How Global Network Solutions Built on Submarine Communications Cable Infrastructure Keep Enterprises Connected Worldwide

Every time a finance team in Mumbai closes a deal with a counterpart in Frankfurt, the data travels roughly 10,000 km, mostly underwater. That single transaction rides on a web of fibre-optic cables laid across ocean floors, switching through network nodes, and landing at cable stations before reaching its destination.

The enterprise networking market is projected to grow from USD 55.3 billion in 2024 to USD 138 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 8.67%. This spending reflects a clear reality: businesses need global network solutions that are faster, more redundant, and more cost-efficient than ever. This article covers the submarine cable infrastructure powering international data transfer, India’s growing role in that ecosystem, and a head-to-head comparison of MPLS and SD-WAN for enterprise WANs.

Thank you !

We’ve received your request. We will
contact you within 1 business day.

We’re Sorry

There is already an existing Lead with provided details.
Please try after 24 hours.

Oops!

Something went wrong.

Interested?

Fill the form and we will contact you within 1 business day.

Full Name

Email

Mobile Number

Company Name

Submit

What Makes Global Network Solutions Critical for Multi-Site Enterprises?

Global network solutions refer to the combination of physical infrastructure (cables, landing stations, and data centres), networking protocols (MPLS and SD-WAN), and managed services that allow enterprises to connect offices, cloud platforms, and users across geographies with consistent performance.

Here’s why they matter now more than before: end-user spending on enterprise network equipment is expected to hit $99.7 billion in 2025, an 11% jump after a 2.6% dip in 2024, according to Gartner. The demand spike is driven by AI workloads, hybrid work setups, and cloud-first strategies that push legacy networks past their limits.

The Enterprise Connectivity Gap

For decades, enterprise connectivity was built around domestic voice traffic and basic data. But cross-border operations now require support for logistics telemetry, video conferencing, and sovereign data transmission. The gap between what businesses need and what traditional networks deliver is widening.

Common pain points include:

• Inconsistent performance between locations due to fragmented carrier arrangements

• Overspending on bandwidth that isn’t optimised across regions

• Regulatory complexity across different countries with varying compliance rules

• Limited visibility into network health and traffic patterns

Without a unified global network strategy, organisations often pay more while getting less reliable service. That’s why Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) models are gaining ground. Gartner projects that by 2028, 15% of enterprise network deployments will use NaaS, up from under 2% in 2024.

How Submarine Communications Cables Carry 95%+ of Cross-Border Data

A submarine communications cable is a fibre-optic cable laid on the ocean floor to carry data between continents. These cables are the physical backbone of the global internet, not satellites, not wireless towers.

Over 95% of all intercontinental voice and data traffic travels through undersea cables. Every day, the SWIFT network alone transmits 15 million financial messages between 8,300+ banking institutions across 195 countries, all through these cables. Roughly $10 trillion in financial transaction data flows through this submarine communications cable network daily.

Scale of the Infrastructure

As of early 2026, over 1.5 million kilometres of submarine communications cable systems are in service globally. That’s about three times the distance from Earth to the Moon. Individual systems range from 131 km (short hops between neighbouring countries) to 20,000 km for transoceanic routes.

Who Owns These Cables?

A decade ago, large tech companies used less than 10% of undersea cable capacity. By 2024, their share had surged to roughly 71% on major routes. Collectively, these firms now account for about half of all undersea internet capacity worldwide.

Investment in new subsea cable projects is expected to reach around $13 billion between 2025 and 2027, driven heavily by cloud computing and AI infrastructure needs. One recently announced transatlantic cable carries 400 terabits per second, 400,000 times faster than the fastest home broadband available. Another project connecting the US East Coast to Ireland will exceed 320 Tbps, equivalent to streaming 12.5 million HD movies simultaneously.

The global network that enterprises rely on is, quite literally, built on these underwater highways.

India’s Submarine Cable Ecosystem: Where Do We Stand?

India hosts around 17–19 international subsea cables, with landing stations concentrated in Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Tuticorin, and Thiruvananthapuram. The country’s total lit capacity rose 60% year-on-year to 309 Tbps by the end of December 2025, while activated capacity jumped 81% during the same period.

Growth Trajectory

The global submarine cable industry is projected to reach $32.8 billion in 2026 and expand to $60.5 billion by 2036, growing at roughly 6.3% annually. India is expected to witness one of the fastest growth rates in this market, with a CAGR of about 7.4%.

Yet here’s the gap: India currently accounts for just 1% of the world’s cable landing stations. Experts and TRAI have both noted that this should increase tenfold for India to function as a serious global digital hub.

TRAI’s Push for Better Infrastructure

TRAI has recommended two categories of Cable Landing Station locations: Main CLS and CLS Point of Presence (CLS-PoP). Under this framework:

• Main CLS owners handle all permissions and clearances for submarine communications cable landings

• CLS-PoP owners are exempt from those clearances but must meet security and regulatory obligations, including Lawful Intercept and Monitoring (LIM) facility setup

• ILD/ISP Category ‘A’ licensees can extend owned or leased dark fibre pairs from the Main CLS to their CLS-PoP

These regulatory changes aim to attract more connectivity investments, reduce red tape, and strengthen India’s position within the global network of undersea cable systems.

MPLS vs SD-WAN: Which Technology Fits Your Global Network?

Once data lands onshore, enterprises still need a WAN technology to route it between offices, data centres, and cloud environments. The two leading options are MPLS and SD-WAN.

MPLS: The Established Standard

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) uses label-based routing to direct traffic along pre-defined paths. It has been the enterprise standard for decades because it guarantees Quality of Service (QoS), critical for voice, video, and financial applications that need low latency and zero packet loss.

However, MPLS circuits are expensive, slow to provision, and difficult to scale across geographies. New MPLS link deployments are declining at a 24% annual rate.

SD-WAN: The Flexible Alternative

Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) sits on top of multiple transport types, broadband, LTE/5G, and even MPLS, and uses software to intelligently route traffic based on application priority.

Currently, 69% of enterprises have deployed SD-WAN in some form (37% in production, 32% in pilot). The SD-WAN market, valued at roughly $5 billion now, is projected to grow to between $21.7 billion and $66.2 billion by 2030.

SD-WAN can cut network expenses by 30–50% while improving connectivity. But MPLS still wins for applications demanding guaranteed, predictable performance.

For most enterprises building a global network, a hybrid model works well: MPLS for mission-critical traffic, SD-WAN for everything else. Global network solutions that combine both give you performance where it counts and flexibility where it matters.

Stay Connected with Global Enterprise Solutions

Enterprise connectivity is no longer about picking a single technology or cable route. It’s about assembling a layered strategy, submarine communications cable infrastructure for intercontinental reach, the right WAN technology for your application mix, and a regulatory-aware approach in markets like India, where global network solutions are expanding fast.

Airtel Business operates across 34+ subsea cable systems, offers a minimum of three diverse routes per destination, and provides subsea, terrestrial, or hybrid solutions built for business continuity and global network redundancy, making it worth evaluating if your enterprise needs dependable international connectivity.