Bandwidth landing in India set to double in 2 yrs
A race among telecom players to set up a silk route for telecom (between India and China), and a move to light-up additional capacity on submarine cables landing in India, would result in nearly doubling bandwidth capacity landing in India.
The increase in capacity will help bandwidth-intensive sectors like BPO, IT, banking and telecom, as the sectors increase their output and efficiency in servicing overseas customers.
India gets over 6 terabits of capacity from over 10 cable systems, including the consortium South-East-Asia Middle-East Western-Europe (SE-ME-WE) series, Tata-Indicom-Chennai cable, BSNL cable and Bharti-owned i2i, among others.
Last month, Reliance Communications (RCom) launched a terrestrial cable system through Nathu La (India-China border) to China, jointly with China Telecom. The cable, the first terrestrial one between the two countries, has a 50 GB lit-up capacity and provides connectivity between locations across India and China to countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Now, two other telecom companies, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications Ltd (TCL), are in the race to build similar cables connecting the two nations. This means traffic can be routed overland, instead of through multiple submarine cables, enabling better latency, according to a source.
When asked, a Bharti Airtel spokesperson confirmed the development: We are building a route to China that involves a high-speed, underground network on a highly resilient ring architecture. Also, this network will have two paths that will ensure complete redundancy (in telecom parlance, redundancy refers to fallback flexibility). We are in advanced stages of deployment and will announce the launch shortly. He, however, did not divulge further details.
TCL vice president (product management) of global transmission services, Ariane Moyes, also confirmed launch of the terrestrial route would happen in the next month or so. The industry expects these companies to launch terrestrial cables with 50 GB capacities each, to be hiked depending on demand.
Further, a move by Indian companies to release additional capacity on these cable systems would also release more bandwidth on the Indian leg. To begin with, TCL is upgrading consortium cables SEA-ME-WE-3, South Africa Far East/South Atlantic Telecommunications-3 (SAFE/SAT-3) and Asia-Pacific Cable Network-2 (APCN-2) by the end of the year. Its also planning to upgrade owned cable Tyco Global Network-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) submarine cable system by the latter half of the year, much ahead of its proposed upgradation next year.
TCL has also extended the Southeast Asian telecommunications cable (SEACOM) to India, and to countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa. This would also bring in additional capacity to the country.
In addition to these cables coming online, we are waiting for India-Middle-East Western Europe (I-ME-WE) and Tyco Global Network-Eurasia (TGN-EA) to be ready for service. Tata Communications is planning to double its capacity on four cable systems it largely owns or is a consortium member, Moyes said.
The upgrades and releasing of additional bandwidth is to meet an increased need from the market, while there is also a need for diversity within the Asia Pacific region, she added.
Bharti Airtel is the other Indian consortium partner on SEA-ME-WE and I-ME-WE. It would be also a part of hiking capacity.
Similarly, RCom is looking at doubling capacity on its two cable systems, FLAG and FALCON. Though the exact quantity of upgradation could not be ascertained, industry sources expect a minimum of 50 per cent more capacity being released on the sub-sea cables.
According to industry experts, though the doubling of capacity would not impact prices, as contracts are signed for long-term periods, like three to five years, the bandwidth starvation in the country would be put to rest.
Moyes concurs: We dont expect pricing to change significantly, as there are already multiple systems within the region and there is already effective pricing. Upgrading capacity is to cater to additional demand.
Importantly, this would help strengthen its presence as a back-office hub, while IT and banking (for ATMs) firms could provide better service.
A race among telecom players to set up a silk route for telecom (between India and China), and a move to light-up additional capacity on submarine cables landing in India, would result in nearly doubling bandwidth capacity landing in India.
The increase in capacity will help bandwidth-intensive sectors like BPO, IT, banking and telecom, as the sectors increase their output and efficiency in servicing overseas customers.
India gets over 6 terabits of capacity from over 10 cable systems, including the consortium South-East-Asia Middle-East Western-Europe (SE-ME-WE) series, Tata-Indicom-Chennai cable, BSNL cable and Bharti-owned i2i, among others.
Last month, Reliance Communications (RCom) launched a terrestrial cable system through Nathu La (India-China border) to China, jointly with China Telecom. The cable, the first terrestrial one between the two countries, has a 50 GB lit-up capacity and provides connectivity between locations across India and China to countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Now, two other telecom companies, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications Ltd (TCL), are in the race to build similar cables connecting the two nations. This means traffic can be routed overland, instead of through multiple submarine cables, enabling better latency, according to a source.
When asked, a Bharti Airtel spokesperson confirmed the development: We are building a route to China that involves a high-speed, underground network on a highly resilient ring architecture. Also, this network will have two paths that will ensure complete redundancy (in telecom parlance, redundancy refers to fallback flexibility). We are in advanced stages of deployment and will announce the launch shortly. He, however, did not divulge further details.
TCL vice president (product management) of global transmission services, Ariane Moyes, also confirmed launch of the terrestrial route would happen in the next month or so. The industry expects these companies to launch terrestrial cables with 50 GB capacities each, to be hiked depending on demand.
Further, a move by Indian companies to release additional capacity on these cable systems would also release more bandwidth on the Indian leg. To begin with, TCL is upgrading consortium cables SEA-ME-WE-3, South Africa Far East/South Atlantic Telecommunications-3 (SAFE/SAT-3) and Asia-Pacific Cable Network-2 (APCN-2) by the end of the year. Its also planning to upgrade owned cable Tyco Global Network-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) submarine cable system by the latter half of the year, much ahead of its proposed upgradation next year.
TCL has also extended the Southeast Asian telecommunications cable (SEACOM) to India, and to countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa. This would also bring in additional capacity to the country.
In addition to these cables coming online, we are waiting for India-Middle-East Western Europe (I-ME-WE) and Tyco Global Network-Eurasia (TGN-EA) to be ready for service. Tata Communications is planning to double its capacity on four cable systems it largely owns or is a consortium member, Moyes said.
The upgrades and releasing of additional bandwidth is to meet an increased need from the market, while there is also a need for diversity within the Asia Pacific region, she added.
Bharti Airtel is the other Indian consortium partner on SEA-ME-WE and I-ME-WE. It would be also a part of hiking capacity.
Similarly, RCom is looking at doubling capacity on its two cable systems, FLAG and FALCON. Though the exact quantity of upgradation could not be ascertained, industry sources expect a minimum of 50 per cent more capacity being released on the sub-sea cables.
According to industry experts, though the doubling of capacity would not impact prices, as contracts are signed for long-term periods, like three to five years, the bandwidth starvation in the country would be put to rest.
Moyes concurs: We dont expect pricing to change significantly, as there are already multiple systems within the region and there is already effective pricing. Upgrading capacity is to cater to additional demand.
Importantly, this would help strengthen its presence as a back-office hub, while IT and banking (for ATMs) firms could provide better service.
