By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – Tata Communications on Monday announced that it plans to invest $400 million to $450 million over the next 3 to 5 years to develop a 10,000-km fibre-optic network across India.
The network aims to connect major data centres and artificial intelligence hubs as demand for high-speed digital infrastructure grows.
The network will offer a capacity of 7.2 petabytes, is expected to be among the country’s largest connectivity platforms designed specifically for AI workloads, the Tata Group company said in a statement.
The planned infrastructure will link to Tata Communications’ global network backbone, enabling high-capacity connectivity between data centres and AI hubs.
The company expects the network to support the growing requirements of next-generation AI applications through improved performance, reliability and scalability.
Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Communications, said, “India’s data centre-to-data centre connectivity market could grow to more than $1 billion over the medium term.”
“The planned investment would strengthen the company’s position in the segment, with a growing share of network expansion supported by commitments from anchor customers and contracted demand. This would help improve capital deployment and support sustainable growth,” he added.
The fibre network will be rolled out in three phases, covering key data centre corridors and emerging digital infrastructure hubs across the country.
The first phase will connect Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, a corridor that includes major data centre markets, international gateways and cable landing stations, the company said.
The second phase will extend connectivity along the Hyderabad-Vizag route and in Chennai.
Third phase will cover Bhubaneswar, Vizag, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar, expanding the network into eastern and western India.
The proposed expansion will also serve strategic locations such as GIFT City, Gujarat’s financial services hub, and other emerging data centre clusters.
Rupesh Chokshi, chief product and technology officer, executive vice-president and global business head for Network Services at Tata Communications said the company would finance the investment through its operating cash flows.
Tata Communications is in discussions with a range of potential customers, including hyperscalers, emerging cloud infrastructure providers, AI platforms, advanced AI model developers, technology companies, software-as-a-service providers and large enterprises adopting AI, Chokshi said.
The company intends to offer the network commercially to multiple customers through long-term leasing arrangements rather than reserving capacity for its own use or a limited set of clients, it concluded.
