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Tata Communications Limited (previously known as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) is an Indian
telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
company. It was previously a government- owned-telecommunications service provider and under the
ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...
of
Department of Telecommunications The Department of Telecommunications, abbreviated to DoT, is a department of the Ministry of Communications of the executive branch of the Government of India. History Telecom services have been recognized the world-over as an important tool for ...
,
Ministry of Communications A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities includes regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. T ...
, and the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
. It was then sold to
Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
when the
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
-
Bharatiya Janta Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
-
National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a centre-right to right-wing and conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of India ...
was in power; presently the company is part of the
Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
. Tata's communications network spans more than of subsea fibre and more than of terrestrial fibre. The company has invested US$1.19 billion in its global subsea fibre network. It provides network services and software-defined network platforms, such as
Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 19 ...
,
SD-WAN A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that uses software-defined network technology, such as communicating over the Internet using overlay tunnels which are encrypted when destined for internal organization locatio ...
,
content delivery network A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially rel ...
s (CDNs), the
internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
,
Multiprotocol Label Switching Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from one node to the next based on labels rather than network addresses. Whereas network addresses identify endpoints the labels identif ...
(MPLS), and
private line In telecommunication, a private line is typically a telephone company service that uses a dedicated, usually unswitched point-to-point circuit, but it may involve private switching arrangements, or predefined transmission physical or virtual pat ...
s. It has more than 400 points of presence (PoPs) with a
data centre A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommuni ...
, Cloud (Private Cloud and Puiblic Cloud Management) and co-location in 44 sites. It is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the
National Stock Exchange of India National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) is the leading stock exchange under the ownership of various group of domestic and global financial institutions, public and privately owned entities and individuals. It is located in Mumbai, Maha ...
. It also holds a stake on its Sri Lankan subsidiaries, Tata Communications Lanka. The company is listed as one of AON Hewitt's Best Employers in India for 2017.


History

The business was founded as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) in 1986. Under the chairmanship of B. K. Syngal (1991-1998), VSNL launched the first publicly-available Internet plans in India in 1995. After the Government of India launched Disinvestment of Public Sector Units in India, The international arm of VSNL (VSNL International) was launched in 2004. VSNL was completely acquired by the Tata Group and renamed as Tata Communications on 13 February 2008.


Tata communications global network

In 2009, Tata Communications and
Tyco Telecommunications Tyco may refer to: * Tyco International, a diversified industrial conglomerate ** TE Connectivity, formerly Tyco Electronics, a former segment of Tyco International ** Tyco Solarlok {{No footnotes, date=March 2021 Solarlok is a largely obsolete ...
completed the TGN-Intra Asia cable system. In 2012, the company completed its network across
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
linking Europe to India, and created a subsea fibre network that circumnavigates the world. The Eurasian section of the Tata Global Network runs across the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
and
the Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
, connecting
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
with
Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern France ...
. The company has more than 15 terabits per second of international
bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
lit capacity. In January 2016,
Windstream Communications Windstream Holdings, Inc., also doing business as Windstream Communications or Windstream, is a provider of voice and data network communications (broadband, VoIP, MPLS), and managed services ( virtual servers, managed firewall, data storage, clou ...
announced it was extending its
100 Gigabit Ethernet 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) are groups of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at rates of 40 and 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), respectively. These technologies offer significantl ...
(100G) network from
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
data center operator NJFX's presence at Tata's Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Wall Township, New Jersey, to Ashburn,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
's internet hub.


Services


Network and connectivity services


Ethernet

Tata Communications offers
Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 19 ...
services that can connect its customers in global offices at speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s in point-to-point or multipoint configurations. Its Global Network provides flexible bandwidth options from 2 MB up to 10,000 MB using Fast-E, Gig-E, and 10 Gig-E. Its ethernet services include: global dedicated ethernet, external ethernet network-to-network interface, low latency ethernet and ethernet over MPLS. Ethernet over MPLS is a high-performance, global MPLS backbone that streams audio video, live broadcasts, and IP services with the scalability and security of a private network. Its Ethernet services are certified by the MEF—a worldwide non-profit organization dedicated to improving carrier-class Ethernet products and services.


International Private Line

Tata Communications International
Private Line In telecommunication, a private line is typically a telephone company service that uses a dedicated, usually unswitched point-to-point circuit, but it may involve private switching arrangements, or predefined transmission physical or virtual pat ...
offers customers a variety of routing, uptime, and service options for global communications. It delivers voice, video and data connectivity. It is built on its subsea cable network, including a fibre-optic ring, and more than 20 consortium cables covering over 200 countries and territories.


Content Delivery Network

In February 2011, as part of a strategy to enhance its global
content delivery network A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially rel ...
(CDN), Tata Communications acquired BitGravity, a US-based CDN provider. This acquisition enabled it to offer its customers a cloud-based service for content delivery, including the delivery of
HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript ...
, CSS,
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, often ...
, videos and
live streaming Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...
HD. This service was then integrated with other support services, like
security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...
, satellite teleports, fibre-based video network and
transcoding Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for video data files, audio files (e.g., MP3, WAV), or character encoding (e.g., UTF-8, ISO/IEC 8859). This is usually done in cases where a target devic ...
.


Data Centres

Tata Communications has a
data centre A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommuni ...
network located in 44 locations worldwide. Tata Communications data centres meet international standards for redundancy, and are integrated directly with its global IP network. Its collocation services provide regulated power, cooling and physical security for the server, storage and networking equipment. In May 2016, in order to redeploy capital in other areas of its business, Tata Communications sold a 74% stake in its data centre business to Singapore Technologies Telemedia. Tata communications has more than 10,000 racks and of Data center space.


Unified Communications and Collaboration

Tata Communications delivers a portfolio of Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC) solutions worldwide. These services include: Global SIP Connect, Unified Conferencing, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Hosted contact centre.


Global SIP Connect

On 18 January 2016, Tata Communications launched a white-label Unified Communications solution called Global SIP Connect. This solution was designed to address the voice requirements of its enterprise customers, while simultaneously expanding its Unified Communications portfolio. The
SIP Trunking SIP trunking is a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and streaming media service based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) by which Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) deliver telephone services and unified communications ...
solution enables its service provider customers to consolidate and manage voice services, while providing all global on-net and off-net voice services to link their businesses globally.


Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)

Tata Communications Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) integrates and works with other service provider solutions including Microsoft and Cisco. Its global UC services on the Microsoft Skype for Business platform provide a solution including conferencing, online meetings, instant messaging, voice and video.


Hosted Contact Centre Services (CCaaS)

Tata Communications InstaCC was launched at Enterprise Connect 2015 in Orlando on 16 March 2015. This initial offering has been supplemented with Amazon Connect and
Cisco Webex Webex by Cisco is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing and contact center as a service applications. It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007. Its headquarters are in Sa ...
Contact Centre. Hosted contact centre solutions include support for outbound and omni-channel communications, enabling enterprise customers to quickly establish contact centres and call centres.


Cloud Services

In October 2014, Tata Communications launched its IZO platform, “a global platform for enhanced hybrid multi cloud enablement”. Tata Communications IZO Cloud Platform brings together 20+ cloud providers, three large hyperscale cloud platforms and 43+ data centres, that its customers can interconnect with.


IZO Cloud Platform and Services

Under the IZO Cloud and Managed Hosting Services portfolio, Tata Communications provides various cloud and hosting solutions like Private Cloud (IZO Private Cloud), Container Services (IZO Cloud Containers), Managed Kubernetes, Cloud Storage (IZO Cloud Storage), Big Data/Analytics Platform (IZO Cloud Analytics Platform) and Public Cloud Assessment, Migration and Management under the IZO Managed Cloud for AWS, AZURE, GCP. Tata Communications also offers SAP HANA Hosting on Any cloud platforms(Private or Public), VDI solutions on Any Cloud, Govt. Community Cloud (GCC) and in July 2021, the organisation launched its latest product IZO Financial Cloud - a purpose built community Cloud platform for Financial Industry, apart from this, the organisation offers Managed Hosting Services etc. Tata Communications also offers Colocation services in the international market.


IZO Internet WAN

Tata Communications IZO Internet WAN is a global-internet-based WAN service. This service can be integrated with Tata Communications Global VPN solution to build a global hybrid network. IZO Internet WAN reaches 42 countries, 700+ cities, over 1 million buildings and covers 85% of the world's GDP.


IZO Private Connect

IZO Private Connect links businesses to leading cloud service providers including
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide ...
,
Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...
,
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...
,
Office 365 Microsoft 365 is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs formerly marketed under the name M ...
and
Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, an ...
. Its customers can connect using MPLS or Ethernet and gain access to Ethernet connectivity to Tata Communications’ data centres and across 85 third party data centres globally. In addition to global connections, IZO Private Connect is available in 6 data centres in India. IZO Private Connect is now expanding to include internet direct connectivity in addition to MPLS and Ethernet. Connection speeds are available from 2 MB to 10 GB.


IZO Public Connect

IZO Public Connect is a cloud enablement service that provides a route for Tata Communications’ enterprise customers by tagging their data packets for pre-determined delivery over the public internet.


IZO SD-WAN

In November 2016, Tata Communications launched its new addition to the IZO platform, IZO SDWAN. The solution, delivered as a managed service, combines IZO WAN with software-defined and virtualised network technologies in 130+ countries. IZO SDWAN cloud service gateways are built next to cloud service providers in 20 locations across the globe.


Media Services

Tata Communications provides a range of services and solutions for enterprises in all segments of media and entertainment, including gaming, hospitality, sports, leisure, education, news, music, cable and broadcasting. In April 2015, Tata Communications launched its "Media Ecosystem". The ecosystem combines traditional video contribution services with IP-connectivity. Services include: asset management, workflow management, channel origination, internet contribution feeds, OTT platform and transcoding as a service. In December 2022, it was announced Tata Communications had acquired the
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
-headquartered live video production and delivery company, The Switch Enterprises and a number of its international assets, for a value of approximately US$58.8 million.


Security and Fraud Prevention


Managed Security

Tata Communications offers a complete array of managed security services, that provides enterprise customers with 24x7x365 protection from attacks. Its managed security offering includes firewalls, threat management, intrusion detection and prevention,
DDoS In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...
detection and mitigation, email security, vulnerability testing and management.


Fraud Prevention

Tata Communications offers a fraud prevention toolkit to identify and proactively prevent fraudulent call activity. The toolkit uses technologies including
big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
,
analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...
,
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machin ...
,
crowd sourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...
, real-time monitoring, subscriber alerts and automated reporting. The toolkit monitors 30 million calls per day for fraud, and blocks over 400,000 fraudulent calls every day. When the fraud fighting toolkit identifies a fraudulent call, Tata Communications blocks the number across its entire network.


Mobility Services


Mobile Roaming

Tata Communications combined its Diameter Signalling exchange (DSX) platform with its IPX Connect service to offer its customers 3G/4G roaming. It provides a solution for LTE roaming migration, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G roaming within one framework. This framework addresses signalling, routing, inter-working, transport, clearing, settlement, business intelligence, security and service assurance.


Signalling

With an on-net signalling network, directly connecting 300 mobile network operators and with reach to 800+ mobile network operators, Tata Communication's interconnects mobile ecosystem organisations for messaging and roaming. Its signalling services can be delivered over a number of network options including TDM, IP, Global VPN and IPX Connect (SCCP over IPX). Also supported is signalling evolution from SCCP to Diameter, supporting IMS and LTE roaming capabilities.


Mobile Messaging

Tata Communications mobile messaging platform provides an A2P
SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
hub environment. The Mobile Messaging Exchange provides a connection between mobile messaging originators and mobile network operators. Tata Communications partners with Anam for SMS firewall services, designed to provide reliable and secure SMS delivery for Tata Communications' customers.


Internet of Things

Tata Communications MOVE is an IoT Connectivity Management Platform, providing global mobile connectivity for a range of connected devices, from cars to consumer electronics. The platform leverages Tata Communications’ global mobile network operator relationships to offer a technology neutral approach that supports cellular connected device connections around the world. Tata Communications also manages an LP-WAN network in India, using
LoRa Lora is a female given name and family name in the Spanish language of French origin meaning from Lorraine, a region in Northeastern France. As a given name, Lora may also be a variant of Laura or derived from an Italian hypocoristic of either E ...
technology to support an array of smart city, smart manufacturing, Smart Grid, Smart Meter and transportation applications.


Wholesale Voice


Wholesale Voice Transport & Termination

Tata Communications offers international wholesale voice transit and termination services with the support of its global network.. It provides full support for HD Voice, complies with GSMA's IPX specifications for direct transit and is future proof for operators migrating to Voice over LTE.


International Voice Access Services

Tata Communications provides its customers with a full suite of Voice Access Services, that cover 105 countries. Customers can receive toll-free calls from both fixed and mobile phones in more than 90 countries with ITFS. They can provide a single number that is accessible from more than 45 countries worldwide, with UIFN. It also enables customers to purchase local number ranges, through its Bulk Local Number Service offering.


Wifi+

In June 2016, Tata Communications launched its Wi-Fi+, a cloud communications solutions for its mobile network operator customers. Operators are able to provide their customers with unlimited calling, messaging and data over high-quality, secure Wi-Fi. It harnesses Tata Communications’ Cloud RTC expertise and iPass's more than 21 million Wi-Fi hotspots in more than 100 countries. In January 2017, Tata Communications announced its partnership with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to provide 44 million Wi-Fi hotspots in more than 100 countries, including rail systems and international flights. In October 2021 Tata Communications announced the availability support for WiFi6, in collaboration with its partner Cisco.


Financials


Subsidiaries of Tata Communications Ltd

Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS), a 100% subsidiary of Tata Communications Ltd, provides business transformation, managed network operations, network outsourcing, and consultancy services to telecommunication companies around the world. Tata Communications Payment Solutions Limited (TCPSL) formerly known as Tata Communications Banking InfraSolutions, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Communications. TCPSL is one of the fastest growing Payment Solutions specialists in India offering end-to-end B2B and B2C solutions. Being a 100% Banking and Financial Services focused organisation, TCPSL offers one stop payment solutions to all categories of banks including PSU, Private, MNC and Co-operative banks. TCPSL's White Label ATM offering under the brand name Indicash marks its foray in the B2C space. With this it is the first White Label ATM service provider in the country. Under this service offering, TCPSL offers ATM services across the country through Indicash ATM network with special focus on semi urban and rural areas.


Innovation Hub

In September 2019,
PGA European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...
and Tata Communications launched the Innovation Hub. This contest that offers the opportunity for start-ups worldwide to convert concepts into reality. * Winner 2020: Alugha


References


External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Mumbai Telecommunications companies of India Internet service providers of India Telecommunications companies established in 1986 Tier 1 networks 1986 establishments in Maharashtra Formerly government-owned companies of India Tata Communications Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange