Global Cloud Xchange to set up new Mumbai-Singapore cable system
19 Jun 2014
Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), the submarine cable unit of Reliance Communications' (RCom), is to launch a new sub-sea cable system connecting Mumbai to Singapore. GCX, together with its partners, will invest a total of $200 million in the cable system.
The new ICX cable is part of the company's strategy to provide a direct sub-sea route to bridge an important gap in the emerging markets corridor, specifically delivering a direct Mumbai-Singapore route to bypass current outage prone terrestrial routes between Mumbai and Chennai.
''With Singapore as a regional hub and gateway for multinational companies doing business across India and emerging markets, the ICX cable will complement our GCX global network infrastructure for direct connectivity to major business centers in Asia, Middle East, North America and Europe,'' said Bill Barney, chief executive officer at GCX.
Based on the 100G technology, ICX cable will be a four fiber pair system with initial design capacity per fiber pair at 80 x 100G using next generation coherent submarine fibre. This new segment will deliver termination into the Middle East, Europe and to the US East Coast through interconnection with GCX's Falcon, Hawk and FA1 cable systems.
''The new ICX fibre system, which runs about 5,060 km between Mumbai and Singapore, will also have a branch landing in Trivandrum or Chennai. This will support creation of a next generation IP and cloud environment held together with a single AS number and connecting into tier III data centre facilities on the ground,'' said Wilfred Kwan, chief operating officer, Global Cloud Xchange.
According to TeleGeography Research Director Alan Mauldin, ''India's international bandwidth demand requirements will increase over 10-fold between 2013 and 2020.''
The new ICX system will be ready for service in Q2 of 2016 to fill key gaps as bandwidth requirements continue to increase.
Submarine cable vendors and additional partners for the ICX subsea cable are being finalised. Global Cloud Xchange will announce the award of the supply contract by the third quarter of 2014.