Tata Communications

The business was founded as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) in March 1986 by the Government of India as a public-sector undertaking to manage the country's international telecommunications services. It took over the operations of the Overseas Communications Service, a company under the Ministry of Communications. Under the chairmanship of B. K. Syngal (1991–98), VSNL launched the first publicly available internet service in India in August 1995.

After the Government of India launched its disinvestment programme, VSNL was acquired by the Tata Group in 2002. The international arm of VSNL, known as VSNL International, was established in 2004. The company was subsequently renamed Tata Communications on 13 February 2008.

In August 2009, Tata Communications and Tyco Telecommunications completed the 6,700 km TGN-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) submarine cable system, connecting Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Vietnam and the Philippines. The system was designed to provide resilient and diverse network routes that bypass seismically active areas near Taiwan.

In 2014, the company launched IZO, a cloud connectivity platform designed to enable enterprises to securely connect to multiple cloud service providers over a single network. In February 2017, it sold its South African telecommunications subsidiary, Neotel, to Liquid Telecom Group.

In March 2021, the Government of India exited its remaining 26.12% stake in Tata Communications, ending its shareholding in the company nearly two decades after its privatisation in 2002. In March 2025, it launched Vayu, a cloud fabric platform designed to support enterprise multi-cloud environments and artificial intelligence workloads.

Acquisitions

In 2004, then operating as VSNL, the company acquired the broadband assets of DishnetDSL for ₹270 crore in a slump sale from its promoter Chinnakannan Sivasankaran.

In 2005, the company acquired the Tyco Global Network, an undersea fibre-optic cable system spanning approximately 60,000 kilometres, for approximately US$130 million. The acquisition formed the backbone of what became the Tata Global Network and significantly extended the company's international reach. In 2006, it acquired Teleglobe International Holdings, a provider of international voice, data and value-added services, for approximately US$178 million.

In July 2008, the company entered into an agreement with Eskom and Transnet to acquire their combined 30% stake in South African telecommunications operator Neotel. In January 2009, the company completed the acquisition, increasing its shareholding and becoming Neotel's controlling shareholder.

Operations

Tata Communications operates through Voice and Data segments, providing telecommunications and digital products to enterprise customers. The Voice segment covers international and national long-distance telephony, while the Data segment comprises connectivity and related products such as Ethernet, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), content delivery network, cloud, security, media and Internet of Things.

The company also provides cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence offerings. It describes its Digital Fabric platform as an architecture integrating network, cloud, interaction and IoT capabilities through a common orchestration layer.

Global network

In 2012, the company completed its network across Egypt linking Europe to India, and created a subsea fibre network that circumnavigates the world. The 9,280-kilometre (5,770 mi) Eurasian section of the Tata Global Network runs across the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East, connecting Mumbai with Marseille.

In January 2016, Windstream Communications announced it was extending its 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100G) network from New Jersey data center operator NJFX's presence at Tata's Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Wall Township, New Jersey, to Ashburn, Virginia's internet hub. As of 2016, Tata Communications had a data centre network located in 44 locations worldwide.