Network i2i Ltd. (Merged with Bharti Airtel Limited)

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The India to International (i2i) cable linking Chennai (Madras), India, and Tuas, Singapore, was ready for commercial traffic in April 2002, around the time national and international long-distance services were deregulated in India. This 3,200-km undersea cable was the first phase of a 50-50 joint venture- Network i2i Ltd.- between Bharti Telesonic, a subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, a private service provider in India, and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel). Construction on the cable system began in 2000. Bharti Telesonic, a subsidiary of Bharti Televentures, was awarded the license for international long distance (ILD) telephony in March 2002 after depositing US$5.2 million for a license fee and the same amount for a bank guarantee. Bharti Telesonic launched its long-distance services under the brandname "IndiaOne." The second phase of the undersea project was to link Mumbai (Bombay), India, to Singapore; the time frame for the completion of this segment of the undersea network was still undetermined as of end 2003. The plan of Network i2i called for the city-to-city cable to support Bharti's terrestrial network, which was to connect to gateways to many Indian cities, including Bangalore, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, and Bhopal, among others. The i2i cable was to allow Bharti Televentures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, to pursue the international long-distance market in India, previously monopolized by state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL). Investors in Bharti Tele-Ventures included SingTel, Warburg Pincus, International Finance Corp., Asian Infrastructure Fund, and New York Life Insurance. Bharti Telesonic, the long distance arm of the Bharti Group, encompassed both national and international long distance services. Alcatel Submarine Networks and Fujitsu were responsible for design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of the first phase. The total capacity of the i2i cable was about 8.4 Tbits/sec. The project was estimated to have cost the private consortium US$250 million. The second phase, the Mumbai-Singapore line, was estimated to cost US$400 million to complete. Management of the land operations of the submarine cable were to be handled by Bharti Aquanet, a 65/35 joint venture between Bharti and Singapore Telecom. Bharti Telesonic, another JV between Bharti and SingTel (51-49) was to provide backhaul traffic distribution to cities in India. In year 2008 Bharti Airtel Limited acquired 100% of the equity in Network i2i Limited, Mauritius, at a consideration of USD 133.4.