MEDIA RELEASE PR35245
Starwood Hotels and Tata Communications Partner to Roll-Out TelePresence Rooms in Hotels
Globally
SINGAPORE and WHITE PLAINS, New York, June 30, PRNewswire-AsiaNet/--
- TelePresence Provides the Experience of in-Person Meetings With
Participants in Locations Around the World
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc (NYSE:HOT) and Tata
Communications, a leading provider of the new world of communications, today
announced a partnership agreement as part of an ambitious plan to roll out
public Telepresence rooms worldwide.
The agreement will significantly increase Tata Communications' network of
public Cisco TelePresence rooms with 10 new facilities opening in Starwood
hotels by the end of 2009. The first telepresence suites are planned for
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, Sheraton
Centre Toronto Hotel, The Westin Los Angeles Airport and W Chicago-City
Center. Looking ahead, Starwood anticipates expanding the offering to hotels
in key international business markets like Brussels, Paris, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Tokyo. Tata Communications Telepresence Service will provide
Starwood and its guests an "in person" meeting experience with participants
in rooms around the world.
"We believe that public telepresence rooms are the key to increasing the
accessibility of telepresence beyond major company offices to their wider
ecosystem of users - customers, suppliers, remote workers and business
partners. Using managed telepresence services is 'better than being there'
and helps companies hold more productive meetings without incurring travel
and time costs. More team members can participate in meetings and collaborate
around the world," said John Landau, Senior Vice President Global Managed
Services from Tata Communications.
"We intend to make telepresence available to as many users as possible
with our global network of public telepresence rooms and our suite of managed
telepresence networks services for businesses. Our partnership with Starwood
is a major step towards making this vision a reality," added Landau.
"Starwood has made a name for itself as an innovator in the hotel
industry, and it is crucial that we continue to evolve our meetings offerings
to address the needs of today's consumers," said Christie Hicks, Senior Vice
President of Global Sales for Starwood. "The partnership with Tata
Communications is yet another opportunity for us to bring innovative,
cutting-edge technology to our properties, and add true value for our
business and conference facilities' guests."
"With global companies under increasing pressure to foster productivity
at the least cost, the need for public telepresence rooms is greater than
ever. Telepresence that is available on a per use basis enables affordable,
high quality communication for the small and medium business or
remote/regional office worker. Because of the decentralized nature of
business today, without public room deployments, telepresence can never
achieve the critical mass needed to realize the full potential of this
exciting video technology. Tata Communications is aggressively investing and
building public telepresence rooms to help achieve this potential and meet
the needs of the global workplace," said Paul Waadevig, Senior Consultant on
Unified Communications, Frost and Sullivan.
Cisco TelePresence provides life-like, high definition, conferencing
facilities with superior audio, video and environmental qualities allowing
participants to meet their colleagues, customers and business partners across
a virtual table. The public facility offers users who do not have
Telepresence rooms in their companies, access to this cutting-edge technology
at an affordable per hour rental rate. Tata Communications has several
operational public rooms in India (Mumbai, Bangalore (x2), Chennai,
Hyderabad, Delhi and Gurgaon), UK (London) and USA (Boston), and has recently
announced an agreement to manage a public room in Manila for PLDT in the
Philippines.
Tata Communications is unique in offering a comprehensive Cisco-certified
TelePresence network consisting of hosted and managed service within private
networks, between the world's first public rooms and soon, across an open
global telepresence exchange. Later this year, Tata Communications plans to
launch its Global Meeting Exchange service that will conveniently support
business-to-business sessions between any telepresence rooms (public or
private) subscribed to the service, regardless of the network service
provider. This pioneering global service framework pushes Telepresence from
being a private intra-company experience to supporting the strong demand for
open inter-company sessions. European CEO Magazine named Tata Communications
the Best Managed Telepresence Service Provider of the Year.
For further information on Tata Communications Telepresence Services and
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 operators in South Africa
(Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited), Nepal (United
Telecom Limited), and subject to approval by the Chinese government, China
(China Enterprise Communications).
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)
About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and
leisure companies in the world with 960 properties in 97 countries and
145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a
fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and
residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(R),
The Luxury Collection(R), W(R), Westin(R), Le Méridien(R), Sheraton(R), Four
Points(R) by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft(R), and Element SM.
Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the
premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership
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 stabilize 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.
under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or
alter its forward-looking statements.
Media Contacts:
Lee Ann Lim
Tata Communications
+1-703-999-1726
Leeann.lim@tatacommunications.com
Janice Goveas
Tata Communications
+91-92233-94575
janice.goveas@tatacommunications.com
Brad Minor
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
+1-914-640-3687
Brad.minor@starwoodhotels.com
SOURCE: Tata Communications and Starwood Hotels
NEWS 
