Bharti Airtel announced on Monday that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium to expand its high-speed global network capacity to serve India’s rapidly growing digital economy. Airtel has announced that it will be a “significant investor” in the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system, anchoring 20% of the total investment in the line, which will go live in 2025.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Dhiraagu (Maldives), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, and Telin are among the 12 other SEA-ME-WE-6 consortium members (Indonesia).
The SEA-ME-WE-6, with a route length of 19,200 kilometers, will connect Singapore and France and will be one of the world’s largest undersea cable systems.
Airtel stated in a statement that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable partnership to help India’s expanding digital economy scale up its high-speed network.
“Airtel will add a large amount of 100 TBps capacity to its worldwide network through SEA-ME-WE-6,” according to the statement.
Airtel has purchased one Fiber Pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and will co-build four Fiber Pairs as part of the cable connection between Singapore and Chennai and Mumbai. The SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system will land in India at new landing points in Mumbai and Chennai, according to Airtel.
According to the release, Airtel’s massive data centers in Mumbai and Chennai would connect SEA-ME-WE-6 with Nxtra to enable global hyperscalers and enterprises to access integrated solutions and reinforce India’s position as a regional data center hub.
Ajay Chitkara, Airtel’s Business Director and CEO, said: “Data centers and undersea cable systems are critical infrastructures for powering 5G and the digital economy… Our investment in SEA-ME-WE-6 is another step forward in our efforts to future-proof our network and establish a huge integrated capacity to support India’s digital ecosystem.”
Airtel claims to have the largest undersea cable network outside of India, as well as the largest data center network. Airtel’s worldwide network covers 365,000 kilometers and connects 50 countries on five continents. Nxtra by Airtel, the company’s data center division, manages India’s largest network of data centers, with 11 large and 120 edge data centers.
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