Subsea Cable Infrastructure in India: Hubs, Working & Importance

Explore India’s subsea cable infrastructure, including Mumbai, Chennai and emerging Visakhapatnam hubs, how submarine cables work, key features and strategic importance.

Table of Contents

Context

Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is emerging as India’s third major international subsea cable landing hub, after Mumbai and Chennai, supported by growing data-centre investments.\

About Subsea Cables

Nature: Networks of fibre-optic cables laid on the seabed that carry the vast majority of international internet and data traffic.
Purpose: Provide high-capacity, low-latency and reliable international digital connectivity between countries.

Major Indian Landing Hubs

Mumbai: Major western gateway connecting India with Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Chennai: Major eastern gateway connecting India with Southeast and East Asia.
Visakhapatnam: Emerging third international landing hub on India’s east coast.

How Subsea Cables Work?

Light Transmission: Digital data is converted into light pulses and transmitted through optical fibres.
Signal Boosting:Repeaters placed along the cable route amplify signals over long distances.
Cable Landing Station: Cables reach the shore at a Cable Landing Station (CLS), where signals are processed and connected to terrestrial networks.
Data Distribution: CLSs connect international cables with data centres, cloud infrastructure and national fibre networks.

Key Features

High Capacity: Provides much greater bandwidth and lower latency than satellite-based international connectivity.
Protection: Cables have protective layers and stronger armouring near coastal areas to reduce damage from external activity.
Route Diversity: Multiple cable routes improve network resilience by allowing traffic to shift when one route is disrupted.
Strategic Infrastructure: Increasingly important for cloud computing, AI workloads and digital economies.
Applications: Supports global internet services, cloud computing, AI data transfer, financial transactions, data-centre connectivity and secure government communications.