Bharti, Cisco Partner

NEW DELHI, India -- Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telecom services provider, today announced the launch of Managed MPLS Service in partnership with Cisco®. This service is the first of a series of Managed Services that Airtel plans to launch over the next two years. The service launch includes a Tier 1 MSCP certification from Cisco for their network and service capabilities, to provide Managed MPLS VPN services. With this Airtel has become the first service provider in APAC to achieve Cisco Powered Managed Multi-Protocol Layer Switching Provider status under CISCO Managed Services Channel Partnership (MSCP) Program. The certification places it in a league of select global operators that are endorsed for carrier class MPLS networks and enterprise class MPLS service capabilities.

The Managed MPLS Service will provide world-class solutions with end-to-end service assurance to enterprises, for their business critical networks. The services are a part of Airtel’s strategy to migrate from TDM to IP based network services and introduce a full suite of Managed Services for Indian enterprises.

The CISCO MSCP Tier 1 certification is based on rigorous third party audit that covers various aspects of the MPLS Service, including network architecture, network engineering capabilities, the security on network and service providing capabilities and processes. Airtel has also obtained a certification from Cisco for their TelePresence Connection capabilities. This certification recognizes Airtel MPLS network for running Hi-Definition video conferencing services which give users real life-like experience. The TelePresence service will form a part of Airtel’s full suite of Audio and Video Conference services.

“As an industry leader, Airtel is committed to defining new benchmarks in communication service offerings and delivery, for our customers. Our aim is to be an end to end managed services provider for Indian enterprises - move beyond network management to offer and provide converged application services on business critical networks. The CISCO Tier 1 certification is a big step in that direction. It reinforces to our customers our world class MPLS network and service offerings capabilities and enables us to provide a host of new industry defining Managed service offerings that will help our customers transform their businesses,” said David Nishball, President, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mumbai: BHARTIARTL)