MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel has completed the landing of the SEA-ME-WE-6 submarine cable in Chennai, following its earlier landing in Mumbai last December. The 21,700-kilometre system connects India with Singapore and Marseille, France, traversing Egypt via terrestrial routes.

The telecommunications provider worked with SubCom, the system's primary contractor, to complete both landings. The new cable will deliver 220 terabits per second of global capacity to India.

"This investment strengthens our secure, diverse and scalable global network," said Airtel Business director and chief executive Sharat Sinha. "Landing one of the largest cable systems into our facilities complements our existing network of 400,000 route-kilometres across 50 countries."

The cable will integrate with Nxtra by Airtel's data centres in Mumbai and Chennai, enabling global hyperscalers and businesses to access international connectivity and data centre services seamlessly.

As a consortium member, Airtel has invested in the main cable system and co-built a private network of four fibre pairs connecting Singapore, Chennai and Mumbai. 

The company's global network now includes investments in 34 submarine cables, with recent additions such as 2Africa, SJC2 and Equiano, linking India to key regions across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Its subsea network also includes i2i Cable Network, Europe India Gateway (EIG), IMEWE, SEA-ME-WE-4, AAG, Unity, EASSy, Gulf Bridge International (GBI), and the MENA Cable.