Telcos navigate subsea cable risks; Centre asks for analysis, fallback options as war rages

Mumbai | New Delhi: The Centre has asked telecom companies and subsea cable operators to draw up a risk analysis of India’s exposure stemming from any damage that may be caused to the critical data pipelines that crisscross the oceans and come up with fallback options as war rages in West Asia, said people aware of the matter.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has held meetings with industry executives to arrive at contingency plans amid Iran’s threats against undersea cables as the Strait of Hormuz is a conduit for a third of India’s westward traffic to and from the US and Europe, said the people cited. While some of this can be routed through Singapore, that won’t be enough to carry the entire load. Also, alternative routes will be costly with rates having risen manifold as hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) are gobbling up capacity.

The Pacific route is also longer than that of the Atlantic.


This will impact latency and processing speeds, experts said.

“The government is actively engaging with stakeholders to assess the risks arising from India’s dependence on subsea cables through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea,” said Harsha Ram, head of network business at Sify Technologies. “Any disruption or cable cuts could degrade critical services, leading to financial transaction failures, e-commerce disruptions, social media outages, and broader impact on IT and GCC operations. However, the chances of a complete blackout are slim as most service providers have adequate resilience built in."

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Tata Communications and Google didn’t respond to queries.

“The government has been engaging with the industry as the situation is unprecedented,” said an executive with one of the subsea cable firms. “Firms usually plan some extra capacity as a contingency measure for damages or minor cuts, but nobody planned for a war situation.”

ET reported earlier this month that cable repair ships in the region have been forced to halt work due to security risks. This has impacted maintenance on Airtel’s SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) and I-ME-WE (IMEWE) systems as well as Flag Telecom’s FALCON, which were cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Tata Communications’ TATA TGN-Gulf and Airtel’s Africa Pearls cable systems are also exposed to risk of damage. Several new subsea cables, including Reliance Jio’s India-Europe-Express and India-Asia-Express, and Google’s Dhivaru are also under construction along this corridor. The immediate task for the industry is to safeguard infrastructure and ensure that any damage is quickly repaired, for which it needs support from the government in getting the requisite approvals.

DATA CENTRE PLANS HIT
Prolonged business disruption could potentially delay India’s $270 billion data centre ambitions, which are dependent on enhancing India’s subsea connectivity. For instance, cables such as Meta Platforms’ Waterworth and Google’s Blue-Raman are planned to land on Indian shores. On his recent visit to New Delhi, Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai had unveiled the India-America Connect initiative to establish new subsea cable routes.

The industry has asked the government to negotiate with Iran to avert any threat to subsea cable infrastructure. Executives expressed optimism about an outcome given that some India-bound vessels have been allowed by the Iranian regime to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.