Tata Communications this week announced plans to work with Telsima to launch a nationwide WiMax network in India. The first phase of the deployment will deliver broadband Internet access via WiMax to business and residential customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.

"[The company] hopes to be covering not just 15 major Indian cities for retail users but also 110 cities for business customers by Q1 2009," writes The Inquirer's Tony Dennis.

"It's a big bet for the Tata unit, formerly known as VSNL, which plans to pour $500 million to $600 million into the project by 2010," writes Forbes' Elizabeth Woyke. "It is looking to WiMax to differentiate itself from rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications."

More here from Unstrung ... more here from the New York Times ... more here from BusinessWeek ... more here from Phone Mag ... more here from The Hindu ... more here from InformationWeek ... more here from Reuters ... more here from CrunchGear ... more here from the FT ... and the press release is here.