India Must Build 10x More Cable Landing Stations To Compete In Global Data Race: TRAI Chief

India needs to expand its subsea cable landing stations tenfold to keep pace with surging data demand and stake its claim as a global digital hub, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said on Tuesday.

A Cable Landing Station (CLS) is a point where undersea fiber optic cables, transmitting international telecommunications and internet traffic, link to terrestrial networks, serving as a gateway for data flow in and out of a country.

He emphasized that this expansion is crucial for positioning India as a global leader in the submarine cable network.

“While these developments are promising, experts argue that India still lags behind in submarine cable infrastructure. Currently, the country accounts for just 1% of the world’s cable landing stations, whereas experts suggest this should increase by 10 times to strengthen India’s position as a global digital hub”, added Lahoti. 

“With the exponential rise in internet demand, international connectivity has become more crucial than ever.India emerging as the key player in the global submarine cable ecosystem, with 17 international submarine cables across 16 different administrative regions. By the end of 2024, India’s total submarine cable capacity stood at 193 Tbps (Tera-bits per second), with an activated capacity of 148 Tbps”, added TRAI Chairman. 

He also mentioned the recent major landings include cables from Myanmar and Malaysia, successfully established in Mumbai and Chennai  and successful landing of new-generation submarine cable systems such as SMW-6 (South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6) and SCA (Singapore-Chennai-Amsterdam) in 2024.

India’s submarine communication cable market is expected to grow at a much faster rate, with a CAGR of 19.4% during the forecast period. The country holds a significant market share in the South Asia and Pacific region and has strong potential to become a regional digital hub.

However, India subsea cable infrastructure faces several challenges, including lengthy construction timelines, higher failure risks, and vulnerabilities to disruptions. Also, Laying and maintaining submarine cables in India requires approval from multiple authorities due to security concerns and regulatory compliance.

TRAI Chairman also  emphasised that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed a comprehensive regulatory framework to streamline submarine cable licensing and operations in the country. The key recommendations include the categorization of Cable Landing Stations (CLS) into Main CLS, which will be responsible for managing submarine cables and handling all regulatory approvals, and CLS Point of Presence (CLS PoP), which will serve as secondary stations required to comply with security and operational regulations.”

Lahoti was speaking at the First Sub-Sea Cable System Conference in India organised by Broadband India Forum in New Delhi. The conference witnessed several stakeholders from the telecom sector including officials from TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and DoT (Department of Telecommunication. 

According to the stakeholders participating in the conference, India is a crucial market for sub-sea cable network as there are potential opportunities right from manufacturing the cable to executing the cable network.