News

New submarine cable landing stations and data centres are set to make Andhra Pradesh India’s third major international digital gateway after Mumbai and Chennai.

Updates

  • ISEA Cable: Microsoft, Lightstorm, and Singtel plan to land the $3,600$-km India–Southeast Asia Cable System on the Andhra Pradesh coast.

  • Service Target: The ISEA system is expected to be ready during the fourth quarter of 2029.

  • Google Cable: Google’s America–India Connect system will land at Visakhapatnam beside the company’s planned data-centre complex.

  • New Gateway: Visakhapatnam will add a third concentrated subsea gateway after Mumbai and Chennai.

  • Terrestrial Network: The projects require thousands of kilometres of inland fibre connecting the coast with major Indian cities.

  • Supply Constraint: A global shortage of optical fibre and raw materials could slow the required inland rollout.

Significance

  • Route Diversity: An east-coast gateway reduces reliance on a small number of ageing routes concentrated around Mumbai and Chennai.

  • Digital Capacity: Direct international links can support cloud services, artificial intelligence workloads, government systems, and enterprises.

  • Regional Investment: Cable landings and data centres can attract allied fibre, power, cooling, and digital-service infrastructure to Andhra Pradesh.

About Submarine Communication Cables

  • Definition: These are fibre-optic cables laid on the seabed to carry digital traffic between countries.

  • Landing Station: A coastal landing station connects the undersea cable with terrestrial telecom networks.

  • Capacity Advantage: Fibre cables carry far more international data than satellites and usually provide lower latency.

About Data Centres

  • Function: Data centres house servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment used to process and deliver digital services.

  • Location Link: Proximity to cable landing stations can reduce latency and improve access to international bandwidth.

  • Resource Needs: Large facilities require reliable electricity, fibre connectivity, cooling systems, land, and physical security.