Architecting India’s Telecom Future with Digital Infrastructure

India's telecom industry is the second largest in the world, with 1.18 billion subscribers (wireline and wireless combined) as of December 2021.<1> Government efforts and initiatives have helped strengthen India's domestic telecom manufacturing capacity, and the industry has seen rapid growth. In order to meet the constant demand for high-speed networks, the telecom sector has continued to expand its network capacity with additional fiber and wireless deployments. India’s telecom industry has grown exponentially thanks to low-cost tariffs, increased access to the internet, implementation of mobile number portability (MNP), expansion of 3G and 4G coverage, alterations in subscriber consumption patterns, and favorable regulatory environments.

Over the past few years, major telecom stakeholders are working together to ensure the country transitions from legacy infrastructure to next-generation digital infrastructure, which will serve as the foundation for the future digital economy. However, when the pandemic abruptly pushed classroom instruction, healthcare, and the workplace for many online, the digital divide across the world, including India, was exacerbated and those without high-speed internet were unable to participate.

The data center has been playing a key part in shaping how network service providers (NSPs) and internet services providers (ISPs) built the public internet. At Equinix, we have worked together with business partners including thousands of NSPs, ISPs, and cloud service providers (CSPs), to provide global access to critical cloud-based services such as telehealth and online learning at speeds that make those services successful. NSPs can partner with Equinix by leveraging our data centers as a reliable, cost-effective interconnection hub to flatten their network architecture and access an expansive ecosystem of service providers (clouds, SaaS, ISPs, other NSPs, etc.) in one place, improving the user experience.

Telecom reforms usher in a new era for India's digital ambitions

In keeping with the growing demand for 5G, the budget 2022 announced a timeline for the roll-out of 5G mobile services.  This measure, along with the announcement of 5G spectrum sale for this year, will have a positive impact on the data center industry. Many sectors like education, finance, entertainment and e-commerce, as well as work from anywhere, are highly dependent on digital ecosystem, which will drive the demand for data centers and digital infrastructure.

Giving data centers infrastructure status in the budget represents a highly progressive measure to accelerate growth of digital infrastructure in the country. This announcement is a recognition of the importance of data centers and the need to boost financing required for this highly capital-intensive industry.  With India’s geographical location advantage, existing and upcoming undersea cable links, access to skilled resources and a growing domestic demand, coupled with states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh rolling out data center incentive policies, and now with the infrastructure industry status, India is well-positioned to grow as one of the most important hubs in South Asia and will play a key role in the global data centers market in the future.

However, dark fiber has become a hot commodity as cloud computing platforms attempt to expand their network capacities to deliver data across their massive data center campuses. Many companies have taken advantage of this opportunity by deploying new dark fiber routes to connect major nearby data centers around the world. For data center companies, dark fiber provides a very viable option to provide inter-campus connectivity to customer who have infrastructure distributed in multiple data centers in the vicinity. Dark fiber is often cheaper for high bandwidth (100gbps) connectivity

Currently, dark fiber can only be used in India by IP-1 registered companies or licensed TSPs/ISPs. Dark fiber cannot be provided to enterprises that do not have a telecom license and enterprises and licensed service providers are not clear if they can provide dark fiber to enterprises. So, enterprises are forced to buy lit bandwidth which is expensive especially for connectivity between nearby Datacenters. Monthly cost difference between dark fiber and lit bandwidth can be 8-10 times for 100Gbps over a short distance.

Moreover, the industry reports, that neither TSP nor IP1 can provide the infrastructure needed to set up data connectivity between nearby data centers which requires several hundred pairs of high-quality dark fiber. Equinix deployed 864 core fiber cable to connect the two nearby data centers in Chandivali, Mumbai. This was the  first deployment of such a cable in India . So, there is a need for new players to come in and make these specific investments.

The mentioned restrictions and unavailability of dark fiber pose a host of practical challenges and limit the expansion of data centers in India. Equinix provides such dark fiber services between its own data centers in the same city in multiple countries. In order to make India a digital hub, the current regulatory regime for deployment of dark fiber in India needs to be re-examined. By easing these requirements for data centers, investors will be attracted and competition will increase in this segment.

Equinix Digital-ready solutions for service providers

When 5G becomes ubiquitous, the way in which IP traffic moves between networks around the world will change drastically, and data centers that are interconnected will play a crucial role in this new 5G future. Equinix's approach to digital infrastructure allows access to a large ecosystem of end-users and service providers. In order to develop new 5G technologies and services, companies need to test and bring their concepts to life in a real-world environment. With Equinix's ecosystem of service providers, partners, and clouds, the 5G and Edge Technology Development Center is ideal for customers to fully test their concepts in a real environment, thus facilitating the introduction of new capabilities, accelerating adoption, and delivering new revenues.

Expanded interconnection connectivity from Equinix provides customers across India with access to Platform Equinix, delivering connectivity to carriers and cloud service providers all over the world. Equinix also brings a rich ecosystem of more than 350 customers into India’s extensive business ecosystem, including international brands and key local players. Equinix also helps service providers address the concerns of Indian enterprises and multinationals to extend their capabilities to the rest of the world, regardless of where they are located.  In addition, Equinix is planning to introduce more interconnection and digital services in India, including Equinix Connect, Metro Connect and Equinix Fabric^TM, to help Indian businesses more easily and flexibly build their digital infrastructure and seamlessly interconnect with cloud, customers and partners, or their own infrastructure across the global platform.

Building the Metaverse Muscle

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the global metaverse revenue opportunity will reach $800 billion in 2024, up from roughly $500 billion in 2020<2>.  There is an enormous opportunity for Metaverse in India, but it must be backed by safe, scalable and reliable solutions. Equinix has the global presence, partner ecosystem and technical resources needed to make the metaverse a reality. With more than 240 Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers in 66 major metros worldwide, Equinix helps customers ramp up the distributed infrastructure they need to deliver metaverse capabilities to end users—no matter where those end users are located. In addition, Equinix Global Solutions Architects design and plan the IT infrastructures of companies to enable new capabilities and maximize ROI, helping businesses get a winning formula for the metaverse.

Winning in the Digital Economy

With India preparing to roll out 5G, companies can take advantage of Equinix's digital capabilities to rapidly digitalize and scale their infrastructure, and interconnect with more than 350 international brands and local companies in India.  As one of the largest economies in Asia-Pacific, India presents unparalleled possibilities in the digital age. We will continue to support the digital revolution in India and we are committed to helping businesses to leap forward domestically and globally.

Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India