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Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJio), a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, is building two India-centric submarine cable systems jointly with global partners and submarine cable supplier SubCom, to support the growing data demand.
The two high-capacity and high-speed systems - India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) and India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) – will provide more than 200 TBPS of capacity over a network spanning more than 16,000 km. IAX is expected to be ready for service by mid-2023 and IEX in early 2024, RJio said in a statement.
The east-bound IAX cable will connect India to Asia-Pacific markets with connectivity from Mumbai and Chennai to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, while the west-bound IEX system will connect to Italy, landing in Savona, and with additional landing stations in the Middle East and North Africa.
“To meet the demands of streaming video, remote workforce, 5G, Internet of Things and beyond, RJio is taking a leadership role in the construction of the first of its kind, India-centric IAX and IEX subsea systems. Implementing these critical initiatives in the shadow of a global pandemic is a challenge, but the ongoing pandemic has only accelerated the digital transformation and the necessity of high-performance global connectivity for the delivery of a richer experience to enterprises and consumers,” RJio President Mathew Oommen said.
RJIo’s new cables will also interconnect with the world’s top inter-exchange points and content hubs to extend services globally. In addition, the cables will also be connected to the Reliance Jio Global Fiber Network beyond the Asia Pacific and Europe, connecting to both the east and west coast of the USA, it added.
The cables will employ open system technology, and the latest wavelength switched RoADM/branching units (equipment used in submarine cable systems to split them to serve more destinations) for rapid upgrading and flexibility to provide access to multiple locations.
They will enhance the ability of consumer and enterprise users to access content and cloud services in and out of India. In addition, these systems will place India at the centre of the global network map, recognising the country’s increased importance, staggering growth, and the quantum shift in data, it added.
At present, there are 20 sub-sea cables landing across Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Puducherry, among other places.
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