After SEA-ME-WE-6, Airtel lands 2Africa Pearls subsea cable in India

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has landed the 2Africa Pearls subsea cable in India, connecting the country directly to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and strengthening its global subsea cable portfolio.

The 2Africa Pearls system, led by a consortium including Meta, center3, Vodafone Group is poised to become the world’s longest subsea cable at over 45,000 kilometers once fully deployed. Airtel serves as the landing partner for the Indian leg of the cable bringing over 100 Tbps (terabits per second) capacity.

Last month, Airtel also landed the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable in Chennai and Mumbai connecting India, Singapore, France through Egypt.

“We are thrilled to bring the 2Africa Pearls cable to India, adding to our network resilience,” said Sharat Sinha, Director & CEO – Airtel Business. “We will continue investing in global cable systems to deliver high uptime, reliability, and a superior quality network to our customers.”

The broader 2Africa consortium includes key global telecom and tech players like Bayobab, China Mobile International, Orange, Telecom Egypt, and WIOCC. Alcatel Submarine Networks is responsible for manufacturing and deploying the cable system.

Airtel now holds investments in 34 subsea cable systems globally with network spanning over 400,000 route kilometers across 50 countries and five continents.

The Indian coastline has lately become a key focal point of global undersea cable providers, witnessing fresh investments from large telecom and tech companies.

ET reported earlier that Google is set to commission its Blue-Raman submarine cable system in Mumbai this quarter. Last month, Meta announced the ‘Waterworth’ project–the world’s longest subsea cable connecting five continents with landings in India.

Meanwhile, telecom operator Reliance Jio is also set to commission the India-Asia-Express (IAX) and India-Europe-Express (IEX) submarine cable systems, expanding India’s existing capacity significantly.