Mumbai & New York – Tata Communications, a leading provider of The New World of Communications, today announces a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement with Formula One Management. The agreement will see Tata Communications delivering world-class connectivity to all 20 Formula 1ä race locations over its global network, the largest in the world. It will also provide hosting and content delivery services to Formula1.com, which is accessed by tens of millions of fans around the globe.
The innovative deal positions Tata Communications corporately as A Technology Supplier of Formula 1™ with category exclusive designations as Official Connectivity Provider of Formula 1™ and Official Web Hosting and Content Delivery Network of Formula1.com.
Formula One group businesses and race locations will now be connected to the Tata Global Network (“TGN”), supported by secure MPLS connectivity. Formula One Management's IT infrastructure and Formula1.com will be co-located and hosted in Tata Communications’ world-class data centres.
Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Communications, says, “Formula 1 requires fast and secure connectivity, because even a split second of downtime can have huge repercussions for its business, brand and reputation. This delivery is at the heart of our organisation and working with one of the world's most highly technical and innovative organisations is an exciting opportunity for Tata Communications. The collaboration leverages our technology leadership and vision for emerging markets and represents a tremendous opportunity for growth and innovation for both companies.”
Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One group, says, “I’m pleased to welcome Tata Communications into the Formula 1 family and I hope this is the start of a long and successful relationship. Connectivity and content delivery are critical issues for Formula 1 and working with the best in the business is a priority for us. This is a collaboration that will help us stay at the technological cutting edge in these categories."
Tata Communications’ capabilities in video and content delivery networks (“CDN”) will enable uninterrupted, high-quality connectivity to the multi-media portal on Formula1.com. The (TGN) has Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific data transfer capacity of one terabit per second. This capacity will ensure Tata Communications is able to fully support Formula1.com during race weekends, when the site gets on average four million unique visits per weekend, peaking at seven million over some events. Tata Communications’ infrastructure will enable the sport’s official website to instantly scale up to cope with these significant and sometimes unpredictable traffic spikes.
Tata Communications will also provide Formula1.com with a new Managed Security Suite and will apply an additional layer of managed security monitoring to ensure an increased level of protection to Formula One Management's IT infrastructure.
Looking ahead, Tata Communications and Formula One Management will also work in close collaboration on research and development around connectivity and the latest video technologies.
To view the press conference video and download images, please visit: http://tatacommunications.com/F1/vod.html
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About Tata Communications
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.
The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications' depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited) and Nepal (United Telecom Limited).
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TCL).
www.tatacommunications.com
Forward-looking and cautionary statements
Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications’ expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications’ operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications’ network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilise or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company’s communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications’ industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications’ control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications’ various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.
About Formula 1™
Formula 1™, which began in 1950, is the world’s most prestigious motor racing competition and is the world’s most popular annual sporting series. In 2011 it was watched by over 515 million unique television viewers from 187 territories. The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship™ runs from March to November and spans 20 races in 19 countries across five continents. Formula One World Championship Limited is a subsidiary of the Formula One group, founded by CEO Bernie Ecclestone and holds the exclusive commercial rights to the FIA Formula OneWorld Championship™. For more information on Formula 1™ visit www.formula1.com.
The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, F1, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trademarks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula One group company. All rights reserved.
