Mandalay, February 08 2009: India and Myanmar today operationalised their first optical fibre telephone link, a USD seven million state-of-the-art network that will bring the two countries closer and give a boost to bilateral economic cooperation.

A staff manning the Moreh telephone exchange received the landmark telephone call today at 9.30 am, reports our reporter quoting an official source.

Watched by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Myanmar's Communication Minister Brig Gen Thein Zaw made the first call to Indian Telecom Minister A Raja in New Delhi, applauding the quality of the project funded by India and executed by public sector Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) .

The high-speed broadband link for voice and data transmission connects Mandalay, Myanmar's second most important commercial hub after Yangon, and the border town of Moreh in Manipur. The two towns are separated by a distance of 500 km.

TCIL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Rakesh K Upadhyay later told PTI that the call rates between India and Myanmar are bound to fall sharply with the installation of the optical fibre link between Mandalay and Moreh.

Myanmar announced it was planning to construct optical fibre network in the entire area along its border with India which could then have another direct link also with China, Laos and Thailand.

Implementing the tele-com link, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Myanmar's Post and Telegraph Department signed the International Telecom Services Agreement (ITSA) under which the two countries will also negotiate telephone call tariffs.

Launching the project, Brig Gen Thein Zaw said it would greatly help his country's information technology, telecom sector, business industries, schools and universities in their utilisation of broadband internet access.

He said Myanmar is planning to continue to construct optical fibre network in areas along Myanmar-India border.

Gen Zaw said the cross-border telecom links would be greatly useful to both the countries as India could have another direct link to China, Laos, Thailand besides Myanmar.

Noting the strides made by India in software and other areas of Information Technology, he said Myanmar was willing to work with Indian companies in IT and telecom sectors which have emerged as new areas of bilateral cooperation during Ansari's four-day visit to this country.

Upadhyay said before the launch of the optical fibre link between Mandalay and Moreh, calls between India and Myanmar had to be routed through third countries like China, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

But now the phone calls could be made without third-country routing, he added.

He suggested that India should respond to Myanmar's call for assistance to develop telecom links between the two countries as these entail low investments but give "big visibility" in terms of direct benefits to a cross-section of the people of Myanmar.

Ansari also visited a 19th century palace built by the last royal family of the region and a Buddhist pagoda.

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