AT&T receives telecom licenses in India

India has granted AT&T as first foreign carrier of the country several licenses to provide national long distance and international long distance phone services to global and India-headquartered companies.

Once AT&T India becomes operational later this year, the companies plans to "provide Virtual Private Network services to the corporate enterprise segment by the end of 2006." AT&T India also intends to introduce "several enhancements to its service portfolio with an array of advanced new security solutions, such as network and premises based firewalls, business continuity and disaster recovery services" over time.

AT&T said that its global, MPLS-based IP network is currently available in 127 countries from more than 1700 service nodes. AT&T also offers remote access to the network in 149 countries through more than 45000 access points.