Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has contracted NEC Technologies India (NECTI) to design and implement an optical submarine cable system to connect India with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands).

Total cable length will be approximately 2,300km and fiber pairs are understood to be powered by 100Gbps technology.

Holiday spots

The A&N Islands are located at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, and the contract calls for the cable to land at eight island locations. The segment coming from Chennai, India, will include repeaters, while seven other segments without repeaters will run between the islands of Havelock, Little Andaman (Hutbay), Car Nicobar, Kamorta, the Great Nicobar Island, Long Island and Rangat.

The submarine cable system will provide the islands with adequate bandwidth to support voice and data connectivity, and for the establishment of enterprises and e-commerce facilities.

It is expected to help drive the “Digital India” vision, an initiative launched by the government of India to ensure that public sector services are made available to citizens electronically.

“It is indeed a matter of great privilege and pride for NECTI to be given the opportunity for implementing this project of immense national importance. We are confident about successfully completing the project by leveraging the technological edge of NEC and long history of successful implementation of numerous complex projects in the region,” said Takayuki Inaba, managing director of NECTI.

“Connecting the A&N Islands to the Indian subcontinent with an optical submarine cable has been a long-time aspiration. NEC is extremely proud of being chosen by BSNL to serve these islands with its cutting-edge submarine cable solution, which promises to bring the A&N Islands much closer to the world,” said Toru Kawauchi, general manager of the submarine network division at NEC.