Space World plans to connect data centers in seven major cities within a year

The Space World group plans to connect all data centers in seven major cities to a fiber optic network in less than a year, founder and chairman Ankit Goel (right) told Business Standard.

Space World subsidiary Constl, a fiber-based digital infrastructure provider, is rolling out the largest network of neutral, point-to-point fiber connections to its data centers.

It has already connected 17 data centers in Delhi and 14 in Chennai through 3-4 different paths, said co-founder and director Radhey Sharma (left).

The company provides specialized services such as data center interconnection, private lines and dark fibers.

India already has more than 4 million kilometers of fiber optic cables, which are mainly owned by telecom operators.

“But given the explosion in data consumption, the existing fiber optic capacity is not sufficient. We are installing new fiber optic and connecting data centers in seven major cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. We connect centers in the same city, but also in different cities, via a ring network,” says Goel.

Constl owns the fiber assets and leases point-to-point bandwidth to customers including internet service providers, major cloud service providers, telecom operators and over-the-top service providers, he added.

“We create a neutral network because we are customer and segment independent. Any customer can ride on our infrastructure and pay the service charges,” Goel said.

Rapid growth of data centers

According to industry estimates, there are 152 data centers in India and the number is growing rapidly. This is due to the enormous growth in data consumption and cloud computing.

The cumulative capacity of 819 Mw in the top seven cities is expected to more than double to 1,800 Mw by 2026, attracting investments of $10 billion, said a joint report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Colliers last October .

An earlier report from US-based commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield estimated that $14.5 billion of investment had been committed in data center development by February 2022.

Mumbai and Chennai currently host the country’s largest cluster of data centers, which are coastal landing points for international submarine cables. They provide 80 percent of national data traffic. The Delhi-NCR zone is the third largest location, Sharma said.

“In every city we have a presence in, the plan is to connect all the centers first,” he said.

Launched in December 2023, Constl plans to invest $500 million in its fiber network across 13 cities over the next four years, partly funded by global infrastructure funds.

Talks are underway to raise $300 million, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, the company said.

Space World executives pointed to the ongoing right-of-way dispute. It said the 300 km of cables laid by the company in Delhi-NCR in the last three months required permission from 17 different local authorities.

Tier-II cities like Lucknow are also seeing the setting up of data centers. The company plans to connect these locations over the next two to three years.

In addition to optical fiber cables, the Space World group is engaged in chemical production, radio frequency component production and metal production.

In 2021, Goel and Sharma had sold their previous venture Space Teleinfra Pvt Ltd (STIPL), a provider of shared telecom infrastructure for voice and data connectivity.

First print: March 25, 2024 | 11:52 PM IST