Bharti Airtel on Monday announced it has joined SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium, participating as a major investor, while Reliance Jio said it will land its India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives.
In a day of twin developments, the two large operators came out with separate announcements related to undersea cable projects.
Airtel said 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.
Bharti said it has joined the 'SEA-ME-WE-6' consortium to scale up its high-speed global network capacity to serve India's fast-growing digital economy.
The 12 other consortium members of SEA-ME-WE-6 include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Dhiraagu (Maldives), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, and Telin (Indonesia).
The 19,200 Rkm (route kilometres) SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore and France, and will be among the largest undersea cable system globally.
"Through SEA-ME-WE-6, Airtel will add a significant amount of 100 TBps capacity to its global network," the statement said.
Airtel has acquired one fibre pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and will co-build four fiber pairs between Singapore Chennai Mumbai as part of the cable system. Airtel will land the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system in India at new landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai.
SEA-ME-WE-6 will be integrated with Nxtra by Airtel's large data centres in Mumbai and Chennai to enable global hyperscalers and businesses to access integrated solutions and strengthen India's position as an emerging data centre hub in the region.
Meanwhile, India's largest mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm said it will land the multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives. The high capacity and high-speed IAX system will connect Hulhumale directly with world's major internet hubs in India and Singapore.
Jio's IAX project will land in the Maldives in collaboration with Ocean Connect Maldives, the company said in a statement.
The IAX system originates in Mumbai in the west and connects directly to Singapore, with branches including additional landings in India, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) system connects Mumbai to Milan, landing in Savona, Italy, and includes additional landings in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean.
IAX is expected to be ready for service end-2023, while IEX will be ready for service in mid-2024.
"These high capacity and high-speed systems will provide more than 200Tb/s of capacity at speeds of 100Gb/s, over 16,000 kilometers," Jio statement informed.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU