Key facts
- India's international internet bandwidth is heavily concentrated in a six-kilometer stretch on Mumbai's coast.
- At least 13 of India's 18 international cables are over 20 years old, approaching their end-of-life.
- India has only 1% of the world's submarine cable landing stations despite accounting for 20% of global data consumption.
- The country lacks domestic subsea cable-repair ships, leading to significant delays in fixing faults.
- Bureaucratic processes involving up to 16 agencies and 50 clearances hinder cable construction and repair.
India's burgeoning internet economy, fueled by cheap data and a rapidly expanding digital services sector, faces a significant vulnerability stemming from its reliance on a small number of undersea internet cables concentrated in a narrow coastal area of Mumbai.
These subsea cables, described as the internet's hidden highways, carry approximately 99% of global communication traffic. While India has become one of the world's largest internet markets with over a billion broadband subscribers projected by late 2025, its physical connection to the global network is disproportionately small. Experts note that only about 3% of the world's submarine cables land in India, which has just 21 cable landing stations compared to approximately 1,900 globally.
Adding to this vulnerability, at least 11 of India's 18 international cables are over 20 years old, nearing the end of their typical 25-year operational lifespan. While cable architecture allows for rerouting in case of a break, performance degradation due to even minor disruptions could prove costly for critical sectors like banking, stock exchanges, and government networks, with AI infrastructure being particularly sensitive to high-volume, high-speed data transfers.
A critical weakness highlighted is India's lack of domestic subsea cable-repair ships. Faults in Indian waters depend on foreign vessels from locations like Dubai or Singapore, and obtaining operating licenses can add weeks to an already lengthy repair process. This dependence on foreign repair capacity, coupled with regulatory lead times, represents a significant bottleneck.
Furthermore, the rapid build-out of data centers to support AI is increasing demand for fast, reliable global connectivity. However, planning and laying subsea cables takes years, potentially creating a lag between data center capacity and the necessary infrastructure. The process of obtaining clearances for cable construction and operation is also hampered by a fragmented governance structure involving up to 16 agencies and around 50 required approvals.
To address these issues, recommendations include streamlining approvals through a single-window system, pre-identifying and approving multiple landing sites, and developing predictable regulations. The government has recognized submarine cable systems as critical telecommunications infrastructure, which is expected to facilitate faster clearances and emergency repair mechanisms, alongside the development of an Indian repair capability and protected cable zones. Technologies like Distributed Acoustic Sensing are also being explored to detect threats to cables.