Airtel to invest Rs 5,000 crore to grow data-centre business
The telecom major expects to triple its current installed capacity to over 400 MW by 2023 to serve the requirements of India’s fast growing digital economy.
Bharti Airtel will invest Rs 5,000 crore by 2025 to scale up its network of hyperscale and edge data centres in India, according to a stock-exchange filing from the company.
The telecom major launched a new brand ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ for its data-centre business, as it prepares to meet the growing requirements of the country's digital economy.
In the previous financial year, private equity firm The Carlyle Group had announced an investment of $235 million for a 25 percent stake in Nxtra to scale up the infrastructure and offering, according to Bharti Airtel’s latest annual report.
The Rs 5,000-crore investment will include new data-centre parks in key metro cities, tripling Airtel's presently installed capacity to over 400 MW by 2023, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Airtel, which clocked Rs 14,407.5 crore in revenue in fiscal year 2021, has 10 large and 120 edge data-centres in the country. It also manages critical submarine landing stations.
“We are now doubling down on this business to scale up our network that will be at the core of 5G and Digital India,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business.
Data consumption in the country has gone up over the past year with increased use of smartphones. “The existing and potential drivers of data consumption indicate that the upside to data consumption is going to be exponential,” according to a research report by global real estate services firm JLL.
India’s draft for Data Center Policy released in 2020 is also focused on making the country a “global data centre hub”.
The global shift to cloud and regulatory data localisation requirements have driven up the need and demand for local data centers in India. Policymakers, investors, operators, regulators, enterprises and cloud players are showing interest in the growing sector.
“The Indian data-centre industry capacity is expected to double from 499 MW IT load to 1007 MW IT load by 2023,” the report said. Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi-NCR are the major regions for data location parks in the country.
Both Indian and global companies are looking to leverage the opportunity to build infrastructure for data centres in India. NTT, AWS, and Equinix have announced plans to invest in new data centres or increase capacity in India.
“Our experience of operating secure data centres, deep brand trust in the enterprise segment, and the ability to deliver end-to-end digital transformation solutions positions us well to serve the emerging requirements of India’s connected economy,” Chitkara added.
The company plans to source 50 percent of the energy requirements of these centres through renewable sources, Airtel said, in the stock-exchange filing. Companies over the world are gearing up to investors’ demands to reduce the carbon footprint.
