Bharti Airtel buys internet bandwidth from PowerGrid for Rs 320-crore

NEW DELHI: State-run PowerGrid Corporation has leased out optic fibre-backed Internet bandwidth to Sunil Mittal-driven Bharti Airtel for about Rs 320-crore to extend services to enterprise customers.

“Airtel will be using bandwidth from optical ground wire (OPGW) deployed by PowerGrid in order to meet customer service-level agreements (SLA), and to overcome frequent fibre cuts,” a person familiar with the matter told ETTelecom.

PowerGrid Corporation, a public sector entity under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power, has one of the largest pan-India OPGW networks, through its subsidiary PowerGrid Teleservices Limited.