possible you may not need a full fiber pair to India right now but if the price you are paying for a full fiber pair is equivalent to a handful of 100G circuits today, what difference does it make? The minimum speed per fiber pair will be 10 Tbps.”

    Also read:

  • Flag Telecom founder to establish Indian Ocean subsea cable

    Flag Telecom founder to establish Indian Ocean subsea cable

    MUMBAI: A new subsea cable will connect Singapore to Mumbai on India’s west coast. Apart from this one, cable entrepreneur Sunil Tagare recently announced another new subsea cable project, designed to connect Marseille to New York directly.

    Without giving funding details, Tagare, in LinkedIn posts, stated that his company Sing-India-Sing Cable would bypass India’s Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) rules. It would land in an open cable station in Mumbai where the RIO charges would be zero and any carrier would be able to access the cable landing station, he added.

    On the Mumbai-Singapore cable, Tagare said that he would sell only full fibre pairs, but on the Marseille-New York cable you could buy a full, half or a quarter fibre pair and have complete control over upgrades and your equipment.

    And, Tagare, who has a record in cable projects, stated that Open India would also be an internet exchange where customers could freely choose the carriers and create real competition on the ground.

    In 1989, Tagare began the privately financed Fiber Optic Link Around the Global (Flag), which Verizon sold to Reliance Communications; now called as Global Cloud Xchange. Tagare, who quit Flag Telecom in 1996, later founded Project Oxygen cable project unrelated to the current Google operation of a similar name. He later established BuySellBandwidth capacity trading business.

    Tagare’s NY project will be called Brexit-1, he declared. It would connect over a dozen cables landing in Marseille from the Middle East, India and Asia to New York bypassing the United Kingdom, he added.

    It would be the lowest latency cable between Marseille and New York, he professed, adding, with the chaos around Brexit, it was virtually impossible to know how it would shake out over the next few years. The best bet right now was to avoid the UK totally.

    Brexit-1 cable has been designed to run through the Straits of Gibraltar, a decision that has set off a discussion online. Tagare said that route diversity was a critical element of network planning. Almost half a dozen cables already traversed the Straits of Gibraltar. Burying the cable would also enhance security.

    In his blog, Tagare stated:

    “The first cable will be a direct cable linking Mumbai, India to Tuas, Singapore called Sing-India-Sing. The second cable is called Brexit-1.

    I believe that India represents the biggest opportunity for new submarine cable deployment. The only reason it has lagged behind the rest of the world is the arcane RIO (Reference Interconnection Offer) regulations that enabled carriers to charge atrocious access charges. This was reflected in IP Transit rates more than an order of magnitude higher than those in Europe and the US — thereby significantly hurting businesses in India.

    So, recently, TRAI won a court case filed by Tata Communications and Bharti Airtel which now will force the carriers to drop their RIO charges by 90%. And TRAI is not done. It wants to pursue this further and get the carriers to drop the RIO charges by 98%.

    But as anyone who has done business in India knows, RIO is just one problem faced by customers. Basically, it is almost impossible to move between carriers for lack of Internet Exchanges. So you end up with having no choice from a practical perspective.

    It is quite possible you may not need a full fiber pair to India right now but if the price you are paying for a full fiber pair is equivalent to a handful of 100G circuits today, what difference does it make? The minimum speed per fiber pair will be 10 Tbps.”

    Also read:

  • Star Den, Flag Telecom, You & Idea FDI meet on 28 Dec

    Star Den, Flag Telecom, You & Idea FDI meet on 28 Dec

    MUMBAI: The foreign investment board will consider 17 foreign investment proposals on 28 December, including that of Star Den Media Services and others.

    Star Den Media Services Pvt. Ltd. develops and distributes television, cable, and the related network platforms. It offers a platform for distributing television channels in India through all fixed networks including cable, direct to home, and internet protocol television.

    Other investment proposals include that of Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services, Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Ltd and You Broadband India.

    FIPB had in June this year rejected a proposal of Flag Telecom Singapore, a wholly-owned unit of Reliance Communications (RCom), to set up a telecom subsidiary in India. Flag Telecom reportedly planned to acquire a company, payout for which would have been around US$120 million — in two parts.

    Now, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, helmed by the economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, is planning to meet on 28 December, 2016. Around 17 proposals would be discussed, a finance ministry meeting notice stated. AMP Solar India, Grand Pvt Ltd. and Sanofi Synthelabo India proposals would also be considered.

    India allows FDI in some of the industry sectors via the automatic route, but, in certain segments that are considered sensitive for the economy and security, the proposals need to be cleared by FIPB first.

    FIPB had earlier met on 26 September to consider foreign investment proposals, including that of Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services.

    The Indian government has taken a series of measures in the recent past to give a fillip to foreign direct investment. In the first half of the current fiscal year, the inflows were USD 21.62 billion. FDI increased by 29 per cent to USD 40 billion in 2015-16 as compared to the previous fiscal.

  • Star Den, Flag Telecom, You & Idea FDI meet on 28 Dec

    Star Den, Flag Telecom, You & Idea FDI meet on 28 Dec

    MUMBAI: The foreign investment board will consider 17 foreign investment proposals on 28 December, including that of Star Den Media Services and others.

    Star Den Media Services Pvt. Ltd. develops and distributes television, cable, and the related network platforms. It offers a platform for distributing television channels in India through all fixed networks including cable, direct to home, and internet protocol television.

    Other investment proposals include that of Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services, Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Ltd and You Broadband India.

    FIPB had in June this year rejected a proposal of Flag Telecom Singapore, a wholly-owned unit of Reliance Communications (RCom), to set up a telecom subsidiary in India. Flag Telecom reportedly planned to acquire a company, payout for which would have been around US$120 million — in two parts.

    Now, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, helmed by the economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, is planning to meet on 28 December, 2016. Around 17 proposals would be discussed, a finance ministry meeting notice stated. AMP Solar India, Grand Pvt Ltd. and Sanofi Synthelabo India proposals would also be considered.

    India allows FDI in some of the industry sectors via the automatic route, but, in certain segments that are considered sensitive for the economy and security, the proposals need to be cleared by FIPB first.

    FIPB had earlier met on 26 September to consider foreign investment proposals, including that of Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services.

    The Indian government has taken a series of measures in the recent past to give a fillip to foreign direct investment. In the first half of the current fiscal year, the inflows were USD 21.62 billion. FDI increased by 29 per cent to USD 40 billion in 2015-16 as compared to the previous fiscal.

  • RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    NEW DELHI: The Government has rejected the proposal by Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Limited, Singapore, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM), for setting up a 100 percent subsidiary telecom company. The company was yet to be incorporated, an official Finance Ministry release said.

    Meanwhile following recommendations of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board, the Ministry deferred a decision relating to You Broadband India Limited post facto seeking approval for acquisition of 9,79,875 equity shares of its downstream company Digital Outsourcing Private Limited (DOPL) in lieu of issue of 20,58,759 equity shares to its resident shareholders by way of swap of shares.

    It also deferred approval to Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd for the issuance of CCDs thereby increasing foreign equity to 76.73 percent.

    The Ministry approved a proposal by Macmillan Publishers International Ltd, UK for foreign investment of up to 100 percent in a new company (‘New Co.)’, proposed to be incorporated in India in the publishing sector. This involved FDI amounting to Rs 28.2 crore.

  • RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    NEW DELHI: The Government has rejected the proposal by Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Limited, Singapore, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM), for setting up a 100 percent subsidiary telecom company. The company was yet to be incorporated, an official Finance Ministry release said.

    Meanwhile following recommendations of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board, the Ministry deferred a decision relating to You Broadband India Limited post facto seeking approval for acquisition of 9,79,875 equity shares of its downstream company Digital Outsourcing Private Limited (DOPL) in lieu of issue of 20,58,759 equity shares to its resident shareholders by way of swap of shares.

    It also deferred approval to Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd for the issuance of CCDs thereby increasing foreign equity to 76.73 percent.

    The Ministry approved a proposal by Macmillan Publishers International Ltd, UK for foreign investment of up to 100 percent in a new company (‘New Co.)’, proposed to be incorporated in India in the publishing sector. This involved FDI amounting to Rs 28.2 crore.

  • Anil Ambani’s Flag Telecom ties up with OmanTel for telecom, internet link

    Anil Ambani’s Flag Telecom ties up with OmanTel for telecom, internet link

    MUMBAI: Flag Telecom, a Reliance Infocomm company, is stepping up its global operations. The network support and communication services company has signed up with Oman Telecommunications Company (OmanTel) for providing an internet transit point between West Asia and Africa.

    Flag Telecom would also lay a marine cable for the Oman-based company. Flag Telecom executive president Punit Garg and Omantel executive president Mohammed Bin Ali Al Wahaibi signed the agreement.

    Internet services along with lease circuit services and the Multi-Party Labelling System (MPLS), known to be the fastest electronic link, would begin from September to 12 countries, including the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

    “One of the agreements is to make Oman a link between Africa and the Middle East in the Flag’s loop cable project, relating to the extension of communication links to Egypt and Hong Kong via marine cables with multiple landings in the Gulf region,” says an official release.

    Omantel will seek to extend the African cable through a network of marine cables to converge at Seeb and Khasab in Oman.

    The second agreement, to start in September, will be to make the country an internet transit point, catering to 12 countries including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It will also provide lease circuit services as well as multi-party labelling system, the fastest in electronic telecommunication technology.

    “The signing of the MoUs was part of Omantel’s keenness to boost its investments and to make the country a global communication hub,” says Al Wahaibi .

    Flag Telecom has gained from a strong demand for its bandwidth by broadband service providers across the globe. In 2005, it signed major contracts for additional capacity with international carriers and a global internet content provider.