Global Cloud Xchange to connect Mumbai and Singapore with subsea cable

Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), formerly Reliance Globalcom, announced on June 19 new India Cloud Xchange (ICX) cable infrastructure in Asia as part of the company’s strategy to provide a direct subsea route for Mumbai-Singapore to bypass current outage-prone terrestrial routes between Mumbai and Chennai.

TeleGeography Research forecasts that India’s international bandwidth demand requirements will increase over 10-fold between 2013 and 2020.  

“With Singapore as a regional hub and gateway for multinational companies doing business across India and emerging markets, the ICX cable will complement our GCX global network infrastructure for direct connectivity to major business centres in Asia, Middle East, North America and Europe,” said Bill Barney, Chief Executive Officer, Global Cloud Xchange. 

Based on 100G technology, the ICX cable will be a four fiber pair system with initial design capacity per fiber pair at 80 x 100G using next generation coherent submarine fiber.  This new segment will deliver termination into the Middle East, Europe and to the US East Coast through interconnection with GCX’s Falcon, Hawk and FA-1 systems. 

“The new ICX fiber system, which runs approximately 5,060 kilometers between Mumbai and Singapore, will also have a branch landing in Trivandrum and/or Chennai. This will support creation of a next generation IP and cloud environment held together with a single AS number and connecting into Tier III+ data centre facilities on the ground,” said Wilfred Kwan, Chief Operating Officer, Global Cloud Xchange.   

The new ICX system will be ready for service in Q2 2016 to fill key gaps as bandwidth requirements continue to increase. GCX says that submarine cable vendors and additional partners for the ICX subsea cable are being finalised.  The company will announce the awarding of the supply contract by the third quarter of 2014.