Bharti Airtel lands 2Africa Pearls subsea cable in India

Mumbai: 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 amidst surging data demand.

The 2Africa Pearls system, led by a consortium including Meta, center3 and Vodafone Group, is poised to become the world's longest subsea cable at over 45,000 km 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 and France through Egypt. "We will continue investing in global cable systems to deliver high uptime, reliability and a superior quality network to our customers," said Sharat Sinha, director and CEO, Airtel Business.

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 a network spanning over 400,000 route km across 50 countries and five continents.