Telco Group Eyes Flexible Subsea Cable Repair Mechanism
By Muntazir Abbas, ETTelecom
February 10, 2026
NEW DELHI: Telecom carriers – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea – represented by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said that the Centre should look at facilitating subsea cable repair as a part of ease of doing business to ensure seamless data latency.
“The undersea cable repair process is complex. There should be an ease of doing business. Every time a vessel goes for a repair, the officials from the Ministry of Defense and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) go along. We are asking for a relaxation,” SP Kochhar, director general, COAI, told ETTelecom.
The Delhi-based telco group is planning to seek intervention from the telecom department, headed by Secretary Amit Agrawal.
Kocchar further said that multiple parties, including fibre makers, repair agencies, and system integrators, are involved in the process, and added that the group is concerned from a telecom service provider perspective, as they have a broader role in ensuring seamless connectivity.
Subsea cable repair is a complex process that requires multiple approvals, and is more complex in case a fault is located far from the Indian coastline sovereignty, and may even take months in scenarios like bad weather and high depth.
Repair cost typically ranges from ₹5 crores to up to ₹25 crores per damage incident, and requires internationally-certified repair crew and approvals from marine agencies, the Indian Navy and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
“Special equipment, boats, and barges are required, but customs and duty payments for even short-term imports add cost and time. Spare parts are needed to be imported mainly from Singapore storage sites as India does not have subsea cable and relevant equipment storage sites,” Sandeep Agarwal, managing director, Paramount Communications, said.
Delhi-based Paramount Communications was part of the Chennai Andaman subsea link and repaired Bharat Lanka Subsea link and Tata's damaged subsea cable in April 2020.
It involves a high-stakes engineering process that includes exact location, retrieval, repair, and re-laying damaged cables that takes weeks.
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