SingTel, Bharti Group in submarine cable venture

Asian Economic News, Oct 30, 2000

SINGAPORE, Oct. 24 Kyodo

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. and Bharti Enterprises, a subsidiary of India's Bharti Group, jointly announced Tuesday a US$650 million joint venture to lay an undersea cable linking Singapore to Chennai and Mumbai in India.

The 11,800 kilometer cable, which will be built under a fifty-fifty partnership between the two parties, will be the world's largest in terms of capacity and can carry more than 100 million conversations simultaneously, a joint statement said.

It will be ''India's first private-sector undersea cable venture,'' the statement added.

Fujitsu Ltd. of Japan and Alcatel Submarine Networks of France have been picked as a consortium to design, manufacture, install and commission the cable between Singapore and Chennai.

The value of that contract is almost US$250 million.

Construction of the cable from Singapore to Chennai has already started and the cable is expected to start carrying commercial traffic by the end of next year.

SingTel announced in August this year it was acquiring minority stakes in two companies under India's telecommunications giant, the Bharti Group, for about US$400 million.

SingTel said at the time its wholly-owned subsidiary, Singapore Telecom International Pte Ltd., had entered into agreements with the Bharti Group to buy a 20% stake in Bharti Telecom Ltd. and 15% in Bharti Televentures Ltd.