Reliance Globalcom, which serves more than 200 carriers, 1,400 enterprises and two million retail customers in 163 countries on six continents, worked with the China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom) over a period of "years" to put together this cable across what is generally known as the "inhospitable terrain" of Nathula Pass, which links the Chinese city of Yadong to Siliguri in West Bengal, India, said executives from both companies in a statement to the media on Thursday (August 27, 3009).

"Reliance Globalcom," the statement said, "can now offer the additional protection of two separate cable routes between India and China with considerable less risk from natural disasters. Both international businesses and consumers in the region will benefit from improved Internet connectivity, lower latency and improved voice clarity calls. Previously, the only available option for high-bandwidth connectivity between the two countries was via undersea cable routes through Hong Kong or Singapore. The disruption to major international services in the region due to the recent typhoons and earthquakes has clearly exposed an associated risk with complete dependence on these cables. This new terrestrial link enables Reliance Globalcom to provide business critical service provision to its customers by offering dual cable route diversity between India and China for the first time."

"We are very pleased with the increased dedicated bandwidth availability, connection speed and security this cable will provide to Chinese-based enterprises and consumers," said China Telecom managing director Han YiHu. "It will greatly assist our customers to become global industry leaders, while improving opportunities for international business development in both India and China."

Best of Reliance Globalcom told Computerworld Singapore that the link is operational with "20 Gigs [Gigabits-per-second, Gbps] on the system, that's upgradable to Terabit level capacity."

"This is a very good low latency route between the two countries--particularly between the large cities of northern China and India," he said. "And it offers opportunities for transiting the two countries and connecting to other subsea systems. It's very much a diversity option, which is an important augment to what we already have in subsea connections."