VSNL Gets iPass For Customers

Mountain View, Calif.-based iPass Inc. is partnering with government
ISP Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
(VSNL) to make iPass Global Internet roaming available in India.

This partnership makes VSNL access points in India immediately
available as part of the extensive iPass global network giving
iPass users Internet connectivity when traveling in India.

Simultaneously, VSNL has launched the iPass global Internet
roaming service to its customers in India, allowing them to gain local
Internet connectivity when traveling throughout the world.

“VSNL is an important network infrastructure provider and we are
thrilled about this partnership,” said Jason Ma, iPass managing
director, Asia Pacific.

“We are seeing growth in the Internet market in India as well
As increasing business travel to India. Not only will the iPass service
provide tremendous value to VSNL’s customers, but this partnership
brings a significant benefit to our business customers around the world
who can now easily gain quality local Internet access when traveling to
India.”

iPass has teamed with industry leaders including 3Com Corporation,
Ascend, Cisco, COMPAQ, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, Microsoft, Nortel Networks and
Sun Microsystems.

The iPass/VSNL partnership was inaugurated recently by Anil Kumar,
chairman of the Telecom Commission, at an event held in Mumbai.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Kumar said that the Internet has an
extremely
important role in the development of information and communication
networks in the country.

He added that India is emerging as a strong global player in
information technology
and information services, and the new Internet service provider (ISP)
policy will play an
important role in strengthening the country’s infrastructure.

“The global roaming service opens a new bridge between India and the
rest of the world in respect to Internet access and availability,”
commented Amitabh Kumar, officiating chairman and managing director of
VSNL, who
was also present on the occasion.

“We are excited about what this agreement with iPass means to VSNL’s
customers,” said Mr Kumar. “As the Internet market opens up in India,
we will see a rapid increase in the use of and dependency on the Internet for
everyday business communications and information. This means that wherever our
customers travel throughout the world, they are going to have secure and
reliable
Internet connectivity at local access rates.”

With its dedicated workforce of over 2,900 employees, VSNL provides a
range of basic, specialized and value-added telecom services.

VSNL users now benefit from local connectivity to the Internet from
almost anywhere in the world when using the iPass network of more than
3,000 access points
throughout 150 countries.

And VSNL customers can take advantage of incredible cost savings
as well as the strongest end-user authentication security, which is
built into the iPass architecture.

The iPass service also integrates with virtual private network
(VPN) solutions,
enabling telecommuters and business travelers secure access to their
corporate networks
from outside of the office, whether at home or overseas.