WCA March 2020

India Insight

India

Insight

Connection for secure development

He emphasised that submarine cables will “bridge the digital divide” between the mainland and the islands, while also ensuring low-cost development and transformation to the local economy. “The current option of connectivity via satellite is expensive and fails to provide robust connectivity, but the OFC will be able to boost economic activity by providing equitable, affordable Internet access for all.” NEC Technologies www.nec.com Tell us YOUR news. . . To submit news for the India Insight section free of charge, email david@intras.co.uk or call direct on +44 1926 334137.

THE archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar islands, off India’s east coast, will benefit from the installation of a 2,250km subsea optic fibre cable (OFC) between Chennai and Port Blair. Pre-laying activities began in November 2019 and the cable is expected to be completed by June. The islands are currently connected to the Indian mainland via a satellite link, and suffer from limited bandwidth capacity (3.2Gbps) and high latency (delay). The optic fibre cable will provide 400Gbps at its initial stage of commissioning. Work will carried out by NEC Technologies of Japan. Speaking at the project’s inauguration, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad commented: “The tip of this sophisticated OFC cable is barely the size of a needle, and it has layers of thick protective coating around it, so [it] can’t even be damaged by sharks.”

Bigstockphoto.com “Taj Mahal sunset silhouette in Agra, India” Photographer: David Evison

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