GAIL completes first phase of optical backbone deployment
Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), India’s leading gas company and a licensed bandwidth provider, has deployed Phase I of its nationwide backbone network using an optical long haul solution featuring DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) and SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) technology from Nortel Networks.

The first DWDM network deployment by a ‘carrier’s carrier’ in India, Phase I of GAIL’s high-speed, high-capacity optical network spans more than 2,000 kilometres, and carries voice and data traffic across seven states Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

With a network capacity of 320 gigabits per second (Gbps), this new backbone gives GAIL the bandwidth it needs for its carrier customers, and positions GAIL to drive low cost per connected bit. Phase I interconnects the top 20 traffic routes in the country.

“GAIL’s optical backbone network is a historical first they are the first alternate carrier to deploy a DWDM solution in India,” said Joseph Samuel, managing director, Nortel Networks India. “As a global leader in optical technology, Nortel Networks will continue working with GAIL as it begins to expand its networks and create new revenue-generating services.”

Wipro Technologies unveils solutions for chip vendors
Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Limited and a leading Bluetooth IP and design services company, has unveiled its Bluetooth Automotive and Dial-up Gateway solutions targeted for silicon vendors. Wipro will demonstrate these Bluetooth capabilities at the Bluetooth Congress, the world’s leading Bluetooth event, at Amsterdam this year.

The Bluetooth Dial-up Networking solution enables short-range wireless connectivity between a PC/Laptop and the external network (PSTN or GSM) via a Bluetooth-enabled modem. Wipro’s Dial-up Networking Profile software can be quickly plugged-in to build a Bluetooth-enabled modem, thus ensuring vital time-to-market advantage to the end customer. Wipro will also demonstrate its Bluetooth solutions working on Windows NT/2K Operating System.

As part of its automotive solutions, Wipro is demonstrating its hands-free profile at the Bluetooth Congress. Wipro’s hands-free profile can be integrated with its other Bluetooth building blocks to develop the hands-free car kit. This hands-free car kit allows a person to place and receive calls at the touch of a button, all while driving and keeping the mobile phone in the pocket.

Wipro has joined hands with Austria Micro Systems (AMS) for co-development of the complete Bluetooth solution. Under the terms of the partnership, Wipro’s BQB (Baumann Qualitath Management Beratumg) qualified Bluetooth Baseband Controller and Stack will be incorporated with the AMS radio to develop complete Bluetooth solutions. With its Bluetooth radio and chipset development expertise, AMS will complement Wipro’s Bluetooth offerings thus providing a complete solution to chip vendors and other customers.

Cognizant builds network for new India software development facility
Cisco Systems announced that Cognizant Technology Solutions has selected Cisco’s range of catalyst LAN Switches and Security solutions to implement an end-to-end network infrastructure at their new state-of-the-art techno-complex in Pune. The company opted for Cisco as the vendor of choice after an extensive analysis of solutions available in the market. Cognizant’s preference for Cisco’s range of solutions is an endorsement of Cisco’s end-to-end solutions, service efficiencies and cost-benefit advantages.

Cisco’s solutions enable Cognizant to minimize network downtime and prioritise mission-critical applications. The Cisco network infrastructure consists of Cisco Catalyst series of LAN switches, and Cisco Security and VPN solutions such as Cisco’s Secure Access Control Server. The Security and VPN solutions will deliver secure AAA (authentication, authorization and accounting) to Cognizant employees seeking to access its network from anywhere in the world.

Sun to power Tata Teleservices in Karnataka, TN, Gujarat and Delhi
Sun Microsystems India has won a major contract from Tata Teleservices. Tata Teleservices has purchased three Sun Fire 15K, Sun’s new flagship high-end system built on technologies that radically alter the performance level and reliability, scalability and availability of high-end servers while significantly helping to reduce total cost of ownership. These powerful SunFire 15K servers with Ultrasparc III processors will run mission critical applications to power the new circles being introduced by Tata Teleservices. This also addresses their business continuity requirements and is one of the first such implementation by a telecom operator in the country.

Tata Teleservices after having established itself in the Andhra circle is launching services in four new circles Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat. These SunFire 15K servers will help Tata Teleservices build centralised infrastructure for hosting all the key applications for the new circles as well as implement the disaster recovery set-up. The applications would include billing and customer care systems, order management, ERP, CRM, data warehousing, etc.

Tata Consultancy Services unveils China initiative
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) unveiled its initiatives in China with the announcement of the launch of Tata Information Technology (Shanghai), subsidiary of Tata Sons in Shanghai. Commenting on TCS’s initiative in China, Phiroz Vandrevala, excecutive vice president, TCS, said, “TCS is extremely excited to find itself making inroads into China. TCS’s vision is to leverage China for both the domestic growth opportunities and the globally growing IT needs.”

The framework of TCS China consists of three parts. Tata Information Technology (Shanghai) will be headquartered in Shanghai. The TCS office in Beijing will undertake marketing activities for the company’s China operations and will cover areas in client relationship management, public relations and legal areas, in addition to providing support to the North East and North West regions. In Hangzhou, TCS will set up a development centre that will provide end-to-end services for clients over the Asia Pacific region, in coordination with TCS’ delivery centres in India.

Yahoo India and Shaadi.com enter into marketing alliance
Yahoo India, one of India’s leading portals and Shaadi.com, the matrimonial services provider, announced a broad marketing alliance that enables all Yahoo India users to access Shaadi.com services from the Yahoo India homepage as well as other parts of the website. This alliance will allow Yahoo India family members to identify like minded people from Shaadi.com family members. Yahoo India users get to access the entire gamut of products and services available on the Shaadi.com website ranging from finding a partner, wedding planning, wedding traditions, bindis, mahurats, astrology, gifting, honeymoon travel and directory services.

Infosys Banking Group announces strategic acquisition
The banking business unit of Infosys Techonologies has announced that it has acquired Trade IQ product division of US-based IQ Financial Systems Inc. The acquisition brings to the Infosys Banking Group’s fold the existing Trade IQ clients of IQ Financial Systems Inc, which include some of the top tier and largest commercial and investment banks in Europe, Japan and the US with installations in Switzerland, UK, US and Japan. In addition to the product, the banking group will acquire all assets and trained and skilled manpower which includes Trade IQ domain experts.