Airtel To Invest Rs 5000 Crores To Scale Up Its Data Centre Business

* Investment to further cement ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ as India’s largest network of hyperscale and edge data centres

* Will triple Nxtra by Airtel’s data centre capacity to over 400 MW by 2025 and position it well to meet the surging demand in India’s fast growing digital economy

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”) today unveiled a refreshed brand identity ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ for its data centre business and outlined investment plans to significantly scale up its data centre network to serve the requirements of India’s fast growing digital economy.

Nxtra by Airtel has the largest network of data centres in India. It currently operates 10 large and 120 edge data centres located strategically across India and manages critical submarine landing stations. Coupled with Airtel’s global network, it offers secure and scalable integrated solution to global hyperscalers, large Indian enterprises, start-ups, SMEs and governments.

With 5G around the corner, a fast growing digital economy, enterprises transitioning to cloud and local data storage regulations, India is witnessing strong demand for reliable data centre solutions. The Indian data centre industry is expected more than double its installed capacity from an approximate 450 MW to 1074 MW by 2023*.

Nxtra by Airtel aims to be at the forefront of this growth and plans to invest Rs 5,000 crores by 2025 to further scale up its industry leading network of hyperscale and edge data centres. This will include new data centre parks in key metro cities. The investment will triple Nxtra by Airtel’s installed capacity to over 400 MW to meet the surging demand and consolidate its network leadership.       

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business said, “Airtel has built the largest data centre network in India and we are now doubling down on this business to scale up our network that will be at the core of 5G and Digital 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. The new brand identity embodies this vision and ambition.”

Sustainability will continue to be its big focus given the huge energy requirements of data centres. Nxtra by Airtel is already aggressively scaling up use of green energy for its data centres and aims to source 50% of the power requirements of these centres through renewable sources as part of Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets. Nxtra by Airtel also recently commissioned captive solar power plants in the state of Uttar Pradesh & Maharashtra with still more in the pipeline.

Airtel Business, the B2B unit of Airtel, is the India’s leading provider of information communication technology services and offers a diverse portfolio of products and services covering voice, data, collaboration, work from home solutions, cloud, data centre, cyber security, IoT, network integration, managed services, enterprise mobility and digital media across a range of industries.

* https://www.jll.co.in/en/trends-and-insights/research/2020-india-data-center-market-update.

About Airtel

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 474 Mn customers in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud based communication. For more details visit www.airtel.com.