Bharti Airtel <BRTI.BO> said today an international consortium comprising the leading Indian telecoms firm had launched a undersea cable that directly connects Japan and the west coast of the United States.

Global Transit, Google <GOOG.O>, KDDI Corp <9433.T>, Pacnet and SingTel <STEL.SI> are the other partners in the consortium that built the cable for about US$300 million ($419.5 million), Bharti said in a statement.

Bharti this week tied up a US$9 billion deal to buy Kuwaiti telecom Zain’s <ZAIN.KW> assets in 15 African countries and said it would become the world’s fifth-largest wireless operator.

The Indian telecoms firm fully owns the i2i undersea cable systems and is consortium partner for five global undersea cable systems.