Japan’s NTT Data announced on Monday that its long-awaited Malaysia, India, Singapore Transit (MIST) subsea cable system will be commissioned by June this year as it also outlined plans to double its data centre capacity in India over the next few years.
The 8,100-km MIST cable – which connects Malaysia, India, Singapore and Thailand – sports 12 fibre pairs with a design capacity of over 200 Tbps. The cable is owned by Orient Link (OLL), a joint venture formed by NTT, the Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc. (JICT) and WEN Capital.
MIST has been in the works since 2019, when NTT announced the project as part of its strategy to connect its data centres in Singapore, Myanmar and India. NEC was contracted to build the cable in 2020. The cable was initially scheduled to be ready for service in the third quarter of FY2022.
NTT Data’s MIST update came amid a broader announcement of its plans to invest in AI and infrastructure investments in India, which has two landing points for the MIST cable – one in Chennai and the other in Mumbai. NEC connected the cable to both landing stations in 2023.
According to Nikkei Asia, NTT plans to invest US$1.5 billion in India over the three-years period to FY2027 to double its data centre capacity in the country.
NTT Data currently has 21 data centres in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru with a total IT load capacity of 290MW. The company intends to expand that to 30 data centres with a combined capacity of 700MW by 2027, the report said.
NTT president and CEO Akira Shimada said in a statement that India is one of its top-ten revenue-generating markets. “India is key in our global strategy, fuelled by its rapid economic and digital expansion,” he said.
“Our US$3 billion investment in India's digital infrastructure over the last decade reflects our confidence in the region's exceptional talent and robust tech ecosystem, added NTT Data CEO Abhijit Dubey.
NTT Data also said it is implementing its Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) – its next-gen all-photonics network (APN) technology – to interconnect its data centres in Mumbai. The company said the IOWN delivers higher performance data transmission at lower costs. NTT Data plans to sell the technology to other organisations globally by 2030 to meet demand for AI driven global data volumes.
Meanwhile, NTT Data also announced that it’s upgrading and expanding its Innovation Centre in Bengaluru. The centre will focus on AI, digital twin and quantum computing projects.
