STL expects revenue boost from data centre portfolio, says J&K BharatNet project ‘on track'

Time of India

23-06-2025

NEW DELHI: Homegrown
optical solutions maker
Sterlite Technologies
(STL) expects its enterprise equipment, and recently launched data centre (DC) portfolio to boost its revenues in the coming quarters.
STL, which won a ₹2,600-crore deal for the Jammu & Kashmir leg of the
BharatNet
Phase-III programme in consortium with Dilip Buildcon, said that project execution has started in several regions.
'We aim to capture nearly 25% of our revenues from DC and enterprise products over the next few quarters. And this will be driven by artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and 5G that are accelerating data centre constructions, along with an anticipated two-fold surge in hyperscaler and colocation capital expenditure (capex) in India in FY26,' Ankit Agarwal, managing director, STL, told ETTelecom in an interview.
STL's
data centre connectivity
offerings include high-performance fibre, copper cabling, connectors, engineering services, and design consultancy.
Citing third-party market estimates, STL in its recent quarterly earnings report had said that data centres with GPU-dense racks require 36-times more fibre compared to CPU racks, while AI data centres need 70% higher fibre density than traditional data centres, which will drive the demand for optical fibre cables.
'We have already initiated commercial discussions with multiple hyperscalers, telcos, and colocation operators in India and MEA,' Agarwal said, adding that the vendor's DC portfolio has been well-received across sectors, particularly by enterprises that are scaling private and edge data centers.
According to the top executive, the company is adopting a partner-led go-to-market (GTM) strategy to sell its DC connectivity portfolio in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia in the coming years. In India, STL is hiring several channel partners, including Tech Data India or TD Synnex, which has enabled faster market access across more than 70 cities.
'Pilot deployments are underway in key accounts, which will be followed by full-scale rollouts in the coming quarters,' Agarwal said.
Revenue of STL's optical networking business, however, fell by 2.32% year-on-year to ₹3,741-crore in FY25. The vendor's consolidated net loss increased marginally 1.41% year-on-year to ₹72-crore in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2025.
HFCL
and
Polycab
, which are among the leading domestic vendors, are also capitalising on the data centre growth in India.
According to a recent study by real estate consulting firm Colliers India, the country's data centre industry is expected to attract $20-25 billion in fresh investments in the next five to six years. It found that the total capacity will more than triple to over 4.5 GW by 2030, driven by the adoption of cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and digitalisation.
'With this new BharatNet project in Jammu & Kashmir, our focus is on expanding broadband connectivity to villages,' Agarwal said. 'Execution is on track in many regions, but challenges like terrain complexity, right-of-way (RoW) issues, and skilled manpower availability can impact rollout pace,' he added.
STL suggested that the Central government shift its focus from deployment to monetisation of BharatNet assets, adding that deployment quality and performance tracking must be standardised to ensure long-term viability.
The company had previously contributed to the execution of the Network for Spectrum (NFS) project in Jammu & Kashmir, building an intrusion-proof network spanning over 10,000 kilometres for the Indian Armed Forces.