Constl has completed a 1.6 Tbps channel transmission on its live national long-distance network across the Mumbai-Pune corridor using Ciena technology. According to Ciena, this makes Constl the first operator in India to complete a 1.6 Tbps channel over an NLD network.
The transmission was carried out on a live production network rather than in a laboratory or test setting, marking the latest step in Constl's effort to increase optical capacity on routes linking major digital infrastructure hubs. A subsidiary of Space World Group, Constl describes itself as a carrier-neutral connectivity provider with fibre links across more than 13 cities and more than 100 data centres.
The result builds on an earlier milestone by Constl and Ciena, when they completed a 1 Tbps transmission across a 1,450km Mumbai-Chennai long-haul route in 2025 without regeneration. The latest achievement represents a 60% increase in demonstrated channel capacity from that benchmark.
Constl linked the upgrade to demand for higher-capacity links from customers including hyperscalers, data-centre operators and cloud platforms, as well as applications tied to artificial intelligence. The company is using Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme technology, known as WL6e, which supports up to 1.6 Tbps coherent optical capacity.
The Mumbai-Pune corridor is one of the country's key data and enterprise routes, linking two major commercial centres and connecting facilities that support cloud, storage and processing workloads. Running the transmission in a live network environment gives the announcement greater operational relevance than a trial under controlled laboratory conditions.
Executives at Constl linked the milestone to the economics of network expansion as traffic demand rises. Higher capacity per optical channel allows operators to move more data over existing fibre assets, with implications for upgrade cycles, equipment use and cost planning.
"Achieving 1.6 Tbps on a live production network across Mumbai-Pune corridor marks another important step in Constl's network evolution, enabling us to support 800GE services and growing AI bandwidth demands with greater efficiency and a lower cost per bit," said Ankit Goel, Chairman and Founder, Space World Group, and Founder, Constl.
"With our growing pan-India fibre network, these advances in optical capacity enable us to scale our network and support the increasingly demanding requirements of hyperscalers, data centres and AI-driven applications," Goel added.
Network demand
India's telecom and digital infrastructure sectors are under pressure to add capacity as data-centre construction, cloud adoption and AI-related workloads increase traffic between compute, storage and network locations. This has sharpened the focus on backbone and metro connectivity between cities with large clusters of digital infrastructure.
Constl is using the WL6e platform to scale multi-terabit capacity across both NLD and metro routes. The strategy is aimed at increasing available bandwidth while preserving the economics needed to support services that consume large volumes of capacity.
Ciena framed the result as part of a broader digital infrastructure build-out needed to support India's AI ambitions. The supplier has been working with operators globally to push higher coherent optical transmission rates across long-distance routes as carriers seek to expand capacity without proportional growth in physical footprint or energy use.
"Robust digital infrastructure is critical to advancing India's AI ambitions," said Prashant Ramesh Malkani, Vice President & General Manager, India, Ciena.
"With its pan-India network powered by Ciena's best-in-class optical technologies, Constl is well positioned to support this next phase of growth and meet the evolving needs of hyperscalers and AI infrastructure," Malkani said.
Capacity push
For the wider market, the announcement highlights how Indian network operators are moving from proving terabit transmission in test scenarios to implementing higher rates on production routes. That distinction matters because live networks must handle traffic continuity, operational constraints and the performance requirements of existing services.
The increase from 1 Tbps to 1.6 Tbps also reflects a broader shift in optical networking, as vendors and carriers try to raise throughput per wavelength to meet traffic growth without relying solely on new fibre builds. On dense routes between data-centre clusters, those gains can be significant for network planning and service delivery.
Constl has positioned itself around high-capacity fibre connectivity for carriers, digital platforms and infrastructure operators. Its latest transmission on the Mumbai-Pune route adds to evidence that Indian backbone providers are preparing their networks for larger AI, cloud and data-centre traffic flows.
The company describes its footprint as a pan-India carrier-neutral fibre network with connectivity across 13+ cities and 100+ data centres.