Indian incumbent connects to the U.S.

India’s incumbent telco Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited is making the journey across two oceans to set up shop in the U.S., capitalizing on recent outsourcing and offshoring trends that have become a boon for the Indian economy.

VSNL received an international common carrier license from the FCC this week, permitting it to carry data and voice traffic in and out of the U.S. The company is taking full advantage of its new license by setting up a domestic shop in Reston, Va., setting up a point of presence in the U.S. and linking it back to its new international operations center in the Pacific Rim. VNSL also plans to expand into other countries using its partial ownership of older submarines linked to the Indian subcontinent and a new state of the art cable it is laying to its NOC in Singapore, where it can connect with global carriers around the world.

"VSNL is a natural gateway from India to the U.S.," said Dave Ryan, new chief operating officer for VNSL America. "We not only manage the connections into India we own the domestic infrastructure. We’re able to offer a complete package to our U.S. customers."

VSNL also has the significant advantage of being controlled by an Indian conglomerate, the Tata Group, which owns TCS, India’s largest software consultancy and a major supplier of outsourcing solutions to global companies. Tata is looking to package transport and data services from VSNL with its outsourcing practice, gaining both lucrative offshoring contracts and the means to connect those offshore facilities back to their home companies around the world. In addition to its wireline holdings, Tata owns the largest CDMA carrier in India. Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has publicly committed to investing billions more in telecom infrastructure to support India’s boom in high-tech and outsourcing. That boom has generated a lot more interest in India’s telecom infrastructure, both domestically and internationally, Ryan said.

"There hasn’t been much emphasis on improving the quality and the service levels on these routes," Ryan said. "We’re building new infrastructure both coming into and within India, connecting our customers directly to the outsourcing campuses."

VSNL, however, isn’t the first Indian telco with ambitions in the U.S. Last year, DataAccess, and Indian competitive carrier launched voice transport services in the U.S. and the U.K.