BSNL, MTNL set to invest Rs 1800 cr in marine cable

Cost 4-fold that of other cable systems on the Chennai-Singapore route.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam(MTNL) will invest nearly Rs 1,800 crore for the proposed submarine cable between India and Singapore, according to Shakeel Ahmad, minister of state for communications and information technology.

The minister's estimate "" which was stated in Parliament in reply to a question on December 21 "" has put an end to speculation over the project's estimated cost.

Analysts said the cost was four times that of other cable systems on the same route. "In addition, the submarine cable business is not profitable and was unlikely that the PSUs would be able to make good their investments," they added.

At present, Bharti Tele-Ventures-owned i2i, consortium cable system SEA-ME-WE-4 (SMW-4) and Tata Indicom Chennai-Singapore Cable (TIC) provide service on the route.

For the recently commissioned SMW-4, which has a 100 GB lit-up capacity on the route, the consortium incurred around $100 million for construction of the same route, while TIC has a total capacity of 320 GB and took around $100 million for construction. The investments for i2i, which has a 2GB lit-up capacity, were around $200 million compared with Rs 1,800 crore (around $400 million).

The BSNL-MTNL cable would have an initial capacity of 20 GBPS, and a fully lit-up capacity of 320 GBPS, which would be equipped with a twin pair optical fibre threads (a total of four optical fibres). It would function on a dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM) system with repeaters, a source said.

DWDM is a technique that employs more than one light source and detector operating at different wavelengths and simultaneously transmits optical signals through the same fibre, even as message integrity of each signal is preserved.

The project is now in its initial stage, with the feasibility study and technical survey of the route yet to begin. A final decision would be taken only after the studies.

MTNL was also likely to spend Rs 12.50 crore for procuring international bandwidth from global markets, they said.

According to the proposal, the PSUs do not intend to lay the cable up to Hong Kong. Also installation of equipment for lawful interception and monitoring was planned as BSNL is upgrading its switches for international gateway functionality.