• Amazon Web Services (AWS) has datacentre and edge infrastructure in three locations across India
• Tata Communications is deploying a 7.2 Tbit/s datacentre interconnect (DCI) network to connect the AWS facilities that is being touted as a “backbone for AI”
• The deployment is part of a growing AI infrastructure trend that should benefit telcos and optical network infrastructure vendors alike

Mumbai-based Tata Communications is to build an “advanced AI-ready network” for Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will connect the hyperscaler’s three main infrastructure facilities in India across 18,000km of fibre routes boasting network capacity of 7.2 Tbit/s. 

Tata Comms, which is well known for its long distance and international networks that connect more than 7,000 enterprises to critical cloud and other infrastructure around the world, is to construct a long-distance, “high capacity” network that will interconnect connect AWS datacentre regions in Mumbai (west coast) and Hyderabad (south east) and AWS Direct Connect and AWS Edge Network infrastructure in Chennai (south-east coast).

The Mumbai datacentre region comprises three availability zones (each availability zone has one or more discrete datacentres), while the Hyderabad region also has three availability zones.

According to Tata Comms, the new private line network, which will be one of the operator’s “largest ever network deployments [in India] in terms of size, scale and bandwidth”, will “bolster generative AI adoption and cloud innovation in India” and “further empower Indian businesses to develop Gen AI applications and train AI models, with unprecedented speed and efficiency.” Tata Comms noted in this filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that it is to invest 4.3bn rupees ($50m) in the network, which is set to be ready for commercial deployment by the end of the current financial year that ends  in March 2026. 

The network will be designed to provide the capacity needed for AI and machine learning workloads, featuring “express routes with ultra-low latency”, while AWS will “deploy its custom network technologies on this network, enabling industry-leading security, availability, and performance between AWS locations”. 

“This association marks our largest ever National Long-Distance program and showcases Tata Communications’ unparalleled capability to support large-capacity, complex projects requiring scaled network solutions,” stated Genius Wong, executive VP for Core and Next-Gen Connectivity Services and CTO at Tata Communications. “AI is transforming industries globally, and our collaboration with AWS positions us at the forefront of this revolution in India. Together, we’re enabling a network that not only meets the current demands but anticipates the needs of tomorrow. By building a tailored network solution we’re ushering in an AI era in India, reinforcing our position as the long-term partner of choice for global technology leaders.”

Jesse Dougherty, VP for Network Edge Services at AWS, added: “We are excited to work with Tata Communications to establish an advanced in-country network in India. The infrastructure is designed to support the most data intensive workloads, like 5G, generative AI, and high-performance computing. This collaboration with Tata Communications will further enable our customers in India to innovate at scale with cloud and generative AI, and drive growth in India’s rapidly expanding digital economy.”

The network deployment ties in with a growing trend in the global telecom sector – an increase in capex for either new networks, or additional capacity/upgrades, to support the increasing volumes of data traffic generated by AI/ML workloads. The trend has been most noticeable in the US with the announcements during the past year from Lumen Technologies and Zayo, which is not surprising as the US is home to many of the world’s largest datacentres and the location for a lot of new datacentre construction. But as we point out in our new DSP Leaders Report, Trends in telco AI Infrastructure, there are examples too in Europe – for example, Arelion in the Nordics and Neos Networks in the UK – and in Asia – for example, HKT in Hong Kong.  

The trend should provide new revenue-generating opportunities for such operators and for the optical network infrastructure equipment vendor community as well: Indeed, research firm Dell’Oro Group has just reported that it expects the value of the optical transport equipment sector to grow at an average annual rate of 5% for the next five years, reaching $19bn by 2029, thanks in part to growing demand from DCI builds. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV