Pacnet granted new licence to expand on mainland
New licence lets network operator broaden coverage to businesses in more parts of country
Pacnet, the operator of Asia's largest privately owned submarine cable network, is extending its operations into several mainland provinces under a new licence from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry granted the company's mainland subsidiary, Pacnet Business Solutions (PBS), an "enhanced value-added service licence" that broadens its coverage for internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) services to businesses in 23 provinces from 20 cities previously.
It is the first Sino-foreign telecommunications joint venture to receive the licence, which also allows PBS to operate data centres in five cities and offer internet access services in 10 cities.
PBS is a 50-50 joint venture formed in 2008 by Hong Kong-based Pacnet and Zhong Ren Telecom, a mainland provider of corporate telecommunications services.
Pacnet chief Carl Grivner yesterday said: "Our expansion plan positions Pacnet to capitalise on China's robust growth by broadening the reach of our connectivity solutions as corporations continue to expand their businesses across the country."
IP VPN allows companies to have their own secure, point-to-point private-network layer over the public internet infrastructure. Technology analyst firm IDC said many businesses used IP VPN as a secure remote-access technology to connect employees outside the office.
