Airtel joins undersea cable consortium to scale high-speed internet

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Monday announced that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium to scale up its global network capacity to serve India's growing digital economy.

The SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore and France, and will be amongst the largest undersea cable systems globally.

"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 centers. 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," Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business said.

Airtel 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, the company claims.


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, Telin (Indonesia).

Through SEA-ME-WE-6 Airtel will add a significant amount of 100 TBps capacity to its global network. Airtel has acquired one Fiber 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 fully integrated with Nxtra by Airtel's large Data Centres in Mumbai and Chennai to enable global hyperscalers and businesses to access seamless integrated solutions. - IANS