Airtel to invest $673 mn in expanding data centre business

Bharti Airtel said it will invest $673 million in expanding its data centre business to meet customer demand in India.
Airtel business customersAirtel Business chief executive Ajay Chitkara said its Nxtra unit will make the investment by 2025, with plans to build a data centre economy across 80 Indian cities, adding that the move will triple its installed capacity to more than 400 MW.

Nxtra runs 10 large and 120 edge data centres, or smaller data processing facilities, across India and the expansion is part of a strategy by telcos to add revenue streams to their business and lure enterprise clients who typically offer higher margins.

U.S. private equity group Carlyle last year bought a 25 percent stake in Nxtra. Airtel owns 75 percent.

Public cloud spending in India is expected to exceed $12 billion by 2025, Naveen Mishra of research firm Gartner said.

Airtel’s rival Reliance Jio forged an alliance with Microsoft in 2019 to build data centres across India and this year partnered with Google to boost its enterprise and consumer offerings as it plans to launch 5G services.

Airtel said Nxtra will increase the use of green energy for its data centres, aiming to source 50 percent of its power requirements from renewable sources.

Latest

More like this
Related

TPG Telecom Investigates Cyber Breach at iiNet, Thousands of Customer Records Compromised

Australia’s second-largest internet provider, TPG Telecom, announced on Tuesday...

MTN Group H1 2025 results: Revenue up 23%, ARPU jumps 18%, subscribers near 300 mn

MTN Group delivered strong revenue growth in the first...

MTN refines Ambition 2025 strategy, reshuffles leadership to drive growth

MTN Group has unveiled a sharpened strategy and a...

GSMA report: Telcos drive AI deployments for cost savings, gear up for revenue growth

GSMA has released an update on AI deployments by...