Big boost for India’s internet quality! Three large undersea cable projects to expand capacity by more than four times

India is set to witness a significant increase in digital connectivity, with the upcoming launch of three major undersea cable projects. The 2Africa Pearls, India-Asia-Express (IAX), and India-Europe-Express (IEX) are expected to become operational between October and March next year, according to informed sources. These projects will expand the existing capacity by more than four times.
Submarine cables, which are high-capacity optic fibre pairs laid on the ocean floor, play a crucial role in providing global connectivity for high-speed data exchange.The completion of these projects is expected to significantly enhance India’s digital infrastructure and facilitate faster and more efficient data transmission across the globe.
According to an ET report, the 2Africa cable system, one of the longest subsea cable system in the world, spans over 45,000 km and has a capacity of 180 terabits per second (tbps). It will connect 33 countries, with Bharti Airtel’s landing station in Mumbai being one of the key points. The project has received investments from Bharti Airtel, Meta, and other companies.

Large undersea cable projects

Meanwhile, the IAX and IEX projects, which involve contributions from Reliance Jio and other entities, will land in Mumbai and Chennai, respectively. These developments highlight India’s growing importance in the global telecom market, the report said.
IEX boasts a capacity of over 200 tbps and covers 9,775 km, connecting Mumbai to the Persian Gulf and further to Europe. Similarly, IAX has a capacity of more than 200 tbps and extends over 16,000 kms, linking Mumbai to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.
According to experts, the combination of the three projects will significantly boost capacity and enhance the quality of internet services for applications such as 5G video streaming, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. This improvement is expected to attract substantial investments from data centre operators.
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As of 2023, India had 17 international subsea cables landing in 14 distinct stations across five cities, with a cumulative lit capacity of 138.55 tbps and activated capacity of 111.11 tbps, as reported by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Lit capacity refers to the full traffic-carrying capability, while activated capacity is the portion currently in use for these submarine cables.
Experts emphasize that subsea cables are responsible for transmitting more than 99% of the world’s internet traffic. These communication networks handle more than $10 trillion in daily financial transactional value globally, and are considered the lifeblood of the digital economy, highlighting the importance of having diverse subsea cable routes and cable landing stations (CLS).
India has become one of the world’s largest telecom markets, with a user base of 1.2 billion and an average per capita data consumption of 24.1 gigabytes (GB) per month, which represents a 24% year-on-year increase, according to Nokia’s Mobile Broadband Index.
The index predicts that per capita data usage will reach approximately 28 GB per month by the end of December. Experts believe that this sustained growth underscores India’s emergence as a key player in the global data landscape.