Airtel Brings 2Africa Pearls Cable to India - 100Tbps Capacity

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has brought submarine cable system 2Africa Pearls to Indian shores, connecting the country's communication network with Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, the company said on Thursday.

2Africa Pearls cable system will bring over 100 tbps (terabits per second) of international capacity to India, it said.

"We are thrilled to bring the 2Africa Pearls cable to India, adding to our network resilience. We are aggressively diversifying our global network and recently landed the SEA-WE-ME-6 cable in Chennai and Mumbai. We will continue investing in global cable systems and future-proof our network with an aim to deliver high uptime, reliability, and superior quality networks to our customers," Airtel Business Director and CEO Sharat Sinha said in the statement.

The submarine cables are a key infrastructure that connect countries with each other for broadband services.

There are around 650 submarine cable systems across the world, of which 570 are estimated to be operational.

Airtel is the landing partner for the 2Africa Pearls cable in India.

2Africa Pearls is a part of the 2Africa cable system, which will be the world's longest subsea cable system when completed, spanning over 45,000 kilometers connecting Asia to Africa and Europe through the Middle East, the statement said.

The 2Africa cable system is led by a consortium of Bayobab, center3, China Mobile International, Meta, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC, while Alcatel Submarine Networks is responsible for manufacturing and installation of the cable.