Building networks to propel the next phase of economic growth
India is consistently leading as the largest market for app downloads on both App Store and Google Play combined since 2022
More than $60 billion has been invested in India’s internet startups in the last 5 years, with around $12 billion in 2020
India alone added 1600 new tech startups in 2020; more importantly, a record number of tech startups became unicorns in the consequent years
The above data indicates that India’s digital landscape is on the cusp of massive growth and opportunities. One can only imagine its profound impact on the country’s economy and the number of jobs that will be created as a result of the growing digital ecosystem.
This also places a massive responsibility on India’s telecom industry. It is imperative that we provide an extremely robust and resilient digital backbone to power the next wave of digital transformation and allow our businesses to focus on innovation and growth.
There is little doubt that the Indian telecommunications industry has played a stellar role in the country’s growth over the last two decades. India’s telecom revolution is truly inspirational. More recently, the sector ensured business continuity for enterprises after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year as the normal way of life came to a standstill. Even so, what got us here is unlikely to take us further.
Today, the digital economy is becoming all-pervasive and Indian enterprises need an extremely robust and resilient network infrastructure designed for 100% uptime and low latency of <1 millisecond within key economic hubs. Unfortunately, present-day networks are not built to deliver this kind of network performance.
Fiber-powered growth
India Inc. needs a fiber-powered network infrastructure that ensures the highest level of network performance. Fiber is crucial for carrying a vast amount of data over long distances with minimal packet loss. Moreover, it is key for the reliable performance of bandwidth-intensive applications. It is hardly surprising then that there is a direct correlation between fiber rollout and the GDP.
Fiber rollouts in India don’t match the unprecedented surge in data consumption and the vision of Digital India. According to the credit rating agency ICRA, India’s current per capita fiber coverage is just 0.09 fibre km as against 0.87 km for China and 1.3 km for Japan and the US. Further, the problem of rampant fibre cuts leads to frequent disruptions.
Challenging the status quo
At Lightstorm, we are building a world-class utility-grade fiber-based network interconnecting major global data center hubs, cloud regions, and AI and edge compute zones that is specially designed to deliver a true B2B enterprise network experience. More than 92% of Lightstorm’s network uses a utility-grade fiber network enabling it to provide 100% uptime. The utility-grade infrastructure is not prone to problems like fiber cuts, thus ensuring extreme availability. This, coupled with the best DWDM technology, allows us to provision and scale our customers quickly on our network.
It may sound ironic, but we spent the first two years of our existence just understanding the network-related problems faced by enterprise customers. These insights helped us in understanding the shortcomings of the traditional ring network architecture, which is not geared to deliver the low latency required by several digital applications powered by the cloud and its use cases. To overcome this, we adopted point-to-point linear routes and mesh architecture to provide the shortest latency between data centers within and across cities.
As India’s first carrier-neutral B2B network provider, we have taken an unprecedented step - complete transparency. We publish our connected DC details and latency values across our network. This is our first crucial step towards providing complete transparency and, in turn, the control back in the hands of our customers.
There is an urgent need to reimagine enterprise network architecture in line with the evolving requirements of the businesses. We have accepted the challenge and are redefining how networks are built to power future growth and take us closer to the vision of Digital India.