Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer, Telxius, Cable Business
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Technological Innovation New technology, new players, new possibilities by Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer, Telxius, Cable Business Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer, Telxius, Cable Business With more than 25 years of experience, Rafael Arranz has held offices as Sales and Capacity & IP Executive Vice-president at Telefónica International Wholesale Services. Mr. Arranz holds a telecommunications engineering degree from Madrid Polytechnic Univer- sity. Since 2016 he has been Chief Operating Officer of the Cable business at Telxius. A very good example of this is the evolution of landing stations. A necessary transformation for the 5G world. Some of them are becoming a unique combination of expanded landing stations and international Points of Presence (PoP). In this way, they not only take advantage of the high capacity of subsea cables but add rich interconnection options. They can potentially become a “one stop shop” for a wide range of cable services such as IP, capacity, security and colocation. Telxius’ Derio infrastructure built near Bilbao (Spain) is a perfect example of this and probably we may see similar projects in LATAM soon. Over the last few years we have seen a José (Guatemala) significant transformation in the communi- with Valparaíso cations world. The increase in data (Chile), with consumption and the arrival of 5G, additional landing Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of points in Salinas Things and Virtual Reality are being a wake (Ecuador), Lurín up call to new investors in subsea cables (Peru) and Arica and have triggered the evolution of (Chile). The cable infrastructures and new technologies to will have an initial boost capacity and to find the best way to estimated capacity better serve international customers. of 108 Tbps combined with the More and more subsea cable lowest latency capacity between Guatema- la and Chile. As a The MAREA and BRUSA subsea cable result, the 7,300 systems are the perfect example of next kilometer cable will serve the entire Pacific generation infrastructure. They are the coast of South America with the highest countries and for the development of highest capacity cables of the world with levels of service, reliability and security. societies. Only with BRUSA and the new 200 and 138 Terabits per second (Tbps), The cable has been designed to achieve cable that Telxius will be deploying in respectively. BRUSA represents one of the significant efficiencies deriving from collaboration with América Móvil, there largest infrastructural asset investments in infrastructure sharing. Its five landing will be seven countries interconnected in the last decade and it is contributing to stations are already in place and undersea the region, including some of the most increase connectivity and reliability of prospection works are currently under way. important economies such as USA and communications in the Latin American This is part of the joint ongoing commit- Brazil. region, expanding the network and the ment with Latin America to improve global Only BRUSA opens up a wide range of availability of broadband services. communications. connectivity opportunities from Latin America to the US and to Europe via Furthermore, at Telxius we have recently Global Reach MAREA. BRUSA is now the highest announced, alongside with América Móvil, capacity subsea cable connecting the the deployment of a new ultrahigh capacity The digital economy is every time more Americas, with landing points in Brazil undersea cable in the Pacific coast of Latin global and interconnected. Reaching more (Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza), Puerto Rico America. This will be the first undersea geographies, through diverse routes and and Virginia Beach (USA). cable since 2001 to connect Puerto San doing it faster is essential for companies, Latin America .| 201902 . 22 Technological Innovation In general terms, the growing trend in terms of traffic distribution is the possibility that interconnection provides, being able to reach more geographies faster, with the lowest latencies and more diversified state-of-the-art services. For example, Telxius’ Internet Transit Service provides direct connectivity to the internet through its Tier 1 Backbone, with over 10 Tbps capacity. It delivers international coverage with over 75 points of presence, spread over 20 countries, as well as innovative value-added services and compatible with the IPv6 protocol. New players The telecom sector has been evolving towards a more open, inclusive and transversal business model. Communica- tion infrastructures are not anymore exclusive to traditional telco companies or isolated projects carried out only by one customers with the highest capacity and support this amount of traffic and perfor- company. Now different players are lowest latency via MAREA and BRUSA. mance needs. For this reason, it is clear that contributing to the entire ecosystem such as new cable infrastructure will have to OTTs, governments, partnerships between There is definitely a growing trend in terms include the maximum level of capacity to different companies, among others. of improving connectivity in response to take full advantage of future technological market demands. Data consumption and development. We can expect a large share Over the last few years, there has been a traffic have grown significantly in the latest of growth in telecom infrastructure trend to build and develop the relationships years and will continue to grow, therefore, services, especially in Brazil, the largest between telcos and OTTs, in fact, they have Capacity, Reach and diversity of Players’ economy in South America. Nobody will become a key contributor to the entire involvement are significantly important to use less bandwidth in the future. industry as generators of a substantial part respond the worldwide communications of undersea cable traffic. They have also demand. In addition, continuous innovation In fact, LATAM is one of the leading become owners of cables themselves. in communication infrastructure will be a regions in terms of growth in telecommuni- MAREA is a good example of this type of must. cation infrastructure, with over 1.5 billion collaboration, having been jointly dollars of new cable investment throughout developed by Telxius, Facebook and A very good example of this is the evolution 2017 and 2018. In a global context, the need Microsoft. Amazon has also reached an of landing stations. A necessary transforma- for stronger bandwidth will also drive agreement with Telxius to use a fiber pair of tion for the 5G world. Some of them are infrastructure projects to support the new this cable. becoming a unique combination of expand- trend in the wholesale sector: 5G. As we ed landing stations and international Points move into an interconnected world, the Communications infrastruc- of Presence (PoP). In this way, they not telco business is adapting in response to ture innovation only take advantage of the high capacity of customers demand. The Internet of Things, subsea cables but add rich interconnection cloud, and mobility will likely impact any Global data traffic is expected to reach 175 options. They can potentially become a decision in the wholesale market in the zettabytes by 2025, and most of the related “one stop shop” for a wide range of cable upcoming years, as both user expectation data will reside in the cloud and data services such as IP, capacity, security and and competition rise hand by hand. centers. Main data centers in the Virginia colocation. Telxius’ Derio infrastructure area are already serving their international built near Bilbao (Spain) is a perfect As a conclusion, the general trend is to example of this and connect state-of-the-art cloud computing probably we may offering, terrestrial fibre, subsea fibre, data see similar projects centers and clouds, at the lowest latencies, in LATAM soon. with the main digital hubs in the world. All these elements, alongside disrupting Latin America has business models, such as those based on been experiencing a ‘Open APIs’ or ‘On Demand’ services, will submarine cable continue setting the communications boom in the last few agenda, not only in LATAM, but in the years as a result of entire world. This communications the huge increase of infrastructure hyper-sector will enable data generation and growth, investment and plenty of opportu- consumption, nities for people and businesses regionally mainly because the and globally. older cables would not be able to Latin America | 2019 . 23 .