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Telstra Buys Stake in Southern Cross Cable

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An iTWire publication www.itwire.com Editor: Stan Beer Wednesday 02 October 2019 TELSTRA BUYS STAKE IN SOUTHERN CROSS CABLE CommsWire (ISSN 2202-4549) is published by iTWire Pty Ltd. 18 Lansdown St, Hampton, Vic, 3188 CommsWire/Telecommunications Editor: Stan Beer Staff writers: Peter Dinham, Alex Zaharov-Reutt, Sam Varghese. Columnist: John de Ridder Advertising: CEO and Editor in Chief, Andrew Matler: [email protected] • Tel: 0412 390 000 TELSTRA TO BUY STAKE IN SOUTHERN CROSS CABLE NETWORK Telstra has put pen to paper with the signing of a conditional agreement to take up a 25% equity interest in the US$300 million trans-Pacific Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN). Telstra’s signing of the conditional agreement follows its announcement in December last year of its inking of a terms of purchase agreement and intention to take up a 25% equity stake, joining existing shareholders - Spark New Zealand, Singtel and Verizon Business - in the cable company. Telstra Enterprise Group Executive, Michael Ebeid, said Telstra’s investment in the NEXT cable will deliver benefits to all its customers – from enterprise to wholesale and consumer. “With 80 per cent of all the internet traffic to Australia coming from the US, a high speed, low latency direct route to North America is a very important investment for our business and our customers,” Ebeid said. "Southern Cross builds on our existing footprint across Asia Pacific where we carry 30 per cent of the region’s active capacity. We are now even better placed to meet our customers' future data requirements right across Asia Pacific.” SCCN announced on Tuesday that conditional agreements have been executed and regulatory approvals have been obtained to enable construction of the subsea cable to soon begin. “The shareholders have agreed to commit the necessary equity funding to enable Southern Cross NEXT to proceed with additional funding raised from debt and SCCN cash reserves,” the SCCN statement said. “Although the transaction is still subject to some conditions, these are procedural in nature and are expected to be satisfied within the next few days.” Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has also been granted CIF to build the new high capacity express route which, once complete, will be the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to the United States, based on its design and route. Wednesday 02 October 2019 No: 191002 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 2 Southern Cross NEXT will provide data connectivity between Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles and is scheduled for completion by January 2022. The new route will also provide critical international cable connectivity to the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati. The new 13,483 kilometre cable system has been developed as an extension of the existing Southern Cross two cable eco-system, and will allow customers to leverage Southern Cross’ extensive point-of-presence network and access infrastructure already in place. It will also allow Southern Cross NEXT customers to flexibly assign new and existing capacity across the three routes across the Pacific, connecting Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the United States, maximising diversity and resiliency. Southern Cross President and CEO Laurie Miller said: “The achievement of CIF is the result of a massive amount of effort by Southern Cross and the Sponsor teams over many months on the project. “The addition of the new Southern Cross NEXT route to the existing platform will provide existing and future customers with further resiliency and connectivity options between Australia, New Zealand and the United States,” Miller said. “We are delighted to have successfully achieved this key milestone, and all focus will now turn to the timely implementation of the new system, and the continued development of product enhancements to meet our customers growing and changing requirements.” “With significant work already completed including pre-sales, marine survey, landing arrangements, Pacific Island agreements, detail design and the cable RFT, the Southern Cross NEXT project is well positioned to meet its target completion date of January 2022.” Spark Chief Financial Officer David Chalmers welcomed Telstra as a shareholder in Southern Cross: “The Southern Cross network provides critical connectivity between New Zealand and Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the USA. Southern Cross NEXT will ensure this network Cross can continue to provide that connectivity for the region, and meet our customers’ increasing data demands, for decades to come.” And Singtel Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Mr Ooi Seng Keat said: “Together with the newly completed INDIGO submarine cable system, the enhanced Southern Cross cable ecosystem will be a new data superhighway connecting Southeast Asia to the United States, providing greater network diversity. “The new cable system will enable Singtel and Optus to accelerate the roll-out of next- generation technologies that rely on low latency and high-bandwidth connectivity, reinforcing our position as one of the leading providers of international data services in the region.” Peter Dinham Wednesday 02 October 2019 No: 191002 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 3 REALME TO ENTER AUSTRALIAN SMARTPHONE MARKET THIS MONTH The already over-crowded Australian smartphone market will see yet another entrant this month when the Chinese brand realme launches four devices at a function in Sydney. A statement from the company, which was formed in 2018 by former OPPO vice-president Sky Li, claimed the brand already had more than 10 million users worldwide in 18 markets. Prices for the four devices will range from $200 to $500, and they will be sold online through JB HiFI, The Good Guys, Bing Lee and other unnamed outlets. Though it split off from OPPO, the company is still backed by its parent, with a shared production line, supply chain and ColorOS, a modified version of Android. OPPO is one of the three brands sold by BBK Electronics, with the being vivo and OnePlus. realme said the phones would also be sold on eBay, Amazon, Kogan, Catch and Mobilciti and on its own website. The company also has plans to enter the consumer finance market in Australia in collaboration with Make It Mine. realme Australia managing director Andy Yang (left) said: "realme is a young and fearless brand and our aim is to enable our fans to experience premium functionality, technology and style at a reasonable price. “Young people don’t need to spend a fortune to access high- quality phones with larger battery life and storage, rapid charging and superior camera technology. “Our customers are young and brave and we’re excited to share our innovations with Australian consumers. “As a disruptive smartphone brand, realme has won more than 10 million fans in just 15 months, a record in the smartphone industry. “Our Dare to Leap spirit drives us to innovate and challenge the status quo, which is what we are doing globally and aim to continue in Australia.” realme is already available in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Russia, apart from China and Taiwan. Sam Varghese Wednesday 02 October 2019 No: 191002 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 4 ERICSSON SELECTED BY KDDI TO DEPLOY JAPAN 5G NETWORK Ericsson has been selected by communications service provider KDDI as the primary 5G vendor for next-generation network deployment in Japan. Under the agreement, Ericsson will supply KDDI with Radio Access Network equipment, including products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio. Ericsson says the deployments will allow KDDI to maximise its spectrum assets and enable the service provider to roll out commercial 5G services in several parts of Japan on their sub-6GHz and 28GHz bands for 5G New Radio (NR). KDDI’s selection of Ericsson as a 5G vendor follows nearly four years of close collaboration on 5G between the companies, Ericsson said in a statement released on Monday. Chris Houghton, Senior Vice President, Head of Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, says: “Having established our important partnership with KDDI in 2013, we have now expanded our collaboration efforts”. “We are excited about our involvement in KDDI’s 5G network buildout, which will provide a sound basis for our future collaboration as well as allowing our partner to offer users a whole new generation of mobile services.” Japan’s telecom regulation body, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, allocated spectrum to communication service providers KDDI, SoftBank, NTT DOCOMO, and Rakuten in April this year in preparation for the 2020 launch of 5G services. Ericsson says the government ministry expressed its hope that the telecom industry would build 5G infrastructure on a broad scale, extending well beyond major cities into rural areas KDDI reportedly aims to achieve 93.2% coverage of the 5G specified base station areas in Japan by the end of March 2025. KDDI and Ericsson say they have carried out a large number of joint tests across a wide range of 5G use cases on the 4.5GHz and 28GHz frequency bands, including the interworking between 5G and LTE. The two companies have been collaborating on 5G since November 25, 2015, when they announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the evolution of the latest mobile technology. Peter Dinham Wednesday 02 October 2019 No: 191002 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 5 ANOTHER BLACKSPOT GONE AS FIREFLY GETS IMPROVED COVERAGE The rural community of Firefly on the NSW mid north coast now has improved mobile phone coverage with the switching on of a new tower co-funded by Optus and the Federal Government as part of the rollout of the Mobile Black Spot Program. Optus says coverage from the site, which is co-located on an existing tower along Bunyah Road in Firefly is now enabling more than 190 homes to connect to reliable mobile reception, providing them with the ability to make and receive calls, text and browse the internet.
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