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Bharti gets global carrier licence in Singapore

Bharti Airtel (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of India’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel, on Monday announced it has been awarded the Facility-Based Operator (FBO) licence in Singapore. Under the licence, the company will now be able to operate international carrier facilities from Singapore.

Facility-based operations refer to the deployment and/or operation of any form of telecommunication network, systems and/or facilities by any person for the purpose of providing telecommunication and/or broadcasting services outside of their own property boundaries to third parties, which may include other licensed telecommunication operators, business customers or the general public.

Bharti Airtel will be establishing a point of presence (PoP) in Singapore for cable interconnection at the landing station and another for providing connectivity to service providers and local carriers. With the PoPs, the company will be able to interconnect its cables with other service providers in Singapore to offer enhanced connectivity options.

“The licence will support Airtel’s robust portfolio of international voice and data services, including private lines, internet, MPLS (multi-protocol label switching), long distance, toll free services, and mobile roaming,” the telco said in a statement.

Multiple cable systems like Network i2i, SEA-ME-WE-4, Asia America Gateway, APCN2, EAC and C2C will aggregate at Singapore, making Singapore the interconnection hub for Airtel traffic between India and over 90 countries around the world.

“With Singapore becoming a network aggregation hub for the multiple cable systems in our network, we will be able to offer to our customers increased redundancy and a more resilient network,” the statement quoted Bharti Airtel enterprise services president David Nishball as saying.

The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connect two submarine cable systems — i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe.