Airtel joins SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium

Bharti Airtel said on Monday it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium to scale up its high-speed global network capacity to serve India's fast-growing digital economy.

The 19,200 Rkm SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore and France, and will be amongst the largest undersea cable systems globally.

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, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

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-WE6 cable system in India at new landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai," the company statement said.

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 seamlessly integrated solutions and strengthen India's position as an emerging data centre hub in the region.

"Undersea cable systems along with data centres are vital infrastructure for supporting 5G and the digital economy. 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 centres," Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, said.

"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," he added.

Airtel global network spans over 365,000 Rkms and reaches 50 countries across five continents. Nxtra by Airtel, the data centre unit of Airtel, operates the largest network of data centres in India with 11 large and 120 edge data centres.

( With inputs from ANI )