Airtel joins undersea cable consortium, anchors 20% investment

Homegrown telecom company Bharti Airtel, on Monday, said that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium to scale up its high-speed global network capacity. Airtel added that the 19,200 Rkm SEA-ME-WE-6 would connect Singapore and France, and will be among the world’s largest undersea cable systems.

Airtel, in a BSE filing, said that it is participating as a major investor in the SEA-ME-WE-6 and is anchoring 20 per cent of the overall investment in the cable system, which will go LIVE in 2025.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, said, “Undersea cable systems along with data centres are vital infrastructure for supporting 5G and the digital economy. Airtel has been ahead of the curve on this front and already operates the largest undersea cable network out of India in addition to the biggest network of data centres. Our investment in SEA-ME-WE-6 is another step in our journey to future-proof our network and build large integrated capacities to enable India’s digital ecosystem.”

SEA-ME-WE-6’s other consortium members include— Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Dhiraagu (Maldives), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telin (Indonesia).

Airtel, through SEA-ME-WE-6, will add a significant amount of 100 TBps capacity to its global network. Airtel has also acquired one Fiber Pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and plans to co-build four Fiber Pairs between Singapore – Chennai – Mumbai as part of the cable system.

SEA-ME-WE-6 will be fully integrated with Nxtra by Airtel’s large Data Centers in Mumbai and Chennai to enable global hyperscalers and businesses to access seamlessly integrated solutions and strengthen the country's position as an emerging data centre hub.

Airtel's global network spans over 365,000 Rkms and reaches 50 countries across five continents. Nxtra by Airtel, the data centre unit of the company, operates the largest network of data centres in India with 11 large and 120 edge data centres.