en.Wedoany.com Reported - Lightstorm has announced the signing of a contract to build a new submarine cable system connecting India, Malaysia, and Singapore. The project, named I-2SEA, is being developed in collaboration with Microsoft, Singtel, and Tata Communications.

The cable system is designed to support the growing connectivity needs of hyperscale cloud service providers, GPU infrastructure providers, and enterprises running AI training and inference workloads along the India-Southeast Asia corridor.

I-2SEA will connect the east coast of India to major data center hubs in Hyderabad and Chennai, extending to Singapore—a key cloud and AI hub in the region—and Malaysia's expanding data center corridor centered around Kuala Lumpur. The system will have two landing points in India: one in Machilipatnam, providing a direct submarine route to Hyderabad, and a new landing point in South Chennai. Customers will also be able to connect to Lightstorm's terrestrial fiber network spanning over 30,000 kilometers for onward connectivity to Hyderabad, Mumbai, and more than 80 data centers across India.

The cable is expected to enter service (RFS) in the fourth quarter of 2029. The submarine distance from Singapore to Machilipatnam is approximately 3,600 kilometers. Combined with Lightstorm's terrestrial backhaul network, the company expects the system to provide low-latency connectivity between Singapore, Malaysia, and Hyderabad—a critical route for AI infrastructure and cloud workloads.

Amajit Gupta, CEO and Managing Director of Lightstorm Group, stated that the company aims to build a comprehensive connectivity platform covering both terrestrial and submarine networks. The new cable will expand Lightstorm's existing AI-ready network infrastructure, connecting AI hubs in India, Malaysia, and Singapore through a single end-to-end system.

For customers, I-2SEA will integrate with Lightstorm's SmartNet AI Fabric, providing low-jitter, low-loss optimized connectivity between data centers, cloud nodes, and AI infrastructure. Lightstorm will operate the Indian landing stations and provide network management through the SmartNet AI Fabric and Polarin platform. The system employs an interoperable cable architecture and carrier-neutral landing infrastructure at both Indian landing points, with the Polarin platform supporting on-demand provisioning and real-time network monitoring.

The cable is designed with resilience in mind, utilizing a deep burial routing scheme with a target burial depth of 3 meters to enhance protection against external damage and improve network availability.

The I-2SEA project is being developed under a joint construction agreement between Lightstorm, Microsoft, Singtel, and Tata Communications. NEC Corporation has been designated as the system supplier, and ASEAN Cableship Pte Ltd (ACPL) will serve as the marine installation partner. The consortium is also open to capacity commitments on the system.