How are India's data centres connected?
Last updated
Mumbai is India's connectivity hub: 451 networks were connected to DE-CIX there on 14 Oct 2026. AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle all offer private cloud on-ramps in India (Oct 2026). A public internet round trip from Mumbai to Delhi took a median 27 milliseconds (29 Sep to 13 Oct 2026).
Key facts
DE-CIX had 451 networks connected in Mumbai, against 105 in Delhi and 78 in Chennai.
As of 14 Oct 2026. PeeringDB
Equinix MB1 in Mumbai is India's most interconnected building, with 261 networks present.
As of 14 Oct 2026. PeeringDB
A 10G internet exchange port costs ₹50,000 (US$525) a month at Extreme IX and ₹49,900 (US$524) at NIXI metro sites, before tax.
As of 14 Oct 2026 (NIXI tariff in force from 1 Jul 2025). Extreme IX and NIXI
An AWS Direct Connect 10G port costs US$2.25 an hour, about US$1,642 (₹1.56 lakh) a month.
As of 14 Oct 2026. Amazon Web Services
Median public internet round trip: 23 milliseconds Mumbai to Chennai, 27 milliseconds Mumbai to Delhi.
As of 29 Sep to 13 Oct 2026. WonderNetwork
Rupee to dollar conversions use ₹95.25 per US$ (FBIL reference rate, 13 Oct 2026).
Terms used on this page (7)
- Hyperscaler
- The largest cloud providers: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and similar.
- ASN (AS number)
- Autonomous System Number: the identifier a network needs to exchange traffic directly with other networks.
- IX (internet exchange)
- A place where networks connect to swap traffic directly instead of paying a carrier to carry it.
- Cross-connect, meet-me room
- A cross-connect is a cable from your rack to another network in the same building. The meet-me room is where those cables are joined.
- Cloud on-ramp
- A private link into a public cloud: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect, Oracle FastConnect.
- Cable landing station
- The building where a subsea cable comes ashore and joins land networks.
- Lakh, crore
- 1 lakh is 100,000 and 1 crore is 10 million. ₹1 lakh crore is ₹1 trillion, about US$10.5bn at ₹95.25 per US$.
Exchanges, cloud on-ramps, latency and carriers
Mumbai is the centre of India's interconnection market, with the busiest internet exchanges and the most connected buildings. Delhi NCR is second by networks at the exchanges (DE-CIX 105, Extreme IX 175, NIXI 114; PeeringDB, 14 Oct 2026). Chennai, where the subsea cables to Singapore land, is the natural second site for routes east.
AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle all offer private on-ramps (direct private links into their clouds) in India. Long-haul fibre belongs to licensed carriers, which shapes how a GPU cloud buys links between sites.
What this means for a GPU cloud
Land in a carrier-neutral Mumbai building with at least two internet exchanges and two cloud on-ramps, get your own ASN (the network number you need to peer), and buy inter-city links from two licensed carriers on different routes. In our reading, selling compute alone needs no telecom licence; selling connectivity does.
Internet exchanges
| Exchange | Owner | Networks connected by city | Published peak traffic | Port price per month, 10G / 100G (ex-tax) | Who can join |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE-CIX India | DE-CIX Interwire Internet Services | Mumbai 451; Delhi 105; Chennai 78; Kolkata 19; Hyderabad 14; Bengaluru 4 | Mumbai 2.76 Tbps in 2025 | Not published | Networks with their own ASN |
| Extreme IX | Megaport (since Dec 2025) | Mumbai 249; Delhi 175; Chennai 91; Bengaluru 44; Kolkata 24; Hyderabad 23; Pune 12 | 5.74 Tbps, whole platform, past year | ₹50,000 (US$525) / ₹2,50,000 (US$2,625) | Own AS and IP addresses |
| NIXI | Government not-for-profit under MeitY | Mumbai 179; Delhi 114; Chennai 57; Kolkata 29; Hyderabad 22; 79 locations in all | Not published | Metro ₹49,900 (US$524) / ₹2,47,333 (US$2,597); edge nodes about 2.5x | Licensed ISP, or CDN or content network with own ASN |
| AMS-IX India (with Sify) | AMS-IX | Mumbai 86 (AMS-IX site); also Hyderabad, Kolkata | 105.55 Gbps | Not published | Not published |
| Equinix Internet Exchange Mumbai | Equinix | Mumbai 25 | Not published | Not published | Equinix customers |
Network counts from PeeringDB on 14 Oct 2026 (AMS-IX from its own site); self-reported, so small ISPs are undercounted. Peaks are not like-for-like. NIXI prices shown are its monthly (MRC) metro rates; NIXI also bills quarterly or annually, and annual billing is cheaper (10G ₹5,80,000 a year). NIXI metro tariffs are close to Extreme IX's; Extreme IX is cheaper at 30G and 60G.
Cloud on-ramps in India
| Cloud | India regions | On-ramp buildings | Port speeds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Direct Connect | Mumbai, Hyderabad | Equinix MB1 and MB2, Sify Rabale (Mumbai); STT Delhi DC2; STT Chennai VSB; STT Hyderabad DC1; STT Kolkata DC1; NetMagic DC2 Bengaluru | 1G, 10G, 100G | 10G port US$2.25 an hour (about US$1,642 or ₹1.56 lakh a month); data out to an Indian location US$0.045 per GB |
| Azure ExpressRoute | Central (Pune), South (Chennai), West (Mumbai), South Central (Hyderabad, live 21 Sep 2026) | Tata Communications (Mumbai, Chennai); Airtel (Mumbai2, Chennai2); STT Pune DC1; also a Mumbai Metro location | ExpressRoute Direct available | No Delhi or Hyderabad peering location (page updated 8 Oct 2026) |
| Google Cloud Interconnect | Mumbai, Delhi | Equinix MB1, Tata Mumbai IDC; Tata Delhi, Sify Greenfort Noida; Netmagic and Tata in Chennai; STT Hyderabad 1 | 10G, 100G with MACsec | Hyderabad's two zones are in one building |
| Oracle FastConnect | Mumbai, Hyderabad | Equinix Mumbai, Sify Rabale; Sify Hyderabad | 1G to 400G (subject to availability) | 14 partners in Mumbai incl. Megaport, DE-CIX, PowerGrid |
Pages read 8 to 14 Oct 2026. Megaport has 41 live Indian locations in 6 metros (activated Mar to Jun 2026); DE-CIX DirectCLOUD and Equinix Fabric also offer cloud access.
Typical round-trip latency (milliseconds)
| Route | Cloud backbone (Azure, 30 days to 30 Jul 2026) | Public internet median (29 Sep to 13 Oct 2026) | Physical minimum in fibre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai to Delhi | No Azure Delhi region | 27 | 11 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to Chennai | 20 | 23 | 10 |
| Chennai to Singapore | 37 | 32 | 28 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to Singapore | 53 | 154 (test hosts detour) | 38 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to Dubai | 32 | 186 (test hosts detour) | 19 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to Marseille | 118 | 92 | 66 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to Frankfurt | 140 | 142 | 64 |
| Mumbai (Pune) to London | 141 | 134 | 70 |
Azure uses Central India (Pune) as the Mumbai stand-in. Public figures are WonderNetwork pings between specific hosts. The detours show why private interconnect and direct peering matter.
Most interconnected buildings
| Building | City | Networks |
|---|---|---|
| Equinix MB1 | Mumbai | 261 |
| Iron Mountain (Web Werks) Mumbai 1 | Mumbai | 195 |
| Sify Greenfort | Noida | 147 |
| Airtel Santhome | Chennai | 89 |
| Tata Communications | Mumbai | 85 |
| Tata Communications | Chennai | 81 |
| Tata Communications | Delhi | 72 |
| CtrlS DC1 | Mumbai | 62 |
| CtrlS DC1 | Hyderabad | 60 |
| Sify Tidel | Chennai | 60 |
| Equinix MB2 | Mumbai | 58 |
| STT Kolkata 1 | Kolkata | 57 |
| Sify Rabale | Navi Mumbai | 50 |
Networks present per PeeringDB, 14 Oct 2026. Most new hyperscale campuses still host few networks and rely on metro fibre back to these hubs.
Long-haul and metro carriers
Published fibre scale for Airtel, Tata Communications, Sify, Lightstorm and PowerGrid
| Provider | Type | Published scale | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bharti Airtel | Integrated telco | 542,570 route km of fibre in India; 9 subsea cable systems | Jun 2026 |
| Tata Communications | Global carrier | 200,000+ km terrestrial and 500,000+ km subsea (global) | Oct 2026 |
| Sify Technologies | Carrier and DC operator | About 9,000 km inter-city network across 4 cities; links to 77 data centres | Mar 2026 |
| Lightstorm | Neutral long-haul and metro | 30,000+ km fibre; 70+ data centres; 3 international gateways | Oct 2026 |
| PowerGrid | State utility telecom | 100,000+ km; leased lines up to 100G; dark fibre | Oct 2026 |
| Reliance Jio, BSNL, RailTel, Vodafone Idea | Telcos and state carriers | Not verified from primary sources | n/a |
Figures are as each company publishes them and are not directly comparable.
Who may sell what
| Activity | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Colocate, buy cross-connects, peer with your own ASN | No telecom licence (our reading) | Unchanged |
| Sell internet access or IP transit | Internet service authorisation (DoT) | New rules dated 23 Jun 2026, as reported by Airtel |
| Sell inter-city circuits, wavelengths or VPNs | Long-distance authorisation (national and international now merged); internet authorisation now also covers domestic leased circuits | New rules dated 23 Jun 2026 |
| Lease dark fibre, ducts, rights of way | Infrastructure provider (IP-I) registration, but only to licensed operators | Successor authorisation recommended Feb 2025 |
| Run an internet exchange | Exchange authorisation proposed | Accepted in principle by DoT (Jul 2025); notification not confirmed |
| Foreign ownership of a telecom licensee | 100% under the automatic route, with safeguards | Since 15 Sep 2021 |
A GPU cloud usually buys wavelengths or managed fibre from a licensed carrier rather than leasing dark fibre directly. Confirm with Indian telecom counsel before contracting.
A connectivity checklist for a GPU cloud
- Land in a carrier-neutral Mumbai campus with direct access to at least two exchanges and two cloud on-ramps. Operators by city shows who has live space.
- Get your own ASN and IP space, then peer at DE-CIX, Extreme IX and NIXI.
- Buy inter-city capacity from two different licensed carriers on different routes.
- Put cloud on-ramps in two different buildings so one failure does not cut you off.
- Get cross-connect (the cable from your rack to another network) and meet-me-room prices into the contract. We found no Indian operator that publishes a cross-connect rate card.
Want this checked for your own site, power contract or launch plan? See DC advisory.
Sources for this section (15)
- PeeringDB. Internet exchanges and facilities in India. 14 Oct 2026
- DE-CIX India. DE-CIX ranks number 1 operator in Europe, Middle East and India. 12 May 2026
- Extreme IX. Pricing and traffic statistics. 14 Oct 2026
- Megaport. Megaport expands into India with acquisition of Extreme IX. 17 Dec 2025
- NIXI. Tariff policy. 1 Jul 2025
- AMS-IX. AMS-IX Mumbai. 14 Oct 2026
- Amazon Web Services. AWS Direct Connect locations and pricing. 14 Oct 2026
- Microsoft Learn. Azure ExpressRoute locations and providers. 8 Oct 2026
- Google Cloud. Cloud Interconnect colocation facilities. 9 Oct 2026
- Oracle. FastConnect partners and locations. 14 Oct 2026
- Microsoft Learn. Azure network round-trip latency statistics. 30 Jul 2026
- WonderNetwork. Global ping statistics. 13 Oct 2026
- Bharti Airtel. Quarterly report Q1 FY27 (incl. regulatory developments). Aug 2026
- TRAI. Response to DoT back-reference on network authorisations. 13 Aug 2025
- PIB. Cabinet approves telecom reforms (100% FDI automatic route). 15 Sept 2021
Connectivity and latency
Frequently asked questions
Mumbai, in most cases. It has the busiest internet exchanges and the most connected buildings: on 14 Oct 2026, DE-CIX had 451 networks in Mumbai and Equinix MB1 alone hosted 261 (PeeringDB). Delhi NCR is second by networks at the exchanges (DE-CIX 105, Extreme IX 175, NIXI 114), while Chennai is the natural second site for subsea routes to Singapore. We suggest a carrier-neutral Mumbai building with access to at least two exchanges and two cloud on-ramps.
At Extreme IX, a 10G port costs ₹50,000 (US$525) a month and a 100G port ₹2,50,000 (US$2,625), before tax (14 Oct 2026). NIXI's metro rates are ₹49,900 (US$524) and ₹2,47,333 (US$2,597) a month, with cheaper annual billing (10G ₹5,80,000 a year) and edge nodes at about 2.5 times the price (tariff from 1 Jul 2025). DE-CIX India does not publish its prices.
Yes. All four offer private on-ramps in India: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect and Oracle FastConnect (provider pages read 8 to 14 Oct 2026). Mumbai has on-ramps for all four, for example at Equinix MB1 (AWS, Google), Sify Rabale (AWS, Oracle) and Tata Communications (Azure, Google). Put on-ramps in two different buildings so one failure does not cut you off; at about US$1,642 (₹1.56 lakh) a month per AWS 10G port (US$2.25 an hour), budget for both.
On the public internet, the median round trip was 27 milliseconds from Mumbai to Delhi and 23 from Mumbai to Chennai (WonderNetwork, 29 Sep to 13 Oct 2026). Microsoft's own backbone measured 20 milliseconds from Pune to Chennai over the 30 days to 30 Jul 2026. The physical minimum in fibre is about 11 and 10 milliseconds. Some public routes detour badly, which is why private links and direct peering matter.
In our reading, not if you only sell compute: colocating, buying cross-connects and peering with your own ASN (the network number you need to exchange traffic directly) need no telecom licence. Selling internet access, IP transit or inter-city circuits needs a Department of Telecommunications authorisation, under new rules dated 23 Jun 2026 as reported by Airtel. Since 15 Sep 2021, a telecom licensee can be 100% foreign-owned under the automatic route, with safeguards. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with Indian telecom counsel before you contract.
Usually not directly. Dark fibre, ducts and rights of way are leased by registered infrastructure providers (IP-I), and only to licensed operators, so a GPU cloud normally buys wavelengths or managed fibre from licensed carriers, ideally two carriers on different routes. Large carriers include Bharti Airtel, with 542,570 route km of fibre in India (Jun 2026), and PowerGrid, with 100,000+ km (Oct 2026). This is general information, not legal advice.
FlexiCloud DC advisory
Planning capacity in India?
If you are choosing a building, exchanges, cloud on-ramps or carriers in India, FlexiCloud DC advisory can shortlist the options and check the connectivity terms in your contract, including cross-connect prices.
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