Cloud and fibre: India’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
India’s Global Cloud Xchange will build a submarine fibre-optic cable system spanning 16,650km from Hong Kong to Italy
Telecommunications services provider Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) on Wednesday unveiled plans to build a US$500 million submarine fibre-optic cable system, stretching 16,650 kilometres from Hong Kong to Italy, which the company expects to become a key infrastructure for India’s version of the Belt and Road Initiative.
GCX, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Communications, owns the world’s largest private undersea cable network that spans more than 67,000km.
The Eagle cable system represents the centrepiece of the ambitious “cloud and fibre initiative” of GCX, which has already completed negotiations for more than 50 per cent of the project with other investors such as telecommunications operators and technology companies, Reliance Communications chief executive officer Bill Barney told the South China Morning Post.
Paul Haswell, a partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons, said China’s Belt and Road plan included building a broader set of infrastructure on ancient trade routes – roads, ports, railways and telecommunications hubs – than what Indian companies have put in place to date.
Introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative covers the New Silk Road connecting China with Europe overland and the Maritime Silk Road that links the mainland to countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
