(6 February 2008 5:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has announced that iPass customers traveling to or working in India can now benefit from the addition of more than 350 Tata Indicom Wi-Fi hotspots into the iPass global broadband roaming network.

With the integration of these hotspots, iPass customers are expected to have reliable high-speed connectivity options across India's largest 20 cities including major business hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

Tata Indicom Wi-Fi hotspot locations include major domestic and international airports, premium hotels, railway stations, educational institutions, sports stadiums, hospitals, restaurant, coffee shop chains and retail stores. Key locations include Taj Group of Hotels, Le Meridian, Cafe Coffee Day, Barista, Manipal University and Wockhard.

"Our partnership with iPass is a reflection of how committed we are to enabling customers from across the globe to experience a reliable and secure wireless service and have a world-class end-user experience," said VSNL retail business unit president Shankar Prasad. "VSNL has been leading the growth of the Wi-Fi industry in India and today has the largest Wi-Fi deployment in India with over 360 hotspots. It has drawn up major plans this year to further enhance its footprint to over 1,000 hotspots."

Before being integrated into the iPass global roaming network, the Tata Indicom Wi-Fi access points went through the iPass enterprise ready certification process. This involved testing the hotspots against reliability and quality of service standards.

VSNL is the only Indian operator to be a member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), a global consortium of Wi-Fi service providers. Operator members of WBA own and operate over 60,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide and the membership in WBA enables VSNL to leverage the same.