India's Internet Boom Is Risking a Critical Undersea Weakness

Concentration of Power, Concentration of Risk

One of the most striking features of India's digital infrastructure is how concentrated it is. At least 13 of India's 18 intercontinental submarine cables land within a six-kilometre stretch along Mumbai's Versova beach. This geographic clustering isn't just an oddity—it's a fundamental vulnerability in a system that carries about 95% of India's international bandwidth to Europe, Africa, and West Asia.

For context, consider that these undersea cables are the internet's hidden highways—bundles of optical fibres laid across ocean floors that carry virtually all global communication traffic. According to Samanth Subramanian's book *The Web Beneath the Waves*, there are currently some 870,000 miles of these cables lacing the Earth together. They're responsible for about 99% of global data transmission.

India's digital economy is growing rapidly, with over a billion broadband subscribers by late 2025. Yet, this growth comes at the cost of an infrastructure dependency that makes the country one of the most vulnerable in the world to disruptions in these cables. The issue isn't just about age or failure rate—it's about concentration of risk in a single area.

"This network faces a critical vulnerability due to severe geographic concentration," said Anwesha Sen from Takshashila Institution. "If several of those cables were cut simultaneously, either accidentally or deliberately, a bulk of India's westward bandwidth to West Asia, Africa and Europe would be impacted."

The Cost of a Single Point of Failure

Cable architecture is designed with redundancy in mind. If one cable fails, traffic can typically be rerouted through other landing points like Chennai or Kochi. But even small increases in latency—delays in data transmission—can be costly for sectors like finance, cloud services, and AI.

For example, AI systems require high-volume, low-latency data transfers to function effectively. Any degradation in performance could mean slower model training, delayed responses from chatbots or other services, and even financial losses for trading firms relying on real-time data feeds.

This geographic clustering also poses a strategic vulnerability. A deliberate attack or an accidental collision with a ship anchor could knock out a large chunk of India's global connectivity, affecting not just domestic users but international businesses that rely on Indian networks as part of their global supply chains.

Age and Reliability: A Growing Concern

A 2024 study by Takshashila Institution found that 11 of India's 18 international cables are over 20 years old, nearing the nominal 25-year lifespan of submarine cable systems. While this isn't necessarily a cause for panic—cables can often function beyond their intended lifetime—the risk of simultaneous failures increases with age.

What makes this even more concerning is that India has no domestic subsea cable-repair ships. Repair vessels must come from abroad, and permission to operate in Indian waters is required. "Every cable fault in Indian waters depends on foreign repair ships from Dubai or Singapore," said Anwesha Sen. "Once a foreign ship is assigned, it must obtain licences to operate in Indian waters, adding weeks to an already lengthy process."

That delay is critical in a world where network uptime is essential for everything from e-commerce to emergency services. The bigger structural issue isn't rerouting capability but the lack of domestic repair capacity and regulatory bottlenecks that prevent quick recovery.

The Bureaucratic Bottleneck

India's infrastructure development suffers from a fragmented governance model. Setting up even a single cable landing station involves navigating approval processes across 16 different ministries, including telecoms, defence, home affairs, shipping, ports, and environment departments.

Aruna Sundararajan, chairperson of the Broadband India Forum (BIF), highlighted this challenge directly: "A core issue is fragmented governance, not a lack of technical capability." She suggests streamlining clearance processes by assigning a single agency—such as the Department of Telecommunications—to oversee cable operations and repairs.

She also advocates for pre-identifying and pre-approving landing sites across coastal areas with standard conditions, so companies don't have to go through lengthy administrative hoops each time they want to install or upgrade infrastructure.

A Roadmap Toward Resilience

India is starting to recognize the urgency of the situation. In 2025, the government officially designated submarine cable systems as critical telecommunications infrastructure. This move should help expedite approvals and provide legal protections for cable routes and landing zones.

Technology can also play a role in preventing damage before it occurs. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology turns optical fibres into sensors that can detect vibrations from ships, anchors, or underwater vehicles—potentially identifying threats before a cable is severed.

Meanwhile, the country is taking steps toward diversification. Four new submarine cable systems are currently being commissioned, including I-2SEA, which will have dual landings—one in Machilipatnam and another in South Chennai—adding geographical diversity to India's existing networks.

Looking Ahead: A Strategic Imperative

India is rapidly expanding its data centre capacity, growing from 375MW in 2020 to around 1,575MW today. This expansion demands not only faster internet but also more reliable and geographically diverse infrastructure.

The mismatch between current infrastructure capabilities and future needs highlights the importance of proactive planning. Subsea cable projects take three to four years just for planning, and another two years for deployment. That timeline may lag behind the rapid demand from AI, cloud computing, and other digital innovations.

Pooja Bhatt, an associate professor at OP Jindal Global University, argues that India's young demographics and ambitions for a 'Digital India' make it imperative to build robust internet infrastructure for security and governance purposes. As we move toward an AI-first economy, India must ensure that its digital arteries are not just strong but also resilient.

The truth is, India's connectivity boom is impressive—but it's built on a foundation that remains dangerously fragile. The question isn't whether the system can handle one failure; it's whether it can withstand multiple simultaneous disruptions without causing cascading failures across global networks.