Indian telecom giant Airtel will invest INR 5,000 crore (US$ 673 million) into its data centre business now rebranded as Nxtra.
Nxtra by Airtel aims to triple its data centre capacity to over 400 MW by 2025 to meet the surging demand coming from domestic and global customers and to prepare for 5G technology.
At present, it operates 10 large and 120 edge data centres in India and manages critical submarine landing stations.
“Airtel has built the largest data centre network in India and we are now doubling down on this business to scale up our network that will be at the core of 5G and Digital India,” Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business said.
Nxtra by Airtel is scaling up the use of green energy for its data centres and aims to source 50 percent of the power requirements of these centres through renewable sources as part of Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets.
The Indian data centre industry is expected to more than double its installed capacity from approximately 450 MW to 1074 MW by 2023.
A press release from the telecom giant said that sustainability will continue to be its big focus given the huge energy requirements of data centres. "Nxtra by Airtel is already aggressively scaling up the use of green energy for its data centres and aims to source 50% of the power requirements of these centres through renewable sources as part of Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets. Nxtra by Airtel also recently commissioned captive solar power plants in the state of Uttar Pradesh & Maharashtra with still more in the pipeline," it said.
