Submer India and BSNL Tower Corporation Limited (BTCL) Sign a MoU

MoU brings together Submer’s end-to-end AI infrastructure expertise and BTCL’s nationwide footprint to explore scalable GPU, edge, and high-density data center deployments.

New Delhi, India – 10 October 2026 – Submer India Private Limited (Submer) and BSNL Tower Corporation Limited (BTCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the India Mobile Congress 2026 to explore the development of sovereign, AI-ready data center infrastructure across India.

The collaboration will focus on infrastructure designed for the growing requirements of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Submer and BTCL will jointly assess opportunities spanning:

•  GPU-as-a-Service

•  Sovereign AI cloud infrastructure

•  Edge and micro-edge data centers

•  Large-scale data center projects of up to 20 MW

The parties will also evaluate the suitability of BSNL premises and data center facilities for transformation into distributed edge infrastructure. These assessments will consider technical and commercial feasibility, connectivity, scalability, energy efficiency, and the requirements of government, PSU, enterprise, research, and institutional workloads.

“AI will play an increasingly important role in India’s digital transformation, creating demand for secure, high-performance computing infrastructure that can serve the country at scale,” said Shri Robert Jerard Ravi, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL. “This MoU marks an important step in evaluating how BSNL’s nationwide infrastructure and connectivity footprint can support sovereign AI capabilities. Our collaboration with Submer will help us explore an infrastructure model designed around India’s long-term digital priorities.”

“Government bodies and enterprises need a practical path to adopt AI without compromising performance, security, or data sovereignty,” said Shri Sudhakar Rao Papa, Director, Enterprise Business, BSNL. “By assessing GPU-as-a-Service, sovereign cloud and distributed edge infrastructure, this collaboration aims to bring AI computing capacity closer to organizations across India and support a broader range of public-sector and enterprise applications.”

“India’s next phase of digital growth will depend on secure, scalable, and locally available computing infrastructure,” said Shri Jitendra Garg, ITS, PGM (BTCL) BSNL Corporate Office. “This collaboration combines BSNL’s extensive nationwide network and strategic facilities with Submer’s expertise in advanced data center systems. It gives us a strong foundation from which to evaluate new AI infrastructure opportunities for public-sector and enterprise customers.”

“India has the talent, demand, and digital reach to become a global AI infrastructure leader. The next step is to build the physical capacity that turns that ambition into deployable compute,” said Anupam Shrivastava, Submer India Head. “Together with BTCL, we are bringing infrastructure, network reach, and engineering expertise into one model. Our goal is clear: make sovereign AI capacity available where it is needed, from strategic edge locations to large-scale AI data centers.”