Tata Communications Plans $152 Million India-Singapore Subsea Cable Expansion

Tata Communications Ltd will invest $152 million to add subsea cable capacity between India and Singapore, strengthening one of Asia’s busiest digital routes as AI, cloud computing and data center traffic rises, the company said.

The spending will link Mumbai and Chennai more closely with Singapore, a major cloud and AI hub in the region.

Tata Communications said the investment is aimed at strengthening capacity for enterprise, cloud and hyperscaler traffic moving between India, Southeast Asia and global markets.

The plan has two parts.

The company will invest $63 million in the MIST cable system in FY2027, adding about 20 Tbps of capacity between Mumbai and Singapore. It will also put $89 million into Project CS, a consortium subsea cable system connecting Chennai with Singapore, from FY2027 to FY2031.

Project CS is expected to add about 78 Tbps of capacity.

Tata Communications plans to fund the investment through internal accruals, without raising fresh debt or equity.

The company said the Chennai-Singapore cable is expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2029.

Other market reports, citing company disclosures, said the MIST system is expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of FY2027, while Project CS is targeted for the third quarter of FY2031.

The new systems will plug into Tata Communications’ terrestrial fiber network in India and connect onward to more than 100 data centers across the country.

The company said the added capacity will support its enterprise connectivity products, including data center and multi-cloud services.

“As global demand for digital and AI-driven services continues to accelerate, these investments reinforce our commitment to building future-ready digital infrastructure at scale,” said Genius Wong, executive vice-president for core and next-generation connectivity services and Chief Technology Officer at Tata Communications.

The expansion adds to Tata Communications’ global network, which the company says spans more than 500,000 km of subsea optical fiber and more than 200,000 km of terrestrial fiber.

In 2025, it integrated the TGN IA2 submarine cable to improve latency, redundancy and network diversity across Asia.

The investment comes as India’s data center market expands on the back of cloud migration, AI workloads, video traffic and rising enterprise demand for lower-latency international routes.

Singapore remains one of the region’s most important connectivity hubs, although land and power constraints have pushed companies to look more closely at routes linking it with India and other Southeast Asian markets.

Separately, Tata Communications announced leadership changes in its network, cloud and cybersecurity businesses.

Rupesh Chokshi has been appointed executive vice-president, global business head for network services and chief technology officer, effective August 1. He will join the company on July 6 as designate to ensure a transition.

Chokshi will replace Wong, whose resignation as executive vice-president for core and next-generation connectivity services and CTO takes effect on July 31.

Chokshi was most recently senior vice-president and general manager of application security at Akamai Technologies.

Tata Communications said he has more than 25 years of experience across networking, cloud connectivity, cybersecurity and software-defined platforms, including senior roles at AT&T.

The company also appointed Vivek Srivastava as executive vice-president and business head for cloud and cybersecurity services, effective August 17.

Srivastava is joining from Fortinet, where he is country manager for India and the SAARC region. He has also held leadership roles at CrowdStrike, Cisco and IBM.

Both executives will join Tata Communications’ Global Management Committee.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tata Communications, said Chokshi’s experience in next-generation networks and AI-led infrastructure, and Srivastava’s background in cloud and cybersecurity, would help the company serve “as the operating backbone for enterprise AI needs.”