Indian press reports are suggesting that the Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) submarine cable systems project is expected to be completed by 2020.
Work to install the 2,300-km undersea optical submarine cable system for high-speed internet, connecting Andamans and Nicobar Islands to mainland India through Chennai, will begin in December. Chennai, on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal in south India, is the capital of Tamil Nadu. The union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands) is in the Bay of Bengal.
Japan’s NEC Corporation has been contracted by India’s state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to design, engineer, supply, install, test and implement the cable system.
Telecommunications services in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (ANI) are dependent on satellite connectivity and have access to limited bandwidth. It has been suggested that the cable system will provide the islands with enough bandwidth to support voice and data connectivity and the potential implementation of e-governance initiatives.
NEC Corporation will manufacture the optical submarine cable at its facility in Japan and provide technical assistance during the turnkey implementation.
