Tata Communications plans up to $450 million AI fiber network in India

Tata Communications plans to invest $400 million to $450 million in about 10,000 kilometers of new long-haul fiber linking India’s major AI and data-center corridors. The three-phase network build is a planned commitment rather than a completed deployment.

The first phase is set to cover the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai corridor. Tata Communications said later phases would extend into eastern and western India, including Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and GIFT City, but its announcement did not assign every later location to a numbered phase.

The company plans to connect domestic data-center hubs with international cable landing stations and integrate the terrestrial routes with its global backbone. It said the network is designed for hyperscalers, AI platforms, neocloud providers, technology companies and enterprises. That list describes intended customer groups, not confirmed users of the planned network.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, Tata Communications’ managing director and chief executive, said the Indian data-center-to-data-center connectivity market could exceed $1 billion over the medium term. The estimate is a company forecast, as are its claims that demand is unprecedented and that the project will support economic growth and strengthen India as a global AI gateway.

Tata Communications says its existing backbone spans more than 500,000 kilometers of subsea optical fiber and more than 200,000 kilometers of terrestrial fiber. The announcement did not provide a construction start date, phase completion dates or a deadline for the full network.