The global internet is undergoing a rewiring, which will hugely enhance global data capacity. India will be a beneficiary alongside other nations. Competition should also lead to better quality standards and lower access charges.
In the first quarter (January-March) of calendar year 2025, Google will launch services on its ambitious Blue Raman subsea cable, which connects Europe to India while bypassing Egypt (which is generally considered to be a chokepoint). The $400 million project, with a capacity of 218 Tbps, has also pulled in investment from Italy’s Sparkle and other corporates.
The Mediterranean submarine section is named Blue, while the eastern submarine section which passes through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea is named Raman after the great physicist, C. V. Raman. Parts of the Blue segment are shared with the SeaMed submarine cable system. The Blue and Raman systems are being linked overland to complete the system.
Meta is also investing billions in submarine cable infrastructure. It is working on a $10 billion submarine cable project, aiming to deliver 500 Tbps of capacity within three years. This will connect to India as well. Meta’s cable is likely to land in Gujarat, or in Chennai, and Reliance Industries is setting up data centres in both places.
The new subsea cables will add significant capacity to India and challenge the dominance of local players such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Communications. The new capacity will help service demand triggered by the hyperscaler and data centre boom. Independent players such as Sify Technologies and Lightstorm are also gaining traction, with cost-effective landing solutions.
Reliance Jio and Airtel are also setting up their own submarine cable projects — 2Africa Pearls, India-Asia-Express and India-Europe-Express. These will collectively quadruple the existing capacity of the two Indian telecom majors by early 2025.
All of this is part of an ongoing global capacity expansion. Between 2016 and 2020, 107 new cables were laid at an investment of $13.8 billion, followed by another $18 billion of investment in ongoing projects between 2021-2025. The ramp-up of capacity was inevitable, and it has accelerated due to the surge in demand triggered by AI.
A decade ago, cables were primarily servicing voice; today, 50 per cent of their traffic is from OTT platforms and hyperscalers, with corporate and internet traffic dominating the remaining capacity. The global submarine cable market is projected to grow from $27.57 billion in 2023 to $40.58 billion by 2028, according to TRAI, with India’s contribution hitting $78.6 million, driven by rising data sovereignty and security needs.
Only licenced international long distance operators and ISP-A holders can manage cable landing stations in India, creating regulatory barriers against the expansion. Airtel and Tata Communications, as permit holders, have been collecting high access charges, and the new competition from global tech giants could prompt sharp cuts in access charges. This, in turn, could drive data-centric businesses, with beneficial effects felt all the way down to individuals surfing streaming sites.
As the pipes that transfer data around the world get fatter, more use cases will be discovered and more businesses and people will come online. India is well-placed to ride that cycle of growth and evolution.
