— PHOTO: SHASHI ASHIWAL

THINKING BIG: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Communications, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.

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MUMBAI: Reliance Communications (RCom), a leading telecom service provider, on Thursday announced significant plans to expand its 100 per cent subsidiary FLAG Telecom's global optic fibre network. Over the next 36 months, FLAG Telecom will build the world's largest IP (Internet Protocol) network over submarine cable systems, which has been named FLAG Next Generation Network (NGN).

FLAG Telecom is currently the world's largest private undersea cable system and will invest around $1.5 billion (nearly Rs. 7,000 crore) in laying 50,000 additional km of undersea optic fibre cable which will ultimately cover 60 countries. On completion, FLAG Global Network will span over 1.15 lakh km by December 2009 taking the total fibre optic assets of Reliance Communications Group to over 2.30 lakh km. The project cost will be funded by internal accruals and debt.

The FLAG NGN will comprise four systems, including various geographies. FLAG NGN System 1 will cover Asia including India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei and Hong Kong. System 2 covering Africa will include Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mauritius. System 3 covering the Mediterranean will include Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Libya and Lebanon while System 4 covering Trans-Pacific will include the U.S. West Coast, Japan, China and Hong Kong.

Addressing the media here on Thursday, Anil Ambani, Chairman, RCL, said, "in three years, FLAG will enter the next higher orbit and will go from being a carrier's carrier to an integrated applications and content provider. We will create an era of abundant bandwidth made available at `strikingly' affordable prices.

The project will have a five-year payback period and post-project, we will be among the top three cable systems globally and continue to be the leader in India." Once operational, FLAG Global Network will have the capability to carry 2.5 billion simultaneous voice calls, 300 million simultaneous webchats, 52 million simultaneous video chats and enabling 20 million students in educational institutions of India to offer e-learning simultaneously.

On the issue of spectrum availability, Mr. Ambani said, "the key driver for the telecom industry is spectrum. We expect 40 MHz to be released in the next few months and once that happens there will be enough spectrum for all. Our existing GSM operations continue to enjoy growth in line with the industry and in CDMA as there is no spectrum constraint, there is no limit to growth opportunities."

RCL recently launched Falcon Cable system connecting 12 countries in the Middle East to the rest of the world.

The cable system was completed in 80 per cent of the envisaged project cost four months ahead of schedule and had already resulted in capacity sales of over $450 million on FLAG Global Network since January this year. Mr. Ambani said RCL would start pre-selling capacity on the NGN network to existing customers with three and five-year milestones. RCL will also be launching IPTV services in the top ten metros by end-2007.

Reliance Communications has expressed its keenness to acquire Hutchison's 67 per cent stake in the Hutch-Essar venture.

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