Tata Communications to invest $450 million in 10,000 km AI fibre network

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The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now. Read Today's Paper Tata Communications to invest $450 million in 10,000 km AI fibre networkBy Neil Ghai, ET BureauLast Updated: Oct 26, 2026, 11:46:00 PM ISTSynopsis

The project will be implemented in three phases spanning three to five years, subject to execution conditions, and funded through operating cash flows, Rupesh Chokshi, chief product and technology officer at Tata Communications told ET. The planned network will provide 7.2 petabytes of capacity.

New Delhi: Tata Communications plans to invest $400-450 million for laying 10,000 km of AI-ready fibre across India, starting with the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai corridor, to connect data centres and AI hubs.

The project will be implemented in three phases spanning three to five years, subject to execution conditions, and funded through operating cash flows, Rupesh Chokshi, chief product and technology officer at Tata Communications told ET. The planned network will provide 7.2 petabytes of capacity.

"We are comfortable in terms of the way we do the phasing; the way we work with our customers, we should be able to manage this," Chokshi said. "If we need to eventually do something, we will," he said when asked if the company will raise funds for the venture. Tata Communications posted 9.6% on-year growth in revenue in the September quarter at Rs 6,688 crore. Net profit surged 86% to Rs 341 crore, while free cash flows turned positive, reaching Rs 212 crore.

The company plans to expand its connectivity into data centre ecosystems in eastern and western India, including Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and Gujarat's GIFT City. The network will connect these hubs to international cable landing stations and complement Tata Communications' subsea cable infrastructure. Chokshi said the network was designed around "ultra-low latency", high capacity, and resilience to meet service-level requirements of hyperscalers, neocloud providers, and other enterprise customers. For the Mumbai-Chennai route, he said the company is targeting a round-trip latency of 15-16 milliseconds, using multiple fibre pairs and higher-grade fibre.

Large AI data-centre deployments are driving demand. Chokshi cited a dedicated network being built for Amazon Web Services and connectivity bought by a neocloud provider across Mumbai, Chennai and Singapore. "We are not just talking about 10 Gigawatts; we are talking about 400 GW, 800 GW," he said.

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As the network is deployed across multiple jurisdictions, Choskhi said the project will require careful planning around right-of-way permissions, monsoons and route adjustments.
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