Expert guide
Telecom & Connectivity for data centers in India: what procurement teams need to know
India's connectivity map
India's international bandwidth lands at cable landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai, with newer systems at Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Tuticorin, and travels inland on the long-haul networks of a handful of national carriers and infrastructure providers. Inside the metros, dense duct networks give carrier-neutral facilities a choice of five or more providers; outside them, a greenfield campus may have one or two viable routes and a right-of-way problem.
Customers now treat carrier neutrality, direct cloud on-ramps, internet exchange presence and low-latency paths to the landing stations as baseline. For a new facility, connectivity is therefore both a civil package (dual entries, chambers, ducts and meet-me rooms) and a long-term commercial portfolio (dark fiber IRUs, lit services, IP transit, cross-connects and exchange ports) that should be designed together.
Physical diversity and entries
The minimum for a Tier III campus is two building entries on opposite sides, two physically separate routes to two different provider points of presence, ideally on two providers' infrastructure. Provider route maps are a starting point, not evidence: walk the routes, check shared bridge and culvert crossings, railway and highway crossings and common trenches. Where only one duct corridor exists, price a new duct with its right of way into the project; municipal and NHAI permissions under the Right of Way Rules commonly take 6 to 12 months.
Specify the civil package early: HDPE duct banks with spare capacity, chambers at property boundaries, separate telecom entry rooms, and a meet-me room with carrier racks, power and cooling on the facility's critical systems. Retrofitting a second entry into a finished building is disproportionately expensive.
The commercial portfolio
Dark fiber on a 15 to 20 year indefeasible right of use is the backbone of a facility's connectivity: a one-time fee plus annual maintenance buys strands the operator lights with its own equipment, which scales capacity at the cost of optics rather than recurring bandwidth charges. Lit services at 10G to 400G suit shorter horizons and locations where dark fiber is unavailable. Negotiate the IRU's maintenance SLA, restoration time (under 4 hours in metro is achievable) and relocation terms.
Beyond transport, a carrier-neutral facility needs IP transit from two or more providers, ports at the Indian internet exchanges present in its hub, and direct connects to the major cloud regions in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. Cross-connect pricing and the meet-me room operating model (who installs, who owns the cable, turnaround time) should be settled before the first customer asks.
Latency and the landing stations
Latency is measured, not quoted. Round-trip from a Mumbai campus to the landing stations in the same city is a few hundred microseconds on a direct path; Mumbai to Chennai runs roughly 25 to 30 milliseconds terrestrially; Hyderabad and Bengaluru to Mumbai sit between. Financial, gaming and content tenants specify these figures, and the route a provider actually uses, not the straight-line distance, determines them. Ask for measured latency on the proposed route and write it into the SLA.
Regulation and licensing
Dark fiber and duct ownership sit under the DoT's IP-1 infrastructure provider registration; lit services and internet access require the relevant unified licence authorisations. A data center operator that lights its own fiber between its sites should confirm which activities need a licence and which can be carried out under a customer's or partner's authorisation. The Right of Way Rules 2016, amended in 2022, set the framework and timelines for duct permissions and are the lever for pushing municipal approvals.
How we procure connectivity
We define the brief (capacity, carrier count, diversity, latency targets, go-live), survey candidate routes physically, specify the civil entries for the construction package, and run a commercial RFQ across carriers and infrastructure providers for IRUs, lit services, transit, cross-connects and exchange ports. Bids are compared on verified diversity, measured latency, SLA and restoration terms and total cost over the facility's life, and we support the activation and the meet-me room operating procedures.
Diversity is verified on the ground. Two routes that share a bridge crossing are one route.
What we cover
Scope of the service line
- Metro and long-haul lit services, 10G to 400G
- Dark fiber IRUs and leased pairs
- Carriers, ISPs, MPLS and SD-WAN
- Cross-connects and meet-me rooms
- IX ports, peering and cloud on-ramps
- Ducts, OFC laying and right of way
How procurement works
From brief to contract
Connectivity brief
Capacity, number of carriers, diversity requirement, latency targets to specific landing stations or cloud regions, and timing.
Route survey
Physical route maps from candidate providers are verified on the ground. Two routes that share a bridge crossing are one route.
Duct and entry construction
Dual entries, chambers, ducts and meet-me rooms are specified in the civil package; ROW applications are filed early.
Commercial RFQ
Dark fiber IRUs, lit services, IP transit, cross-connect and IX port terms are tendered across carriers, with SLAs and MTTR commitments compared.
Activation and operations
Carrier onboarding, cross-connect processes and the meet-me room operating model are documented before go-live.
Advisor note
Diversity is the brief
Two entries from different directions on physically separate routes, from different providers, is the minimum for a Tier III campus. We verify route maps rather than accepting provider claims.
What to evaluate
Criteria that separate a safe award from an expensive one
| Criterion | What good looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Physical diversity | Separate entries, separate routes, separate providers | A single trench cut should never isolate the site |
| Latency | Round-trip to Mumbai or Chennai landing stations and major cloud regions measured, not quoted | Financial and content customers specify it |
| Carrier neutrality | Open meet-me room, non-exclusive access terms | Attracts enterprise and hyperscale tenants |
| Dark fiber terms | IRU of 15 to 20 years with maintenance SLA and restoration time | Long-term cost control |
| IX and cloud on-ramps | Ports at the Indian exchanges and direct connects to major clouds | Reduces transit cost and latency |
| Restoration | MTTR below 4 hours in metro, 8 hours long-haul | Downtime cost dwarfs service fees |
Benchmarks
Indicative lead times and cost ranges
| Item | Typical range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Metro dark fiber IRU | 3 to 6 months to activate | Longer where new duct is needed |
| New duct with ROW | 6 to 12 months | Municipal and NHAI permissions dominate |
| Lit services, 10G to 100G | 4 to 10 weeks | On existing routes |
| Mumbai to Chennai round trip | Roughly 25 to 30 ms | Via terrestrial long-haul |
Indicative figures from MyDCNeeds engagements and supplier quotations, 2025 to 2026. Project-specific numbers are confirmed during scoping.
Common mistakes
What we see go wrong
- 01Accepting provider route maps without a ground survey of shared crossings.
- 02Building a single duct entry and calling it diverse because two carriers use it.
- 03Signing short-term lit contracts where a dark fiber IRU would cost less over the facility's life.
- 04Leaving the meet-me room operating model undefined, which slows every cross-connect later.
Standards and regulation
The framework this work sits inside
- DoT licensing: ISP, NLD and IP-1 infrastructure provider registrations
- TIA-942 telecommunications infrastructure for data centers
- TRAI regulations on interconnection
- Right of Way Rules 2016 and 2022 amendments
Glossary
Terms used in this guide
- IRU
- Indefeasible right of use: a long-term, usually prepaid right to use specific fiber strands.
- Meet-me room
- The space where carriers and tenants interconnect inside a facility.
- Cross-connect
- A physical cable link between two parties inside the facility.
- IP-1
- An infrastructure provider licence category allowing the ownership of ducts, dark fiber and towers.
Questions
Frequently asked
How many fiber entries does a data center need?+–
Two physically separate building entries on separate routes to separate provider points of presence is the minimum for Tier III. Many hyperscale and financial-services tenants require three.
Dark fiber IRU or lit services?+–
Dark fiber on a 15 to 20 year IRU is cheaper over a facility's life and scales with optics rather than bandwidth charges. Lit services suit short horizons and locations without available dark fiber.
How long does it take to get dark fiber into a new site?+–
3 to 6 months where a duct corridor already passes the site. Where a new duct is needed, right-of-way permissions from municipalities and highway authorities typically add 6 to 12 months.
What latency can we expect between Indian hubs?+–
Terrestrial round-trip between Mumbai and Chennai is roughly 25 to 30 milliseconds; Mumbai to Pune or Hyderabad to Bengaluru are shorter. Measured figures on the actual route should be written into the SLA.
Do you arrange internet exchange and cloud on-ramps?+–
Yes. We arrange ports at the Indian exchanges present in the facility's hub and direct connects to the major cloud regions, and we set up the meet-me room operating model.
Do we need a telecom licence to light our own fiber?+–
It depends on what is carried and for whom. Duct and dark fiber ownership falls under IP-1 registration; carrying third-party traffic needs the relevant unified licence authorisation. We confirm the position with licensing counsel as part of the engagement.
