Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel today announced that they have a signed an Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) agreement that will let Reliance use Bharti’s i2i submarine cable connecting India and Singapore. The cable consists of eight fibre pairs and uses Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to provide bandwidth ranging in multiple terabits.
Bharti has landing points in Chennai and Tuas (Singapore) and of the eight fibre pairs, Reliance Jio will have access to one dedicated pair. The high speed link is expected to allow Reliance Jio to expand its reach in the Asia Pacific region and connect it to major business hubs, ISPs. Bharti has a global network of 225,000 kms and covers 50 countries, 5 continents and includes total ownership of the Chennai – Singapore i2i submarine cable system. It is also part of a consortium ownership of SMW4 submarine cable system that connects Chennai and Mumbai to Singapore and Europe. This partnership marks Reliance Jio’s efforts to grow and expand its international and domestic presence though building a partnership with multiple carriers, service providers.