Airtel expands network capacity with Blue-Raman submarine cable: What is it

Airtel Business and Italy-based Sparkle have partnered to increase data capacity on the Blue-Raman undersea cable linking India and Italy. Blue-Raman is an intercontinental communications cable system

Airtel’s business-to-business arm, Airtel Business, and Italy-based connectivity service provider, Sparkle, on Thursday announced a partnership to expand their data capacity on the Blue-Raman undersea cable that connects India and Italy.

Through the agreement, Airtel aims to diversify its global network across various international submarine cable systems, the company said in an exchange filing. The move will help it bridge the demand for data services in India and neighbouring regions. The two companies also plan to collaborate on developing new business opportunities and projects within India, Airtel said.

On the partnership, Vani Venkatesh, CEO ‐ Global Business, Airtel Business said, “We are happy to partner with Sparkle as we further consolidate our leadership in global connectivity. This partnership will further diversify our network with large integrated capacities to meet the ever‐growing connectivity needs and data demand of our customers”.

Sharing similar sentiments, Enrico Bagnasco, chief of Sparkle said, “We are very pleased with this agreement, based on the new solution provided by Blue & Raman that supports the digital growth of the region and strengthens our historical partnership with Bharti Airtel.”

What are Blue-Raman undersea cable systems?

For context, Blue-Raman undersea cable systems refer to two submarine cable systems: the Blue Submarine Cable System, which connects Italy, France, Greece, and Israel; and the Raman Submarine Cable System, which connects Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India. The infrastructure has been built by Google in partnership with Sparkle.

Submarine cable systems are key international telecommunication links between countries, which are used for the transmission of data. They can offer transmission of the order of terabits per second (Tbps) and use optical fibre cables to operate. These cables carry data as electrical or optical signals.

The Raman cable is named after Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, first Indian and Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. Besides Blue and Raman, Google has a total of 16 investments in subsea cables around the world.