MUMBAI: As artificial intelligence demands more computing power, Tata Communications is laying the groundwork to ensure the data does not get stuck in traffic. The company plans to invest close to $450 million in expanding India’s high-speed network infrastructure, adding around 10,000 kilometres of long-haul fibre to connect key data centre corridors across the country.
Announced on Monday, the expansion comes as businesses increase their use of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and other data-intensive services. While data centres provide the computing muscle behind these technologies, reliable, high-capacity networks are needed to move information between facilities, cloud providers and enterprise customers. Tata Communications is betting that this connectivity requirement will become a significant growth opportunity.
The planned network will link data centre clusters with cloud services companies, global capability centres (GCCs), banks and other organisations. By strengthening connections between major digital infrastructure hubs, the company aims to support workloads that require faster data transfers, greater network capacity and dependable connectivity.
The rollout will take place in three phases, beginning with the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai corridor. Subsequent phases will focus on the east coast and western India’s data centre ecosystems, including Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
The locations reflect the growing importance of connecting data centre clusters rather than treating each facility as an isolated digital island. As AI applications become more widespread, data may need to move between computing facilities, cloud platforms and business networks, making the links between them an increasingly important part of the infrastructure.
Tata Communications’ investment is aimed at strengthening those links. Long-haul fibre can provide the high-capacity connectivity required to carry large volumes of data between cities and data centre locations, supporting enterprise applications, cloud services and AI workloads. The company has not disclosed a detailed breakdown of the $450 million investment across the three phases in the announcement.
Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, managing director and CEO of Tata Communications, said the company sees a substantial opportunity in the data centre-to-data centre connectivity market, which it believes could grow into a market exceeding $1 billion over the medium term.
“With our planned investments, we are building on our existing strengths to create one of the most comprehensive data centre connectivity platforms in the market, positioning us to capture this significant growth opportunity,” he said.
The projected market opportunity is central to the expansion. As organisations deploy more AI tools and shift workloads to cloud environments, connectivity between data centres is becoming an important requirement alongside computing capacity and storage. Tata Communications is looking to strengthen its position in that segment as demand grows.
Rupesh Chokshi, chief product and technology officer, executive vice president and global business head of network services at Tata Communications, said the infrastructure supporting AI must deliver speed, scale and resilience.
“The AI economy needs more than compute. It needs a network built for speed, scale and resilience,” he said.
That distinction is becoming increasingly relevant as AI moves from experimentation into business operations. Training and running AI models can involve moving substantial volumes of data, while enterprise applications may rely on fast and dependable connections between users, cloud platforms and computing resources. Network capacity and reliability therefore become part of the wider infrastructure equation.
The proposed expansion also reflects the growing interdependence of India’s digital infrastructure. Data centres, cloud service providers, financial institutions and GCCs rely on connectivity to exchange information and run services across locations. Strengthening the fibre routes between these facilities could help businesses support increasingly data-heavy operations.
However, the commercial opportunity will depend on how quickly demand develops, how effectively the network is deployed and how successfully Tata Communications converts additional capacity into customer business. The company’s projected market size of more than $1 billion is an estimate of the opportunity over the medium term, rather than a forecast of revenue from the new network alone.
With around 10,000 kilometres of additional long-haul fibre planned across three phases, Tata Communications is placing a sizeable bet on the infrastructure beneath India’s AI ambitions. The investment may not be as visible as a new data centre or a new AI application, but it targets a critical part of the digital economy: ensuring that the growing volume of data can travel between the places where it is generated, processed and used.
