SEACOM

SEACOM:

• Investors: Herakles (backed by Blackstone); Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan) through IPS; Venfin (led by South African Johann Rupert); Convergence Partners (led by former South African DoC DG Andile Ngcaba); Shanduka (led by South African Cyril Ramaphosa); Neotel (has pledged ZAR 20 million for cable station)
• CAPEX/Cost : approx. USD 650 mn
• RFS : June 2009
• Financing arranged by Nedbank and Investec
• Suppliers/Contractors : Tyco
• Length 15,000 km
• Links Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia
• Capacity : 2 FP, 1.28 Tbps design
  

National Lambda Rail (NLR)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Source Reese/NLR

Internet2 + Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene) - Source internet2.edu

Palapa Ring (7)

*Update*
According to some local news at the end of October, Powertek Utama Internusa has indeed withdrawn its membership from the consortium. This is based on some statements quoted from the consortium spokesperson Rakhmat Junaedi. But what a bit strange is that the company (Powertek) has stated that "it should not be finalized yet" !!

Main One

MAIN One is a private cable system currently under construction; owned by Main Street Technologies: "led by Ms. Funke Opeke, who worked as an executive at Verizon, as the chief technology officer at MTN, and as chief operating officer of Nitel from late-2006 to early-2007".

EASSy

East African Submarine cable System (EASSy) was proposed by a consortium of regional (east African) operators.

TEAMS

TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is a point-to-point system connecting Mombasa, Kenya and Fujairah, UAE. It was initially proposed by Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2006.

• Supply contract awarded to ASN in October, 2007
• CAPEX : USD 82 mn
• Revised ownership, as of 2008: Gov’t. of Kenya (20%); UAE incumbent Etisalat (15%); Earmark for “Private Telecommunications Operators” (65%) -- Interested: Safaricom, UUNet, Access Kenya, Jamii Telecom
• Investors assuming 5% equity would pay USD 214/Mb/mo. for wet plant between Mombasa and Fujairah
  
• Onward connectivity from Fujairah to Europe or USA would be USD 55k to USD 100k per STM-1 per year, according to Kenyan gov’t
• RFS : ??
• Capacity : ??

Credits: M Ruddy/Terabit

Intra-Asia Cables (2)

This shall be a try to give different looks for submarine fiber optic cables in Asia. It seems very crowded, in particular in the East Asia region and that around Singapore :-D

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 1 (Source/Courtesy Tata/LirneASIA/D. Goswami)

Intra-Asia Cables

Some times ago, I'd tried to find out more about Pacnet's EAC-C2C cables. It was not easy since both EAC and C2C are mature systems that operated since more than 6 years ago and that the ownership was changed several times. I found an interresting talk given by Yves Poppe at APAN meeting oneday in 2006: i.e. he addressed 3 "east Asian telecommunication aortas" :

• EAC (East Asia Crossing) : design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Jan 2001
• APCN-2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network - 2): design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
• C2C (City to City): design capacity --> 7.68 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
  

India - Some Numbers (Again!)

Milestone for telecom growth in India

• 1994 –NTP 94
• 1999 –NTP 99
• 2001 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2002 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2003 –Abolished RPP
• 2004 –Launch of ADSL on Fixed line (Internet Boom)
• 2005 –74% Foreign Investment Allowed in Telecom Sector

FTTH in Italy

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

Cables Passing Mediterranean

Just to mention several new cable systems in western Asia/Mediterranean which are planned or currently prepared/installed :

• IMEWE
• MENA
• MEF
• TE NORTH
• SEACOM
• FLAG MED
• FLAG EA
  
• EASSY
• EIG
• Other ??

Targeted RFS schedule and countries will be connected with each system can be seen below.

FTTH in the Netherlands

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in the United States

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Norway

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Iceland

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Slovenia

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Slovenia (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Denmark

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Denmark (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

i2i (Cable Network)

i2i stands for India to International. It is the first private cable to directly link India and Singapore. i2i was planned as a cable network spanning 10,800 km which would approximately be cost USD 650 mn. Phase 1 of i2i cable development covered a linear link between Chennai - Tuas and a terrestrial link between Chennai and Mumbai. What about Phase 2 or beyond ? This should include a submarine cable link between Mumbai and Singapore. Does anybody know?

FTTH in Sweden

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Sweden (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Hong Kong

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Hong Kong (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in South Korea

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in South Korea - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Taiwan

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

APCN2

This system is owned by the APCN consortium. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later. You are free to comment! :-D

FTTH in Japan

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

EAC - C2C

Both EAC and C2C are currently operated by Pacnet, previously ANC. I've address these cable systems shortly in the thread "intra-Asia cables" or something similar. But I guess I'll decompose that large scope to each corresponding system. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later.

FNAL | RNAL

FNAL / RNAL (FLAG North Asia Loop / REACH North Asia Loop) is owned by FLAG Telecom, currenlty Reliance (??) and REACH (still??). This has shortly been addressed in the thread "intra-Asia cables" or something similar. But I guess I'll decompose that large scope to each corresponding system. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later. You are free to comment! :-D

ReadMe

As of current state, this blog is just a collection of my stuff, thoughts, material etc. It isn't intended to as professional-grade information media. Please note that all stuffs are available AS IS and without any warranty. If you find that some information useful, you are free to use them at your own risks, as long as it conforms with this creative commons term.

Note-1
As you might see, I try to a bit monetize this site by putting Adsense. Although Google has claimed that "Adsense is family-safe", it several times happened that "unwanted/irrelevant/possibly-negative" ads have shown at the client page. And it is unfortunately not yet possible to filter ads based on keywords. So, in such a case, please accept my apologize and I would appreciate if you give me a feedback and hint to what you've experienced, in order for me to add those "unwanted"-websites to my Adsense filter list. This is currently the only possibility to prevent certain website-links appear.

FTTH in China

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in China (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Singapore

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Singapore (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

Tata Indicom Cable (TIC)

TIC belongs to the first cable systems which are fully owned and operated from the beginning (not acquired) by VSNL/Tata. TIC is also known as TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System). Several facts:

GEANT2

What is GEANT2?

• 7th generation of pan-European research network infrastructure – continuation of a success story
• Project partners include 30 of Europe’s national research and education networks (NRENs), DANTE (coordinator) and TERENA
• Connects 34 European countries and serves over 3500 research and education establishments across Europe
• Over 30 million users
• Provides extensive international connectivity to other world regions
• Funded jointly by NRENs and European Commission
• Project timescale September 2004 – mid 2009
• Planning underway for GÉANT3; GEANT3 planned from Q3 2009 to Q2 2013
• Features: Hybrid network, 34 European Countries, International Connections

TEIN2

TEIN stands for Trans-Eurasia Information Network. It was "one of the new initiatives endorsed by ASEM III (October 2000, Seoul, Korea) to connect research networks between Asia and Europe by linking EU's GEANT, the pan-European gigabit research network, with Asia's research networks such as the APII Testbeds in order to promote information exchanges in research and development and education".

TEIN2 is the second generation of the TEIN project and the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific, which connects ten (10) countries in the region, and provides direct connectivity to Europe’s GÉANT2 network.

EUMEDCONNECT

EC has also pioneered investment to connect mediterranean countries (North Africa and Middle East) to support research and education networking between them internally and between them and Europe as well : the EUMEDCONNECT. The role of the governments and/or mediterranean NRENs to support this project and their national networks has contributed to the success of the initiative: user community starting to rely on the infrastructure.

FALCON

Apollo Cable

Apollo Cable:

Trans Pacific Express (TPE)

Posts related to Trans Pacific Express (TPE):

• Trans Pacific Express (2)
  

• Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) Cable System

Asia America Gateway (AAG)

Posts related to Asia America Gateway (AAG):

• Asia America Gateway AAG (2)

• AAG: Something New?

Googles

Posts related to projects initiated/involving Google :

• SCJ Plan
  

• Unity Cable System

Bandwidth Prices

Posts related to "bandwidth price" issues:

• Bandwidth Price (3)
• Bandwidth Price (2)
  

• Bandwidth Price (1)
  
• Jakarta (IP) Bandwidth Price

• Broadband: Penetration and Pricing

• Domestic Bandwidth Price

Trans-Pacific Express (2)

The first phase of TPE (Trans Pacific Express) cable is just ready for service!

Some updates (see the other older post) :

• "Originally announced as a 5.12 terabit system in December 2006, the cable system has increased in capacity, and when fully deployed when phase two is completed, TPE will be a 6 terabit submarine cable system" (Submarine Cable News); 6.4 Tbps I guess
• Suppliers: Tyco (prime); ASN; NEC
• "With the addition of NTT Communications, the TPE cable system will add a submarine cable link to Japan giving the TPE cable system six landing sites"
• "The operating capacity of the system is 3.2 Tbps, an increase of 25 percent over the original system design. With a minimum 80 wavelengths per fiber, TPE has the highest wave-density of any submarine cable in the world at this length."
  

GLO-1

SAT-3 | WASC

Asian Bandwidth Growth : Demands, Supplies & Facts

This will highlight and shall actually be a summary of the talk given by Bill Barney / Pacnet several times ago.

Several facts happened in Asia:

• 41% of the world’s fixed line users
• More than 40% of the world’s mobile users : Number of subscribers in Asia has grown from 280m to more than 950m between 2003-2007 (GSMA, ITU, Frost & Sullivan); More than 210 million users have signed up for 3G services in Asia since the launch of the first high-speed mobile network data network in Korea in 2000 (CDMA Development Group)
• 38.7% of the world’s Internet subscribers: Growth (2000-2007) at 346.6%, compared to the rest of the world at 228.1%
• Over 42% of the world’s broadband Internet users: The number of broadband connections in Asia nearly quadrupled between 2003-2007 (27.3m to 100.5m); 128m out of world’s 350m broadband subscribers are in Asia. (Buddecom)
  

Those things are enforced among other by the following key drivers:

Bandwidth Price (3)

Recently, Primetrica published new data for their IP transit pricing service and stated that "prices for wholesale Internet access (IP transit) are falling rapidly, but continue to vary dramatically around the world". How much should IP transit cost ?? Currently, according to Primetrica :

• Median monthly IP transit prices for 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports in major U.S. and European cities ranged from USD 10 to USD 14 per Mbps in Q2 2008
• The median price of a GigE port in major asian cities ranged from USD 30 per Mbps month in Seoul to USD 45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo
• IP transit service in Latin America is even more expensive, with median GigE port prices ranging from USD 73 per month in Buenos Aires/Sao Paulo to USD 86 per month in Santiago
  

India : The Bandwidth Hotspot

Since a long time India historically has an important position in the world (of everything). This continues for our current information age, where India surely plays a major and growing role. I would say, India is a kingdom, specifically a "bandwidth" kingdom :-)

According to Telegeography, as of end 2007, India has 36 Gbps Internet bandwidth, serving traditional telecom/data users as well as the emerging 3.4 mn broadband customers.

Some other facts:

Tata's Cables

Let's begin with a Wiki quotation :-)

Tata Communications, formerly known Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited or VSNL, is India's largest telecommunication company in international long distance, enterprise data and internet services. Part of the Tata Group, Tata Communications is based in Mumbai and has operations in over 80 cities spread across 40 countries. Tata Teleservices, one of India's largest and least congested cellular providers, is a subsidiary of Tata Communications. Through its subsidiary Tyco Global Network, it is also one of the world's largest submarine cable bandwidth providers and has the world's largest network of submarine cables. Other subsidiaries of Tata Communications include VSNL International Canada, formerly known as Teleglobe while it is the majority share-holder of Neotel, South Africa's second-largest cellular operator.

In 1986, VSNL was formed as a Government of India-owned company and 1996, Tata Teleservices was established. In 2000, Tata Group acquired controlling stake in VSNL which was later expanded to 46%. In 2007, VSNL was renamed as Tata Communications which also included Tata Teleservices.

Bandwidth Price (2)

Early this year (2008), as quoted by some local newspapers, both APJII and Kominfo gave the following bandwidth price range

• before 2008: USD 2,200 - 2,500 / Mbps
  
• since Q1/2008: USD 1,300 - 1,800 / Mbps
  

One day in late 2007, Divakar Goswami (formerly Lirneasia, currently Deloitte ??) mentioned some numbers as given in the pictures below.

Biznet (PT Supra Primatama Nusantara)

Biznet was founded 8 years ago. It has focused initially on providing Internet access for corporates and enterprises, mainly at central business districts in Jakarta. Meanwhile, Biznet offers a wide range of other networking services. Looking at several aspects, it seems that this company belongs to the bests in the business, even though it is likely run as a "Kusma" family-business ??, CMIIW.

As of Q3/2008 Biznet

Peering Wars

This was actually a quite old story issued by Renesys several months ago and it was also presented at NANOG 43 (June 2008). The story took a case of network-depeering and the actors were Cogent and Telia. At that time, both Cogent and Telia are considered as "near" Tier-1 providers. Why "near"?

• Cogent gets (got?) transit from NTT (formerly Verio) to reach AOL (ATDN?).
• Telia appeared to get transit from Verizon to reach certain networks.

Additionally, it is worth to mention that

• Tier-1 providers act like a cartel and have no incentive to add members
• "Near" Tier-1 providers can try to buy their way into the club (via "paid peering")