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Tata Communications said that its newly announced 10,000km terrestrial fiber network across India is intended to add route diversity, resiliency and fiber availability across strategic digital corridors, connecting data center clusters to global routes.

"Most terrestrial networks in the market were built for general enterprise and consumer traffic. They were not planned around AI data center clusters," said Rupesh Chokshi, Tata Communications' chief product and technology officer, executive vice president and global business head for network services, in an interview with Light Reading. "AI is changing what a network has to carry. Training and inference workloads move far more data between data centers than traditional enterprise or cloud traffic did, and they are far less tolerant of latency."

The company is solely bankrolling the multi-phase long-haul fiber network, with an investment of between $400 million and $450 million. It is funding the project through its operating cash flows.

The first phase of the program will focus on the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai corridor, one of India's most important AI and hyperscale growth routes. Subsequent phases will expand connectivity into emerging East Coast and Western India data center ecosystems, including Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar, GIFT City and other strategic locations.

According to Chokshi, the planned fiber network is designed to carry a total capacity of over 7,200 Tbit/s. It will be deployed using advanced dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology paired with state-of-the-art coherent optics. The system is being built from the ground up to support the scale, speed and latency requirements of next-generation AI workloads.

The planned system will be integrated with Tata Communications' global network backbone, which consists of more than 500,000km of subsea optical fiber and over 200,000km of terrestrial fiber.

Chokshi pointed out that, by linking key AI corridors and data center clusters with international cable landing stations, Tata Communications will enable seamless connectivity between India and major global AI hubs.

"This buildout provides control across subsea, backbone, metro, and data center connectivity as an alternative to relying on leased capacity," he explained. "Because we own and operate the fabric end to end, we can design for performance, resilience and data residency together. As US and other global companies expand AI and cloud operations in India, they need reliable and high-capacity connectivity. This gives a clear answer on how to connect workloads, reach users fast and meet local data requirements."

Strengthening India's position as an AI hub

Tata Communications' latest infrastructure investment aims to strengthen India's emergence as a global AI and cloud connectivity gateway.

"It will enable global hyperscalers, digital platforms and multinational enterprises to scale their operations in India with confidence as the country enters its next phase of digital transformation," Chokshi said. "The goal is to build the country's infrastructure and readiness for the global AI economy."

The company did not disclose the project timeline, but according to Submarine Cable Networks, the new terrestrial long-haul fiber network will be built over the next three to five years. Commercial entry and the initial revenue contribution are expected in FY2028-2029, with scaling through FY2030-2036.

Once operational, the new system is expected to generate business opportunities in India's data center connectivity sector, which is predicted to be worth over $1 billion within the next few years.

Over the last 16 months, Tata Communications has invested in improving its infrastructure assets, particularly its submarine cables. In June 2026, it enhanced its Tata Global Network capabilities by planning a new subsea cable system between Mumbai and Singapore, and by investing as a consortium member in a new subsea cable system connecting Chennai to Singapore, which is expected to be ready for service in Q4 2029.

In 2025, the company integrated the Tata Global Network-Intra-Asia 2 (TGN IA2) submarine cable into the original TGN-IA cable system, thereby increasing the capacity of the intra-Asia network operated by Tata Communications.