More undersea cable wars brewing in India

Thu Dec 23 13:03:27 UTC 2004

.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...

srs

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=61366

> Flag, VSNL spar over bandwidth
> 
> Posted online: Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 0046 hours IST
> 
> MUMBAI, DECEMBER 22: TATA group company VSNL, one of the original
> investors in the Flag Cable Systems in 1995-1996, has been
> accused by Flag Telecom Ltd, a Reliance company, of artificially
> restricting access on Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable and preventing
> the ability to respond to market demand. 

as another article points out, they're invoking WTO GATS provisions on this -

> http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/968127.cms
> VSNL violates WTO norms
> 
> PTI[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2004 07:38:18 PM]
> MUMBAI: VSNL has been accused of restricting access on Reliance
> group-owned FLAG Europe Asia cable, which is in direct violation
> of WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). 

and then, REACH, seconded by VSNL, stirs the pot a bit more ..

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1159772,0003.htm

> FLAG partner calls for meet on cable upgrade
> Press Trust of India
> Mumbai, December 19, 2004|16:45 IST 

[...]

> The global carrier wants to discuss "unauthorised upgrade of FEA
> cable between UK and UAE" as it did not get approval from all 12
> landing signatories, which is required under the Construction and
> Maintenance Agreement (C&MA), REACH said in a letter to FLAG Telecom
> Ltd's management committee.

-- 
Suresh Ramasubramanian (ops.lists at gmail.com)