Bharti Airtel Partners With Limelight Networks

By ChannelTimes Staff
Mumbai, Jan 22, 2010 1752 hrs IST

Bharti Airtel announced its tie-up with Limelight Networks for content delivery network (CDN) services in the Indian market place.

The partnership will help Limelight expand its access in one of the fastest growing CDN markets and enable its customers to access Bharti Airtel s IP network in India.

Under this agreement, Bharti Airtel will offer Indian content producers solutions for the delivery of rich media and enterprise applications, as well as direct access to consumers accessing the Internet over 900 last mile networks that are directly connected to Limelight s global platform.  

The CDN will offer business customers access to Limelight s 25 delivery centres, strategically placed in key networking hubs around the globe. This will enable the company to offer their customers the ability to create a high-quality experience for their end-users without service interruption, whether they're watching an HD movie, making an online purchase, listening to music, playing a video game or downloading a software package.

According to Rajan Swaroop, executive director, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel, "The initiative is consistent with our strategy of furthering innovation through industry-leading partnerships. All our investments in setting up an international network infrastructure and growing portfolio of services are designed to make Bharti Airtel the communication services partner of choice for global markets. The partnership will help expand our market coverage in the rapidly growing Indian CDN market that is expected to grow to $100 million by 2014."

George Fraser, vice president, EMEA and Asia, Limelight Networks, said, "This exclusive, strategic partnership brings together Airtel s market-leading IP network and deep relationships within the Indian marketplace with our proven content delivery technology and expertise. The Asian CDN market is growing at a rate of 32 perent y-o-y, and this partnership will help Limelight Networks lead the growth in one of the fastest growing emerging markets and partner world-class telcos in delivering best-in-class services."

The partnership will enable business customers to offer faster content delivery to all Internet users without increasing their infrastructure costs. Utilising Limelight s proprietary technology, the Bharti Airtel CDN offers device-detection, mobility and adaptive-streaming technology, enabling customers to create a seamless experience for end-users regardless of what device they are using.