#44 Regional Systems Issue

M ay 2009

IN THIS ISSUE: Connect How Will Undersea Cables Change Africa’s World? Submarine Cable Systems In Latin America Dispelling The Myth: International Networks in the Australian IP Value Chain

An international forum for the expression of ideas and opinions pertaining to the submarine telecoms industry Welcome to the 44th issue of years we had lost the middle-agers bottlenecks. Jean Devos returns with SubTel Forum, our Regional Systems and all the talents they possessed, and his ever-insightful observations, and of edition. a significant void of maturity existed. course, our ever popular “where in the Maybe so – but maybe that matters less world are all those pesky cableships” is My 80 year old dad recently saved a than I once thought. included as well. life using the Heimlich maneuver. In any case, the generations have Anybody who knows me knows that I converged once more to provide our am heavily involved in the international readers with some interesting, thought scouting movement, and that teaching provoking articles. Enjoy, and stay young! such ‘survival’ skills is for Scouters an everyday thing. But I was nonetheless Lindsey McDonald examines how astounded that an octogenarian undersea cables are breathing life into could possess the composure and Africa, while Jorn Jespersen discusses a wherewithal to accomplish such a new system in Greenland. Erick Contag feat in a room full of dumbfounded examines telecoms demand in Latin onlookers. Perhaps that also suggests America, as Lucia Bibolini analyzes that I underestimated the still relevant that region’s submarine cable systems. talents of those before me. Andrew Lipman, Paul Gagnier and Troy Tanner share their insights on new FCC A business friend recently bemoaned regulation’s impact on submarine cable that our industry was matching we operators, as Stewart Ash continues his grey hairs with the iPod generation Back Reflection, and Robin Russell with few in the middle; that over recent dispels the myth of international 2 25 Global Marine Systems 13 NavaTel 20 Nexans 5 OFS 28 Parkburn 8 RSS #44 29 STF Advertising 36 STF Classifieds Regional 9 STF Podcast Systems 14 Submarine Networks Issue World 2009 M 4 WFN Strategies ay 2009

2 Exordium Wayne Nielsen 26 FCC Reforms Regulatory Fees for 37 The Cableships U.S. Submarine Cable Operators 5 News Now Andrew D. Lipman, Paul O. Gagnier, 42 Letter to a Friend Jean Devos and Troy F. Tanner 10 How Will Undersea Cables 43 Upcoming Conferences Change Africa’s World? 30 Dispelling The Myth: Lindsey McDonald International Networks in the Australian IP Value Chain 44 Coda Kevin G. Summers Robin Russell 15 Jorn Jespersen 32 Back Reflection Stewart Ash 21 Submarine Cable Systems In Latin America Lucia Bibolini 33 Latin America’s Emerging Economies Are Driving Demand For High Quality Capacity Connecting The Region With The Rest Of The World Erick Contag 3 4 A synopsis of current news items from NewsNow, the weekly news feed available on the Submarine Telecoms Forum website.

May 12th, 2009 xx Private Equity Investor Group Purchases Cable April 22nd, 2009 xx John Lawton joins Red Penguin Product Line from Tollgrade xx AT&T Q1 revenues flat, profits fall xx SubTel Forum Podcast - Episode 1: The May 4th, 2009 xx Telstra wins contract from Commonwealth Challenges of Raising Cable Awareness in xx Undersea Cables to Breathe Life Into Africa: Bank of Australia Developing Countries Frost & Sullivan Examines Their Impact xx ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum xx NEC forecasts return to profit on cost cutting April 30th, 2009 opens in Lisbon May 8th, 2009 xx Tata Communications Positioned in the April 20th, 2009 xx Telstra names Thodey as new CEO Challengers Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant xx Opportunity, innovation and strategy for for Managed Security Services xx NEC Announces Revision of Financial submarine cable owners, operators and Forecasts and Recording of Extraordinary Loss April 29th, 2009 investors for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2009 xx Phoenix Announces Award Of Deepwater xx TV5MONDE Selects Tata Communications’ May 7th, 2009 Maintenance Projects Content Delivery Network Services to Reach Global Audience in Real-Time xx ICT development strategies agreed at Asia- xx Tyco Electronics Reports Second Quarter Pacific meeting Results April 17th, 2009 May 5th, 2009 April 23rd, 2009 xx ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum focuses on future of ICT xx Alcatel-Lucent reports EUR 402 million net xx Tata Communications to Launch Cisco loss in Q1 TelePresence Exchange xx Sony Ericsson to cut more jobs as losses widen xx Pacnet Expands Its Asia Network With Xtera’s xx Huawei forecasts FY contract sales up 29% to NXT Terminals USD 30 bln

5 April 16th, 2009 xx Pacnet Completes Significant Capacity xx The SubOptic 2010 website is launched xx Renesas, NEC starts talks on merger - report Upgrades on EAC-C2C xx NTT Com and Pacnet make an offer on Pacific xx Telindus appoints new Product Manager for April 7th, 2009 Crossing Service Provider division xx KVH Announces $3.8 Million in New Orders for March 30th, 2009 April 14th, 2009 Fiber Optic Gyros xx Asia Pacific Wire & Cable Announces an xx WFN Strategies’ Director of Projects to speak xx Trans- Cable Network acquired by Amended and Restated Shareholders’ at ICPC 2009 Cobian Agreement xx Mobinil (Egypt): France Telecom requests xx SEACOM partners with Interoute to open a xx NEC Wins Contract to Build Submarine Cable Orascom Telecom to cease its media attack digital super highway between East Africa Asia Network (SCAN) System and comply with the ICC’s award and Europe xx Bharti Airtel and Australia Japan Cable xx US to boost telecommunications links with April 6th, 2009 collaborate to create a new connectivity Cuba xx Tata Communications and Dimension Data solution to Australia from Singapore and the US April 10th, 2009 Partner to Accelerate Global TelePresence Market March 27th, 2009 xx ITU Optical technology standards guide available April 2nd, 2009 xx Pacnet named Best Wholesale Carrier at Telecom Asia Awards 2009 April 9th, 2009 xx Global Marine Systems’ Energy Division prepared for growth March 26th, 2009 xx Siemens Introduces OpenScale™ Operate Service Packages Designed To Give April 1st, 2009 xx Telefonica Selects Level 3 for North American Enterprises Simpler, More Effective Ways to xx Global Crossing Announces Conference Call Network Manage Costs for GCUK’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2008 xx Tunisia signals its digital independence with April 8th, 2009 Financial Results a new sub sea cable linking North Africa to Interoute’s pan European network xx Global Crossing Prepared to Optimize New xx Fujitsu Optical Components Established Federal Broadband Fund xx Pacnet Enhances Focus on SMBs with New March 25th, 2009 xx WACS Consortium and Alcatel-Lucent Sign a Partner Program xx Tyco Telecommunications Successfully Contract to Deploy New 14,000 km Submarine March 31st, 2009 Transmits 40 Gigabits Per Second Signal On Cable Network Tata Communications’ Trans Pacific Undersea xx Fiber Will Eclipse DSL in Taiwan’s Internet System xx NEC - Regarding Media Reports on April 8, Market Within Next Five Years, Finds Pyramid 6 2009 Research xx Frost & Sullivan Recognizes ConceptWave(R) March 19th, 2009 March 16th, 2009 as a Formidable Player in the Global OSS/BSS xx Pacnet Boosts Philippine Operations to xx SubTel Forum announces winners of Markets Support Burgeoning BPO Industry readership survey prizes xx NEC to Upgrade PanAmerican Submarine xx ACCC institutes proceedings against Telstra xx Global Crossing Receives Two ATLANTIC- Cable for alleged breach of standard access ACM 2009 U.S. Wholesale Carrier Excellence March 24th, 2009 obligations Awards xx Pacnet Boosts Investment in India, Sets Sight xx Lightwave Logic, Inc. Announces Positive xx Fujitsu Conducts Collaborative Field Testing on High Growth Long Distance Market Patent Update of LTE xx NEC to Upgrade PanAmerican Submarine March 18th, 2009 xx NEC Obtains BSI Certification for Business Cable xx Active Optical Cable Patent Awarded to Continuity Plans March 23rd, 2009 EMCORE Corporatio xx Siemens supplies electric-propulsion and xx NEC and OptiComm Partner to Deliver FTTH xx Pacnet Bolsters Cross-Strait Connectivity to automation package for two deep-sea survey Open Access Network to more than 50,000 Support Accelerating Sino-Taiwanese Trade vessels New Homes and Businesses xx Interoute defies telco slow down - flight xx BT ranked top global operator for customer xx The Spanish Ministry of Public Administration towards fibre boosts revenues satisfaction awards its data communications and fixed March 17th, 2009 telephony to BT for the second time xx Tata joins forces with Seacom cable xx Alcatel-Lucent and Politecnico di Milano reinforce their cooperation in optical research xx Ericsson And Deutsche Telekom Succeed In A Joint European 100g R&D Field Trial (100get) xx Australia Japan Cable completes testing and On Existing Optical Platform offers Gigabit Ethernet on its international network xx Australia Japan Cable signs as International Capacity stream sponsor at CommsDay xx Global Marine Systems awarded Business Summit Weekly’s East of England Business Award in the category of International Trad xx BT selected as SABMiller’s network and telecommunications partner March 20th, 2009 xx Optical Cable Corporation Reports Fiscal First xx Hatteras and Overture Lead Growing Carrier Quarter 2009 Financial Results Ethernet Access Platform Market Segments in 7 2008, Heavy Reading Reports LIKE YOUR NEWS NOW?

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Submarine Telecoms Forum is published bi- monthly by WFN Strategies. The publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publishers. Submarine Telecoms Forum is an independent com­mercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fibre technologies and techniques. Liability: while every care is taken in preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy Featuring papers by industry experts, of the information herein, or any errors which the SubTel Forum podcast expands the platform may occur in advertising or editorial content, for discourse on submarine telecom cable or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions. and network operations The publisher cannot be held responsible for any views expressed by contributors, and the Episode 1: The Challenges of Raising Cable editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication. Awareness in Developing Countries Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the Managing Editor: Do you have a paper or topic you would like to have presented? Kevin G. Summers Contact Kevin Summers: [email protected] | 703.468.0554 Submarine Telecoms Forum 21495 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 201 Sterling, Virginia 20166 USA Tel: +[1] 703 468 0554 LISTEN TO US ON iTUNES Email: [email protected] KEYWORD: SUBTEL FORUM General Advertising Email: [email protected] Tel: +[1] 202 558 7514

9 Copyright © 2009 WFN Strategies 10 17 June 2009 may be a watershed Seacom has already outlined what sort ownership is privately held. This offers date in Africa’s economic history. That of pricing it will offer, and the savings the potential of more competitive rates is the date set for the Seacom cable to to South African wholesale users and creates confidence that the project become operational. are expected to be as much as 75%. will run on time. It has been scheduled Seacom will be offering a 9.6 Gigabit per to be completed around the middle of The significance of the cable can not be second (Gbps) wholesale connection at 2011. understated. Currently, South Africans R267 per Mbps (megabit per second) are dependent on the SAT3 cable for per month. The SAT-3 cable currently The cable will land in countries such as broadband connection to the rest of the costs between R3 500 and R11 000 per Namibia, the Democratic Republic of world. This single cable is insufficient Mbps per month. Congo, Congo Brazzaville, the Canary for the country’s needs, and is currently Islands, Togo, and Cape Verde, which controlled by a consortium that has In addition to Seacom, the construction are not currently served by SAT-3. used its monopolistic position to keep and maintenance agreement, and prices high. supply contract for the implementation Unfortunately, not all of these countries of the $600-million West Africa Cable currently have the required backbone East Africa has no cable at all at the System (Wacs) were signed on 8 infrastructure to take full advantage moment. Users there are entirely April by a multinational consortium of of the additional bandwidth. The reliant on satellite, which is slow and operators with interests in the project. true potential of the cables won’t be expensive. The cable will offer an alternative to the leveraged until this infrastructure is in Telkom-controlled SAT-3 cable, which place to take connectivity from the coast The Seacom cable offers the opportunity is fast running out of capacity. to inland regions. It will be interesting to to change all that. It will link South Africa, see whether this will provide an incentive Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania The cable will link and to for these governments to increase their and Kenya to India and Europe at South Africa, landing at a number of sites spending on telecommunications. greater speeds and at significantly along the way. Telecommunications lower costs. companies from both Africa and Europe As far as South Africa is concerned, have shares in the project. this cable will add to bandwidth being brought by the Seacom cable on the Bringing down the The deal was signed by Angola east coast. Frost & Sullivan maintains Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & that additional bandwidth is always cost of bandwidth will Wireless, MTN, Telecom Namibia, Tata a good thing, and there is certainly Communications (Neotel), Portugal no such thing as too much. Having also decrease the Telecom, Sotelco, Togo Telecom, these additional cables also creates Telkom SA and the Vodacom group. competition in the market which should cost of technologies help to put downward pressure on What makes this cable different than the prices. such as unified current installed capacity along the west coast of Africa is that a greater portion of 11 communications. The United States of America did reach previously unable to. For instance, they fully utilise the marketing power of the a stage when they thought they had have the expertise to offer software as internet because bandwidth has limited too much bandwidth and they wouldn’t a service and virtualization, but they are the scope of what they can do. be able to use it all. But they are now currently unable to deliver these due to having to build more to catch up with bandwidth constraints. These kinds of The lack of bandwidth in South Africa demand. That said, the continent offerings with materialise overnight. has also inhibited the ability of local certainly won’t use all of the available ICT companies to deliver services bandwidth straight away. These cables Proper use of the bandwidth would and support to foreign clients. This are built with a 15-20 year lifespan, also provide governments with the is particularly true in the software and with future technology in mind. opportunity to improve service delivery. development and online digital media As technology improves, it should be Services such as telemedicine could sectors, as companies are unable to possible to increase the capacity of the increase the reach of services into meet the needs of clients working in high cables through upgrades. poorly serviced rural areas. bandwidth environments. South African companies have shown an incredible It’s important to understand that the ability to innovate and offer niche impact of these cables will go far beyond East Africa has no solutions to sectors such as retail and allowing users to surf the web at high banking, but they have been restrained speed. The current lack of bandwidth cable at all at the by their bandwidth limitations. in the region has stifled innovation and prevents companies from taking moment. Users there It is fair to say that the more bandwidth advantage of business opportunities. people have, the more they need. are entirely reliant on South Africans are not realising the For instance, local online digital full benefits of Web 2.0 developments media companies are unable to keep satellite, which is slow because they don’t have the bandwidth up with the advances of their foreign to engage fully in activities like file counterparts, as they are simply unable and expensive. sharing and video streaming. Once to create applications that require we start using those sorts of platforms, Frost & Sullivan has also found that a large amount of bandwidth. Their our demands for more bandwidth will many South African online marketing competitors in places like the U.S. are, increase exponentially as we look to do and advertising companies are currently however, free to innovate as bandwidth more and engage the possibilities of the exporting more services than they sell is not a limiting factor. medium. The business opportunities for locally. This is not only because the companies in this sector are potentially client base in international markets is Frost & Sullivan is convinced that enormous. bigger, but because companies there this additional bandwidth will create have an understanding of the capacity of new opportunities within the local ICT Bringing down the cost of bandwidth will the internet and the ways in which tools industry. IT Service providers such as also decrease the cost of technologies such as search engine optimization Dimension Data will be able to provide such as unified communications. This can promote their online presence. additional services that they were will allow South Africans to engage 12 South African businesses have yet to in the sharing of information in more undersea cables promises a revolution Lindsey McDonald has convenient ways and allow new in the African ICT industry. With the been employed as an business opportunities for companies continent already providing some of the ICT analyst with Frost & offering voice, data and video services. fastest growth rates in the world, these Sullivan’s African division developments serve as an additional since December 2005. While this is all promising, there is one boost to a booming sector. She has conducted caveat. These cables alone are not a studies into smart card technology magic wand that will suddenly transport Some analysts have pointed out that adoption, opportunities in mobile Africa across the digital divide. For the economics of the digital age are telecommunications, IT infrastructure users to be able to take advantage of not those of scarcity. Bandwidth is a outsourcing, the market for open source the cable, the infrastructure to connect resource that is potentially so abundant software in South Africa and capital them to the cable has to be in place that it may, before long, become free. expenditure trends for sub-Saharan and secure. There has already been Until now, South Africans haven’t been African fixed line telecommunications a significant amount of activity from able to think in anything near those service providers. Lindsey’s research companies like MTN and Vodacom to terms, but Seacom is potentially the experience has given her wide ranging ensure that they have the infrastructure start of a new wave of thinking in Africa, exposure to many sub-Saharan African to take advantage of the increased in which we can start to see things in markets and she is an established expert demand Seacom will create. However, terms of abundance, not the scarcity on the African telecommunications much still needs to be done to ensure that has plagued the continent for so industry. that the benefits reach all Africans, long. It’s time we no longer thought in particularly those in rural areas where terms of our limitations, but rather our infrastructure is poor to nonexistent. possibilities. And in the digital age, those are endless. At a recent South African cabinet meeting, government recognised that expediting the roll-out of wireless broadband infrastructure had become imperative. Wireless broadband is essential for improving access for facilities in rural areas such as schools, clinics and courts.

Overall, the development of these 13 14 The Tele Greenland company vision “Greenland in the centre of the world” is unfolding where massive investments in platforms and infrastructure are providing the 57,000 Greenlandic inhabitants with state of the art telecom services at affordable prices. The company vision states that one can live and work with even conditions whether you are based in Ilulissat, Hamburg, or Copenhagen. Greenland has a geographic area of 2.166.086km2 and the icefree land area is 410.449km2. Distance from north to south is 2.670km. The challenge of this vision is operating a telecom business in the tough conditions of a huge arctic country, hosting 17 cities and 55 settlements scattered across the coast embracing the inland icecap.

15Jorn Jespersen The launch of new services and growth of traffic outside the reach of the microwave chain and can upgrading all supporting site infrastructure like at about 100% per year has created opportunities only be reached by satellite link. To cover cities power, cooling, fire extinguishers, and general for a full range of telecom services at a reduced in the north and east, Tele Greenland operates OSS equipment. The microwave upgrade will give price. This delivery has been possible despite 16 earth stations using Intelsat C band satellites. Tele Greenland the needed scalable expansion Tele Greenland’s telecom license, which requires Tele Greenland also owns and operates a satellite dynamics to meet traffic demands until 2014. countrywide service options at a homogenous earth station in Copenhagen which is the single Satellite links take high operational expenditures price scheme. This even includes settlements of transmission route covering international traffic to even though Tele Greenland are in a fortunate only 70 inhabitants. the entire country. position in that Intelsat satellites provide a hemi beam focused footprint on both north west Europe A successful market strategy has lead to high The satellite and microwave backbone is at and Greenland. Until moving the service to penetration across all products and the result of this time a very scarce resource and is almost Greenland Connect Submarine cable on March 23, this work positions Greenland within the range of saturated beyond the limit due to the growth in 2009, Tele Greenland consumed 125Mb/s to cover leading OECD countries pertaining to penetration market and traffic. To remedy that situation, Tele all international traffic in and out of Greenland – and revenue per user. Market strategy on broadband Greenland is in the process of a comprehensive broadband and data account for more than 70 % access to private households has been a package swap of the west coast microwave chain to of the traffic volume. The transponder capacity is offering cheap installation fee, subscription free of increase traffic capacity to 7 times STM1 ( used with careful planning for the symmetry and charge and volume based billing. The result of this 155Mb/s). The undertaking encompasses balance between link budget and bandwith. The strategy had been a penetration of 51 installations updating all radio equipment, feeding systems, available capacity is able to meet the Greenlandic per 100 house holds. Numbers for mobile and and antennas. The entire trunk from Nanortalik demand until the end of 2009, but only with fixed telephons are equally high and this massive to Uummannaq has been made operational implementation of all possible traffic optimization costumer growth is leading to increased traffic. since 2008. Simultaneously, Tele Greenland is enhancements like advanced turbo coding and MPLS service to business users are also driving increasing traffic growth. Data traffic covers 70% of the volume though these services still only bring 15% of the revenue. Mobile voice and fixed switching are still the cash cow as the case is for most full scale incumbent operators.

The technology strategy of Tele Greenland has always been to make wise decisions on technology, concepts, and application of proven technology. The cutting edge of development is a place Tele Greenland can’t afford to be. Deployment and commissioning in the field are extremely cumbersome in rural arctic areas where sites only can be reached in the short summer and even then only by helicopter.

The infrastructure architecture is based on a SDH microwave backbone, in a single line chain structure without physical redundancy, along the west coast from Nanortalik to Uumannaq. Fiber deployment is not commercially feasible in the desolate arctic environment, with huge distances 16 between populated areas. Some areas are even This picture leads to the decision to launch a new strategy for securing the continuous development of the vision “Greenland in the centre of the world”. In 2006, Tele Greenland’s management team presented the “Greenland Connect” prospect to the management board. Greenland Connect is a submarine cable project connecting Greenland to Europe and North America. The solution is based on 20 year backhaul agreements giving Tele Greenland market conditions on backhaul traffic from landing sites in and New Foundland, which are connected to London and Halifax where the lines interconnect and IP peering can be traded at fair market conditions. The submerged cable system is an amplified dual fiber link. Landing sites has been established in Landeyersandur near Vestmanna Islands in Iceland, Qaqortog, and in Greenland and Milton in New Foundland. Landing sites are hosting high voltage power supply systems for the submerged optical amplifiers and transmission equipment for the DWDM system, covering 96 wavelengths, each with a capacity of 10GB/s.

Greenland connect was planned in 2006 and presented to the management board. Planning encompassed thorough break-even analyses addressing the optimal timing for migrating exponentially increasing traffic to high capacity submarine cable. This work was complemented by a survey on satellite availability and marked cashing of frequently targeted internet sites. Even awarded licence to operate wireless broadband conditions in the north Atlantic region. This work given the scenario that Tele Greenland absorbed access Wimax in Denmark. Tele Greenland has unfolded a clear picture showing that satellite all available satellite traffic in the entire world, the raised concern with the Danish National Telecom transmission to Greenland would be insufficient satellite technology would only be sustainable until agency that land based services which operates within a time span of a few years, even if all available capacity could be absorbed to serve Greenland 2012 and extremely costly since Tele Greenland in satellite C band (3,5GHz) can’t co-exist with alone. A set of objectives on Greenland Connect would be forced to track commercial satellites highly sensitive long haul transmission systems were set early in the planning phase: Secure with global beams which would lead to ineffective like Satellite earth stations. Moreover, it becomes the transmission capacity to Greenland for a 25 throughput per rented bandwidth unit compared to more and more clear that application for private year time span, remove dependency on satellite presently used hemi beam operation. Moreover, and public enterprises are becoming more and transmission, improve latency and transmission satellite telecommunication is threatened by other more sensitive to latency of the transmission link. speed, secure transmission capacity to remote services’ need for frequency space to support Satellite links have delays of no less than 300mS, areas (by releasing satellites to that purpose), and launch of land based mobile services like wireless which are far more than many applications can pursue transatlantic carrier business. 17 broad band access. A timely example is the cope with efficiently. After approval of the concept and a 20 year business case, the sequential work commenced with speed in the spring of 2007. First and foremost, long time backhaul agreements had to be contracted to carry traffic from remote landing sites to tele houses with open UUMMANNAQ competition on Peering and termination of traffic. Many routes were in play like Faroe Islands, Scotland, Halifax, and more. A backhaul agreement with complex bilateral pricing schemes covering the next 20 years was signed with E farice and Persona. The backhaul agreements froze decisions on making the landing sites Milton QEQERTARSUAQ Canada and Landyersandur Iceland. ILULISSAT

Hence, a series of parallel actions took place: QASIGIANNGUIT

1. The route plan and network design was set and encompassed KANGAATSIAQ 5 stations; Landyersandur, , Nuuk1, Nuuk2, Milton. 2. Land acquisitions and permission to erect the stations and install the submarine cable shore end. KANGERLUSSUAQ 3. Tender on a marine survey to chart the route was signed with Oceanographic Institute in Trieste and the entire route was documented by the survey ship Explorer in the summer 2007. Planning the route to connect Europe with KANGAAMIUT North America across the arctic north Atlantic showed to be a delicate undertaking. Crossing through Unesco world heritage Surtsey volcanic Island leaving the continent into deep waters, climbing across the Atlantic ridge and into deep Greenlandic fjords with heavy ice activity, breaking south west across more flat Atlantic seabed to Canada crossing NUUK more fishing interests before entering into narrow shallow sound.

The comprehensive tender on the entire cable system entailed production of submerged armoured cable designed to meet requirements of the survey findings, optical repeaters, power KANGAARSUK feed and submarine line terminal equipment, and finally turn key installation of the entire plant. The tender was submitted to 10 PAAMIUT possible vendors and only 3 usable quotes were delivered in due NARSAQ time. Negotiations evolved through Autumn and late December 2007 NARSARSUAQ and the contract was given to ASN, Alcatel Submarine Networks. To ARSUK meet the tight time schedule in the area’s short installation window QAQORTOQ due to arctic waters, the actual production started in Calais the first days of January 2008. Strong project management, focus and good ALLUITSUP PAA planning lead to the start of the wet installation in – August 2008 with 4 Vessels in action; Blue Castor, Il de seine, Maersk Responder and NANORTALIK 18 blue Castor. This undertaking gives Tele Greenland a modern Jorn Jespersen, Chief Technology infrastructure to offer the customers fast and Officer of Tele Greenland, has reliable internet and data services, with sufficient long experience from various bandwidth and workable latency rates. All these new senior managerial positions in the technologies open possibilities for new broadband telecoms industry. TDC, Ben/T and data services; especially close to the sea cable Mobile, Mobilix, Orange, Telia landing sites and cities where the new microwave Sonera. Currently managing chain has its termination points. Up till present a major refurbishment of the time, Tele Greenland has offered the same services entire Grenlandic teleinfrastructure pertaining; at equal prices everywhere in Greenland, but the Microwave backbone swap, IMS implementation, new infrastructure opens technical possibilities for Comprehensive Mobile optimization programme, a differentiated set of options and call for delicate submarine cable project and many others. political decisions on a possible new scheme. The controversial price model for the volume based broadband rating, which has been physical unavoidable with a infrastructure saturated beyond its limits, can be open for political debate, but calls for a understanding of the need for implementation Installation work progressed as planned throughout of one set of services in dense populated city of the entire implementation phase and the system Nuuk and another set of services in rural settlement was delivered for provisional acceptance to Tele Kullorsuaq. Greenland by 22, December 2008. Engineering work to move traffic from insufficient satellite links The vision “Greenland in the centre of the world” and to Greenland Connect has been planned and a the technology strategy plan to deliver the vision good design with no active equipment beyond and bring fast broadband services to Greenlandic standard interfaces at the far ends and automatic users are set in stone and will progress for the rerouting of traffic to others segments if any part of years to come in a cycle with winter planning, the wet installation should fail was tested in the first logistic preparations, and fast summer roll out. month of 2009. Actual movement of the traffic was successfully instigated 23, March 2009.

To bring the full benefit of the Greenland Connect and the microwave project, Tele Greenland are working on a general refurbishment of other platforms like a total swop upgrade of IP backbone to increase capacity and redundancy on Internet and MPLS services. Extension of some PDH trunks feeding the larger settlements outside the #45 reach of the microwave chain and a swap of the entire mobile access and core platform bring traffic Subsea blocking numbers down from double digit values to Technology les then 2% and bring high speed GPRS services Issue to mobile data users. New IMS core platform to #45 bring state of the art telephonyservices to business J Subsea u Technology ly 9 Issue 200 J users and successively swop out PSTN in the u 19 ly 2009

entire country. An international forum for the expression of ideas and opinions pertaining to the submarine telecoms industry 20 Submarine cable systems in Latin America lucia bibolini

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is served by 23 significant submarine cable networks as well as a few minor links. Technologies used include Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA), Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer (DWDM).

21 All of the major submarine cable networks in LAC were Major submarine cable networks in Latin America launched between 1999 and 2002. Since then, the region has lived through a major recession from 2001 to 2004, as well as Cable Launch Details through a remarkable recovery from 2004 to 2008. Countries and operators in the region have been dealing with the rising Americas Region Sep Links the USA, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, , transmission demands by upgrading the existing systems, Caribbean Optical- 2001 Curaçao, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, as well as planning new submarine networks. Cable system ring System Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and via an 8,400km (ARCOS-1) owners are investing in upgrades that involve increases in lit fully redundant ring, consisting of both repeatered and non- repeatered cable segments, with 15Gb/s capacity (upgradeable capacity, improvements to resilience, and network links to to 2.56Tb/s), using SDH and WDM technology. new markets. Columbus Networks is the principal owner and operator of ARCOS-1. The following ten cable systems are the most important and Americas-I South 1994 Links the USA, the US Virgin Islands, Venezuela, , and connect a large number of LAC countries: Trinidad via a 6,014km cable with 1.12-1.68Gb/s capacity. Interconnects with Americas-II, Atlantis-2, ECFS, PANAM, and • Americas Region Caribbean Optical-ring System Columbus-II. (ARCOS-1); Maintenance authorities are AT&T, CANTV (Venezuela), (Brazil), and Trinidad’s TSTT. • Americas-II; Americas-II Aug Links the USA, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, , • Atlantis-2; 2000 Curacao, Venezuela, Trinidad, , and Brazil via • Global Crossing’s Mid Atlantic, Pan American, and an 8,161km cable with 80Gb/s capacity, using SDH and WDM South America Crossing (MAC, PAC, SAC); technology. Maintenance authorities include AT&T, CANTV, Embratel, • Latin America Nautilus (LAN); Trinidad’s TSTT, and others. MAYA-1; • Antillas-1 Jun Links the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, employing SDH • Pan-American (PANAM); 1997 technology. Capacity is 622Mb/s (upgradeable to 3.7Gb/s). • South America-1 (SAm-1). Antilles Crossing 2006 Links , St Croix, and St Lucia via a 940km cable with 20 (Phase 1) GB/s capacity (upgradeable to 160GB/s). Major international submarine cable companies with Interconnects with SAC and PAC. networks in the LAC region include Columbus Networks Atlantica-1 Sep Links South America, North America, and Bermuda, via a (ARCOS-1, CFX-1, and FibraLink) and Global Crossing (MAC, 2000 22,500km network. Launched by GlobeNet Communications. PAC, and SAC). Several telecom operators have also been active in the construction and maintenance of submarine Atlantis-2 Feb Links Argentina, Brazil, Senegal, Cape Verde Islands, Spain, and cable systems. For example, Brazil’s international telephony 2000 Portugal, via a 13,000km cable network with 2 x 20Gb/s capacity. Maintenance authorities for Latin America are Embratel, incumbent Embratel; Telefónica, through its International Telefónica de Argentina, and Telecom Argentina. Wholesale Services (TIWS); and Telecom Italia, through Latin America Nautilus. Many of the submarine networks in Cayman Jamaica 1996 Links the Cayman Islands and Jamaica via a 1730km cable with the LAC region are owned and maintained by consortia of Fibre System 2.5-10Gb/s capacity. telecom operators. (CJFS) Interconnects with MAC and Maya-1. Maintenance authorities are C&W, France Telecom, and AT&T. In March 2009, the consortium of 11 telecom carriers that Columbus-2A 1994 Links Cancun, Mexico with West Palm Beach, via a own the Pan-American Cable System (see table) contracted 1,121km cable with 560Mb/s capacity Australia’s NEC Corporation to upgrade its PANAM network. Maintenance authorities: AT&T, Telmex This is expected to boost regional capacities by multiple Columbus-2B 1994 Links the US Virgin Islands and the USA, via a 2,068km cable 10Gb/s wavelengths. The upgrade is scheduled to be with 2.5Gb/s capacity. Maintenance authorities: AT&T 22 completed by the end of 2009. Countries where submarine cable capacity has been Cable Launch Details particularly inadequate include Colombia, , , and Cuba. Columbus-2C 1994 Links the US Virgin Islands, , Spain, and Portugal, via a 9,116km cable with 560Mb/s capacity Maintenance authorities: AT&T, Telefónica, Telecom Italia, and In Colombia, outages on the ARCOS-1 network severely PT Comunicações disrupted Internet access in early 2007; as a result, the Colombian government and several carriers sought additional Eastern Caribbean 1995 Links , Antigua, Barbados, , , submarine cables and cable landings. In May 2007, Columbus Fibre System , Martinique, , St Kitts, St Lucia, St Martin, St (ECFS) Vincent, and Trinidad & Tobago. Cable capacity is 2.5Gb/s. Networks began to install a submarine fibre-optic cable Interconnects with Americas-1 and Americas-2. system dubbed USA-Colombia Express Route (CFX-1), which Maintenance authorities: consortium of Operators incl. C&W was launched in May 2008 (see table below). In March 2008, Telefónica International Wholesale Services (TIWS) linked FibraLink April Links Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and has 160Gb/s 2006 capacity. Interconnects with ARCOS. its submarine cable network South America-1 (or SAm-1) Built by Columbus Networks. to Colombia, doubling the country’s data, voice, and video transmission speed. Hawaii Americas-1 Late Links the USA, Hawaii, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and (HIAM-1) 1999 Panama. The system has enhanced international connections Suriname and Guyana are linked internationally via an and transmission speeds, and provides direct communication between the USA, Latin America, and the Asian Pacific rim overland cable link and the Americas-II cable, both subject to countries. frequent cuts resulting in serious disruption of service. The system’s capacity has become woefully inadequate to meet Latin America Mar Links the USA, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, the growing demand for bandwidth. In December 2008, Nautilus (LAN) 2002 Panama, and Mexico via a high-capacity backbone based on fibre optic ring networks, both land-based and submarine, with an Suriname’s Telesur and Guyana’s GT&T signed an agreement overall length of 30,000km. The ring, which has automatic optical for the construction of a 1200km Suriname-Guyana traffic protection and a capacity of up to 320Gbit/s, connects Submarine Cable System (SG-SCS). The two operators said to a Mediterranean ring and pan European backbone. LAN is they would each invest about US$30 million in the project, controlled by Telecom Italia. to be completed by 2010. SG-SCS will link Trinidad & Tobago, MAYA-1 Oct 2000 Links the USA, Mexico, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname. Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica via a 4,400km cable with 20Gb/s capacity, using SDH with EDFA In Cuba, the US embargo and the country’s difficult technology. It is a collapsed SDH ring system with semi-passive relationship with the US have prevented the implementation branching units. of submarine fibre-optic cables; thus, Cuba has had to rely Mid Atlantic 2000 A section of Global Crossing’s worldwide submarine fibre optic almost exclusively on satellites for international connectivity. Crossing (MAC) network, linking the USA, the US Virgin Islands, and Bermuda via In January 2007, Telecom Venezuela and Cuban telecom a 6,000km cable with 20-80Gb/s capacity. operator Telecommunication Signals Transport (Transbit) Pan American Nov A section of Global Crossing’s worldwide submarine fibre signed an agreement to install a 1,552km submarine fibre-optic Crossing (PAC) 2000 optic network, linking California, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, cable linking Venezuela with Cuba. The two operators formed Venezuela, and the US Virgin Islands via an 9,500km cable with a joint venture in October 2007 for the implementation of this 20Gb/s capacity (upgradeable to 80Gb/s). project. The resulting company, called Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe (TGC), is 60% owned by Telecom Venezuela and P a n - A m e r i c a n Feb Links the US Virgin Islands, Aruba, Venezuela, Colombia, (PANAM) 1999 Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, via a 7,300km cable with 40% by Transbit. The cable system will connect La Guaira, in 5Gb/s capacity, using SDH technology. PANAM is constructed the Vargas state of Venezuela, with Siboney, in the province of as a trunk and branch system in a collapsed ring configuration, Santiago de Cuba, offering capacity to support an estimated 20 allowing for self-healing within the cable. The Pacific segment million simultaneous voice calls. TGC expects the submarine was launched in November 2001. cabling to be deployed by the end of 2009 or early 2010, and Principal partners in the venture include Telefónica, CANTV, Entel Chile, C&W Panama, Telecom Italia, and others. 23 the system to be up and running in the first half of 2010. Other countries have also been looking to increase their Cable Launch Details submarine cable bandwidth. In July 2008, ’s state- owned incumbent Antel and Telecom Argentina agreed to South America-1 Mar Links the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, (SAm-1) deploy a 240km fibre-optic submarine cable from Las Toninas 2001 and Guatemala via a 25,000km broadband cable. The SAm-1 cable ring has four fibre optic pairs with 40Gb/s capacity (upgradeable (Argentina) to Maldonado (Uruguay). The link, to become to 1.9Tb/s) using DWDM technology. It was constructed by Tyco operational in September 2009, would increase Antel’s Telecommunications for Telefónica International Wholesale Internet capacity by around 500% to 600%. The operators Services (TIWS), previously known as Emergia, a wholly owned expected to spend around US$15 million on the project, subsidiary of Spain’s Telefónica. involving the installation of 12 fibre-optic pairs, each one South America Oct 2000 A section of Global Crossing’s worldwide submarine fibre optic with 320Gb/s capacity. Crossing (SAC) network, linking the US Virgin Islands, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Panama via an 18,000km four-fibre-optic- The Trans-Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC) is a consortium pair system with 40Gb/s capacity (upgradeable to 1.28Tb/s). SAC of 32 foreign and Jamaican telecom carriers and service uses WDM technology and forms a self-healing ring, with internal providers planning a submarine cable network to link the restoration capability in the event of link outage. SAC is operated US, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. The TCCC by Global Crossing and is fully integrated with the entire Global consortium members agreed in mid-2006 to fund the first Crossing Network. phase of the plan. The Central Caribbean North Sub-Project Trans-Caribbean Mar Retired in January 2004. TCS-1, also known as V Centenario, phase would connect Jamaica with the NAP of the Americas System-1 (TCS-1) 1990 linked Puerto Rico with the Dominican Republic, Martinique, and in Miami. Upcoming phases of the network expansion would (retired) Colombia. include extending the cable to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Unisur Mar Links Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay via a 1,700km cable, with Venezuela, and Columbia. The consortium also applied 1995 560Mb/s capacity. for permission to extend the Jamaica-Dominican Republic Maintenance authorities are Embratel, Telecom Argentina, cabling section to Cuba. Telefónica de Argentina, and Antel. U S A - C o l o m b i a May-Jul Links Colombia, Jamaica, and the USA via a 2,500km cable, The TCCC cable was designed to have transmission speeds Express Route 2008 with 80Gb/s capacity (upgradeable to more than 2Tb/s). The first of nearly 2Tb/s. Members of the consortium that agreed to (CFX-1) segment, connecting Colombia and Jamaica, was completed provide funding and facilities for the first phase of the project in May 2008. The second segment, connecting Jamaica and included C&WJ, Jamaica Network Access Point (JNAP), Digicel Florida, was completed in July 2008. Jamaica, and Reliant Enterprise Communications. In late The cable is expected to eventually connect other countries in 2008, JNAP acquired full control of TCCC. However, in early Central America, including Costa Rica and Panama. CFX-1 is owned and operated by Columbus Networks, the owner 2009, it appeared that construction of the cable had yet to of ARCOS-1. begin. (Source: BuddeComm based on industry data) Although the global downturn may hold back some of the expansion plans for 2009, the huge expansion of mobile telephony and broadband in the region has created an Lucia currently lives also taught yoga for a number of years. She is inexorable need for more bandwidth. In the next few years, in London, having fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Italian. we can expect to see not only some serious upgrades to moved there in 2003 Besides her telecom research work, she also writes existing networks, but also the deployment of new cable from her former place and illustrates fantasy stories. Lucia has worked for systems to replace outdated ones or to provide redundancy of residence on the BuddeComm since 2000 and has been responsible against network failure. Central Coast, north of for their Latin American reports since mid-2003. Sydney. Prior to joining the BuddeComm team, she worked as freelance simultaneous conference 24 interpreter, primarily for the UN, and 25 Andrew D. Lipman, Paul O. Gagnier, and Troy F. Tanner

On March 17, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) issued an order that fundamentally revised the way in which regulatory fees are imposed on submarine cable operators and licensees. As a result of the FCC’s action, many submarine cable operators will pay significantly lower regulatory fees and all operators will benefit from the regulatory 26 certainty that results from the new regime. For many years, U.S. submarine cable licensees have Unfortunately, the FCC’s IBC Fee methodology The industry proposal recommended that the paid annual regulatory fees that often represent didn’t keep up with the radical changes in the FCC create a new per-system fee for international one of the largest operating costs of cable systems. submarine cable industry at the turn of the century; submarine cable systems, called the ISCS Fee, that These fees have put significant financial pressure particularly the exponential growth in data traffic, would replace IBC Fees. To determine the amount on submarine cable operators, have caused the increased entry of competitive “private” cable of the ISCS Fee, each year the FCC would calculate distortions in the marketplace, and hindered the operators, and the vastly larger transmission the total amount of regulatory fees needed from development of new and upgraded high-capacity capacity of new submarine cables. In the current the cable licensees to meet its regulatory fee cable systems. The FCC long declined to adopt broadband environment, packetized data is requirements, and divide that amount by the a more rational and equitable methodology. transported in unchannelized form over submarine number of U.S. licensed cable systems. Large cable However, beginning in 2007, the FCC, in response to cables carrying hundreds of gigabits or even systems would be subject to the same annual ISCS demands from the industry, began to examine new terabits of data simultaneously. The underlying Fee. Smaller systems would pay a reduced amount. approaches to regulatory fees. The new regime content of these data streams is a mix of video, In contrast to the IBC Fee, a consortium cable that resulted from the FCC order is the outcome of voice, and data applications. FCC rules nevertheless would be treated as a single system for purposes widespread industry consensus, and should make required submarine cable operators to artificially of the ISCS Fee, and the owners of the cable would the calculation and imposition of regulatory fees divide their multi-gigabit data services into 64 kbps be jointly and severally liable for payment of the more certain and equitable. increments for the purpose of determining their IBC fee, with the individual responsibilities allocated Fees. This resulted in a disproportionate financial according to commercial terms agreed among the History of Regulatory Fees impact on submarine cable operators in general consortium members. for Submarine Cable Operators and, in particular, on new entrants operating high- Beginning in 1994, the United States Congress capacity, data-focused cable systems. With an industry supported proposal in hand, the required the FCC to collect annual fees from cable industry approached the FCC in Fall 2008. With the companies it regulated. These fees were The excessive burden resulting from the FCC’s IBC unanimous support from the FCC’s Commissioners, intended to reflect the costs incurred by the FCC Fee methodology encouraged operators to find the industry proposal was approved nearly intact in performing its regulatory duties and were to be creative ways to lower their regulatory costs. Some on March 17, 2009. Specifically, the FCC adopted distributed among telecommunications operators carriers developed legal theories as to why they the concept of a “payment unit,” determined by in proportion to the costs of regulating the various did not have to pay IBC Fees for the circuits they dividing the FCC’s costs attributed to regulating sectors of the industry. Submarine cable landing owned. Others were able to pass through the fees the submarine cable sector by the total number licensees were required to pay an international to their customers. Some operators are alleged so of licensed cable systems. Large cable systems -- bearer circuit fee for each active “64 kbps circuit or have gone so far as to reduce their active circuits those of 20 Gbps or more -- will pay a per-system its equivalent” (the “IBC Fee”). on December 31 of each year (the relevant date for fee equal to one payment unit. Smaller systems computing IBC fees). will pay reduced fees that range from 6.25% to Basing the IBC Fee on the number of 64 kbps circuits 50% of a payment unit depending on their capacity. operated by a submarine cable licensee made Reform of the IBC Fee Regime The FCC also adopted industry’s proposal for the sense in a voice-centric era. Under the channelized Efforts to update the methodology for calculating treatment of consortium cable systems. While telephone system designed by AT&T in the 1960s, IBC fees were begun by Tyco Telecommunications the amount of a payment unit will be determined each 64 kbps international circuit represented in 2004. The FCC declined to take action. Several in a separate proceeding, we expect that many a single voice channel that generated revenue in years later, VSNL Telecommunications (now Tata operators will pay substantially less in regulatory readily measured per minute increments. The 64 Communications), restarted the effort to reform fees under the new regime. Moreover, the new kbps circuit quickly became the global standard and the IBC Fee system. After several years and methodology will more accurately reflect the FCC’s thus provided a reasonable basis for determining numerous meetings among industry players and costs of regulation and distribute those costs more the IBC Fees to be paid by a submarine cable the FCC, the submarine cable industry developed a equitably among cable operators. Finally, it will operator. consensus solution that included AT&T and Verizon reduce the complexity and uncertainty of the IBC and a large majority of private cable owners. Fee regime. In short, the changes to the IBC regime 27 will ensure that all U.S. submarine cable operators Paul Gagnier’s practice focuses Troy Tanner advises clients are placed on an equal regulatory footing and on advising U.S. and foreign on broadcast, cable, allow them to compete more effectively in the communications and technology telecommunications and satellite international market place. companies on strategic business regulatory matters. His experience issues and transactional, in domestic and foreign broadcast Andrew Lipman has spent corporate, regulatory and and telecommunications licensing more than 30 years developing legislative matters, with an and regulatory processes has Bingham’s Telecommunications, emphasis on inbound and outbound foreign helped numerous foreign and domestic companies Media and Technology Group investment. Paul’s practice spans the globe, from establish operations in the U.S. through acquisitions into one of the largest practices the United States to Europe, Asia, Latin America or applying for new licenses. Troy also advises U.S. of its kind in the nation. He and the Middle East. Paul represents clients in telecommunications companies on the intricacies practices in virtually every aspect all sectors of the communications and IT market, of investing abroad. He helps them receive licenses of communications law and related fields, including including local, long distance and international and permits to provide traditional and Internet regulatory, transactional, litigation, legislative telecommunications carriers; information and protocol-based services and establish submarine and land use. The TMT Group is international in application service providers; VoIP service providers; cable facilities, satellite facilities and terrestrial scope, representing clients in the U.S., Central wireless carriers; satellite providers; builders facilities. In the broadcast and cable area, Troy and South America, Europe, Asia and other parts and operators of submarine cable networks; has helped companies receive licenses and comply of the world. Andy represents clients in both the and equipment manufacturers. In addition, Paul with ongoing regulatory requirements. Prior to private and public sectors, including those in the represents foreign governments on privatization joining the firm, Troy was chief of the Policy and areas of local, long distance and international and liberalization matters. Paul also advises Facilities Branch in the Federal Communications telephone common carriage; Internet services private equity firms, venture capital companies and Commission (FCC) Telecommunications Division of and technologies; conventional and emerging investment banks in connection with investments in the International Bureau. wireless services; satellite services; broadcasting; the TMT sector. competitive video services; t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s equipment manufacturing; and other high- technology applications. In addition, Andy has managed privatizations of telecommunications carriers in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Andy has been involved in nearly every new legal and regulatory policy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at state public service commissions, in Congress and before courts to open the U.S. local telephone market to competition. 28 Magazine pages 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x Full Page $3,525 $3,420 $3,314 $3,208 $3,102 $2,997 2/3 Page $2,600 $2,522 $2,444 $2,366 $2,288 $2,210 1/3 Page $1,678 $1,627 $1,577 $1,527 $1,476 $1,426

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29 Advertising enquiries: Tel: (703) 468 0554 | [email protected] Several times each year, I see international networks cited as a bottleneck in the Australian market IP value chain. Invariably, this assertion is not supported by the presentation of any facts or subjected to any kind of critical analysis. However, it is repeated so frequently that there is a danger of it becoming part of the accepted vernacular. In this article I will propose a series of concepts 30 aimed at dispelling this myth. What kind of bottleneck There are currently three high speed of internet services would come down by less are we talking about? networks servicing the market for international than 10%. It is clear that international networks connectivity with Australia, and a fourth is do not make up a significant component of the There are two possible aspects to the bottleneck currently under construction. A rough estimate overall IP value chain. claim. One possibility is that international of the cost of construction of those networks is: networks are a capacity constraint. Under An Historical Perspective this interpretation, the lack of capacity on Network Construction Cost (USD) international networks would limit the speed It is worth noting that the evolution of Australia’s available to retail customers at the end of the Southern Cross Cable Network $1200M international networks reflects the fact that, as value chain. Australia Japan Cable $500M the number of connectivity options increases, Endeavour $150M the level of redundancy and resilience built That proposition can be despatched PPC-1 $150M into each option can decrease. Thus, the first immediately. Each of the four networks that Total $2000M network completed, Southern Cross Cable provides the bulk of international connections Network (2000) was a fully diverse, self-healing for Australia is capable of carrying at least This seems to be a very large number, until SDH ring, with duplicated landing stations and a terabit of data per second. The total one reflects on the cost quoted to deliver the routes. The second, Australia Japan Cable international capacity in use for the Australian National Broadband Network proposed by the (2001) was also a self-healing SDH ring, with market in 2009 is estimated to be around 300 Australian Government – 43 billion dollars. duplicated landing stations but using a lower gigabits per second. Accordingly, total capacity cost, collapsed loop configuration. Endeavour usage could double, then double again, then Another way of looking at the relative and PPC-1 are point-to-point networks, built at double again, and then double yet again significance of international networks to the lower cost again but with significantly reduced before the capabilities of those networks was overall picture is to consider the size of the redundancy and resilience. exhausted. It would, therefore, be difficult to markets. A conservative return of 10% on the say that international networks are a capacity investment of US$2B implies a market size of When people talk about the mythical bottleneck in the Australian market. around US$200M pa. “international bottleneck,” they often raise the spectre of monopoly rents being extracted. The other possibility is that the cost of There are currently around 5,700,000 Emotive terms like “gang of four” are deployed international connectivity is too high, thus broadband services in Australia. If we assume to support the assertion that prices are kept acting as a brake on the IP market. This is that they cost an average of A$50 per month, high by a sinister cartel. the most commonly held belief, and will be then that implies a total IP market of 5,700,000 analyzed more extensively. services x $50 x 12 months x .716 conversion Certainly, back in 2002, there were two high to USD = US$2,448,720,000 per annum. speed networks servicing Australia, the How significant are International Southern Cross Cable Network and Australia Networks in the value chain? In this analysis, if international networks Japan Cable. At the time, the total market for returned 10% on their invested capital, they international capacity was about 10 gigabits per A significant proportion of all internet would comprise less than 10% of the value second, and the cost of a 10 gigabit per second transactions in Australia (recent estimates chain. Another way of looking at this is that wavelength connecting Australia with the USA are as high as 70%) require international even if the international network owners were to was about US$200M. In 2007, the total market connectivity. International networks are give away capacity for free, and even if Internet was around 40 gigabits per second, and the essential to the delivery of IP services in Service Providers were to pass on 100% of cost of a wavelength to the USA was about Australia. this saving to their retail customers, the price US$50M. 31 In 2009, with two new competitors in the market, the total new capacity demand is around 100 gigabits per second. A wavelength to the USA is about US$20M. Summarized in a table, this presents an interesting picture: Back Reflection Year Demand Price per wavelength (USD) by stewart ash 2002 10 Gbit/sec $200M On 4th May 1986, the first international fibre optic supplier. The cable was loaded at STC’s Southampton 2007 40 Gbit/sec $50M submarine cable system went into service. UK factory where the three repeaters were spliced into the 2009 100 Gbit/sec $20M – Belgium No. 5 was purchased by a consortium cable onboard the ship, and System Assembly and Test of British Telecom International (BTI), Deutsche (SAT) was completed before the ship sailed. Jointing Bundespost (Germany), What has happened over the years is that the repeaters and conducting PTT Telecommunicatie SAT onboard the vessel was unit cost of capacity has declined in proportion (Netherlands) and Regie standard practice during to the increase in demand, while the value of the TT (Belgium) from STC the analogue era. total market remains static. The Australian public Submarine Systems Ltd (UK). At the close The North Sea at that time has enjoyed faster and faster connectivity without of the coaxial analogue was heavily fished by big any increase in the overall cost of international system era, STC (now trawlers, and, because of connectivity. part of Alcatel – Lucent) the then massive traffic was the leading supplier carrying capacity of the of submarine cable cable, it was decided to The value of the market approximates that which systems world wide, further protect the cable is required for a conservative return on investment commanding 50% of the by burial. Although this available market. STC’s standard product, of US$200M. These facts are hardly consistent is common practice now, prior at that time, was its 14MHz system, which to UK – Belgium No. 5, coaxial with the extraction of monopoly rents, but rather offered purchasers a capacity of 1,860 cables deployed in the North of a market working extremely efficiently, with x 3KHz voice channels. UK – Belgium Sea were heavily armoured growing demand reflected in lower unit prices. As No. 5 was in another league all together, and the cables were surface providing a design capacity of 11,520 x 64 laid. Operator relied on to the “gang of four”, Australia Japan Cable has five kbit/s voice channels. route diversity to tolerate the owners, and Southern Cross Cable Network has inevitable cable breaks. Plough three, with one of those also having a share in AJC. The system connected Broadstairs in the burial in European waters was UK to Ostend in Belgium, a route length another first for UK – Belgium Maybe “gang of seven”, while more accurate, does of 113km. The cable contained six No.5. The cable was not ring quite so resonantly. nylon-silgard covered mono mode installed in the spring of fibres, operating in pairs to provide 1986, and buried using three separate transmission systems. Robin Russell has over thirty a plough designed and Transmission per fibre pair was developed by BTI that years experience in the at a wavelength of 1,310nm and achieved and average telecommunications industry. the data rate was 280Mbits/s. To 0.75m burial depth over For the last seven years he has make the crossing, the signal had 86km of the route. The to be regenerated three times by the plough system was been CEO of Australia Japan means of 3 repeaters power from the similar to those used to Cable (AJC), an economical terminal stations with a line current today; however, there was and ultra reliable submarine of 1.5Amps. one major difference: the cable and repeaters were fibre optic network enabling links between Asia or The shore ends at Broadstairs and Ostend were delivered to the plough via a system of guide tubes North America and Australia. He holds a Master installed by the Dutch vessel DG Bast in September suspended from the plough’s tow rope. of Commerce degree from the University of New 1985. The main lay operations were carried out by 32 South Wales. the BTI cable ship Alert, free issued to the system And the rest, as they say, is history! With economies across Latin America continuing to expand, there is a growing need for superior quality connectivity within the region as well as to other parts of the world. Local carriers across Latin America need to provide their enterprise customers with high speed, reliable services connecting them to the communications superhighway. And international carriers, whose core objectives are to service global enterprises, are looking for the right partner to help them Erick33 Contag reach key destinations across the globe. “When choosing a backbone network that connects north America to south America and further, a number of critical requirements must be met,” believes Erick Contag, Chief Operating Officer of Brasil Telecom GlobeNet which owns and operates a fiber optic submarine cable network connecting the U.S.A., Brazil, Venezuela and Bermuda.

WHEN SPEED COUNTS “Paramount in terms of requirements is speed. Speed to provision new capacities,” he states. Contag says this applies equally to those within Latin America looking out and those wanting to extend their reach into the region. “Our carrier customers in Latin America want to serve high speed internet users faster, and they want their partner to deliver fast, efficient, high quality services.”

Brasil Telecom GlobeNet also has customers looking to extend circuits that start in Asia, Europe and the U.S. with termination in South America. “We partner with several large international carriers who outsource their Latin American connectivity requirements to GlobeNet,” he says. “They want a PoP in Brazil and an all-encompassing solution from someone with a carrier neutral approach.”

With city PoP facilities in important centers like 60 Hudson Street and 111 Eighth Avenue, New York or the NAP of the Americas in Miami, he says “GlobeNet can provide carriers in Latin America with U.S. connectivity that’s only a cross connect away. Our presence at these major city PoPs provides our North American carrier customers the opportunity to link to one another BOLIVIABOLIVIA and allows our Latin America carriers customers to reach beyond the region,” he says.

DELIVERING LONG-HAUL ETHERNET PARAGUPARAAY GUAY “GlobeNet is also finding that many of its international customers are migrating from legacy technologies in favor of services based on carrier Ethernet,” says Contag. “Due to market demand, we were the first subsea network provider to offer full Layer 2 carrier Ethernet between north and south America,” he says. “We now provide carrier Ethernet services into a number of PoPs. This ARGENTARGINAENTINAURUGUURUGUAY AY upgrade in technology allows us to provide the flexibility that customer’s need, as it inter-relates the capacity they are buying to how fast they can grow. With Ethernet services you can provision quickly and upgrade even faster when a carrier needs you to. The carrier isn’t forced to buy a block of capacity before they need it, or survive with not enough capacity.”

“Carriers in Latin America are generally smaller than those in the US, but are growing fast as their markets develop,” he adds. “They need a network that 34 truly fits their needs. A cookie cutter approach business and product evolution to its existing network), in order to support different types of does not work for them. Carrier Ethernet provides international point-to-point services. Currently, data services requiring international capacity them the flexibility they require to cost effectively GlobeNet offers products from Brazil to the U.S.A., compatible with specific Ethernet interfaces. So grow their business.” from Venezuela to the U.S.A. and from Venezuela the data is delivered from a single entry point to to Brazil. In addition, GlobeNet is looking to a single exit point, with no switching or routing “In addition to flexibility, latency remains open new markets and as a result, introduce performed between end points. paramount to a carriers buying decision. A new products and services for existing and new network that offers low latency is critical to our markets (i.e. Colombia). The international markets The Managed Router Service is an extension of customers,” says Contag. “It’s especially important (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and U.S.A.) have the IPL and/or Ethernet service. GlobeNet has to those carriers that have customers in the been strategically identified as part of a marketing strategically identified several partners in the U.S. financial services sector, or provide services to large project for international expansion which and Venezuela to deploy CPE equipment at the enterprises that have ‘just in time’ information evaluated on-net locations within the context of customer’s premise to manage and monitor the needs. When latency increases, these businesses the existing submarine cable network, the cable router in conjunction with our submarine capacity are significantly affected. Our competitors have to landing stations and the international backhaul solution to provide an end to end solution. route traffic extremely long distances to provide reach when formulating the scope, scale and the same service, with potentially much higher breadth of an international product strategy and latency.” offering. Consequently, Brazil, U.S.A, Venezuela Erick Contag brings over 20 and shortly Colombia, are natural extension points years of sales, marketing, GlobeNet’s low latency gives it an excellent for GlobeNet. Product enhancements planned for business development, strategy competitive advantage, especially among Brazilian this year include the International iPoP-to-iPoP and corporate management and Venezuelan carriers looking for connectivity to International Private Line (IPL), iPoP to iPoP E-Line expertise to Brasil Telecom the US, says Luiz Alonso, director of engineering and Managed Routers. GlobeNet, a wholly owned and operations with the company. “But,” he says subsidiary of the Brasil Telecom “network performance is something that requires The iPoP to iPoP IPL which is a standard international Group, that owns and operates the most advanced constant investments. Last year, we strategically point-to-point, over SDH, ranging from E1 (and T1) and lowest latency fiber optic submarine cable decided to upgrade the network yet again, taking to STM-64, established between any two GlobeNet system serving the Americas. Mr. Contag has been our existing capacity and adding an additional international PoPs within the reach of GlobeNet’s 220Gbps. As early as June, we’ll be able to offer network (or extended GlobeNet network), in responsible for managing C-level relationships and more than 350Gbps on our submarine cable order to support different types of data services telecommunications / high-technology projects for network.” What does this mean to the market requiring international capacity. The iPoP-to-iPoP start-up enterprises through large multi-national and our customers? Rather than having to wait product is primarily designed for the wholesale and Global 100 companies. He has proven success months for a provider to build out a network or market but, can be extended to the corporate in starting, building, and turn-around of high-tech lease 3rd party capacity with the challenges that market when local access is added from the iPoP businesses. that brings—we have capacity ready and available to the customer’s premise (if/when demultiplex for our wholesale carrier customers over the most equipment is available to support speeds below 2 reliable network to and from South America with Mbps). impressive delivery times.” added Alonso. The International PoP-to-PoP Carrier Ethernet To further meet market demands and trends, capacity product offered by GlobeNet is a standard GlobeNet expects to roll out additional products international point-to-point Ethernet capacity and service during the second half of 2009. established between any two of GlobeNet’s Similar to other international wholesale carriers, international PoPs within the reach of GlobeNet’s GlobeNet is currently launching a significant international network (or extended GlobeNet 35 are Classifieds? you hiring?

looking to solicit your

services?

contact: Kevin Summers [email protected] +1.703.468.0554

Cost: $250 per square

Ad Size: 74.25mm x 52.5mm A global guide to the latest known locations of the world’s cableships*, as of May 2009. Information Provided by Lloyds List.

VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Acergy Discovery 3/19/2009 3/19/2009 Rio de Janeiro Brazil Agile 4/4/2009 Ajman United Arab Emirates Asean Restorer 3/27/2009 5/3/2009 Dumai Indonesia 3/6/2009 3/20/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 5/3/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore Bold Endurance 4/12/2009 Mobile United States of America C.S.Sovereign 3/12/2009 3/13/2009 London United Kingdom 3/16/2009 3/28/2009 Esbjerg Denmark 4/5/2009 4/5/2009 Esbjerg Denmark 4/30/2009 5/1/2009 Esbjerg Denmark C/S Vega 5/5/2009 Hong Kong People’s Republic of China Cable Innovator 4/8/2009 4/27/2009 Kitakyushu Japan 3/15/2009 3/29/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore Certamen 4/24/2009 4/25/2009 Augusta Italy 3/13/2009 4/24/2009 Catania Italy 4/25/2009 4/28/2009 Catania Italy 5/3/2009 Catania Italy Chamarel 4/24/2009 4/26/2009 Cape Town South Africa CS Fu Hai 3/26/2009 4/8/2009 Kitakyushu Japan 4/8/2009 4/28/2009 Kitakyushu Japan 4/8/2009 4/28/2009 Moji Japan Eclipse 3/27/2009 3/29/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 5/4/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates 4/30/2009 5/1/2009 Fujairah Anch. United Arab Emirates 37 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Elektron II 4/20/2009 4/20/2009 Peterhead United Kingdom 4/19/2009 4/19/2009 Stavanger Norway Etisalat 4/3/2009 4/4/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates 4/14/2009 4/15/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates 4/24/2009 4/29/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates 4/5/2009 4/9/2009 Fujairah Anch. United Arab Emirates Fender Care 2 5/6/2009 Apapa-Lagos Nigeria Fjordkabel 3/14/2009 3/15/2009 Harstad Norway Geowave Master 4/7/2009 4/21/2009 Lisbon Portugal 4/22/2009 4/23/2009 Lisbon Portugal 4/29/2009 5/3/2009 Lisbon Portugal 3/15/2009 3/31/2009 Santander Spain 3/9/2009 3/11/2009 Las Palmas Canary Islands Giulio Verne 4/14/2009 4/14/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 3/23/2009 3/23/2009 Gibraltar Gibraltar 4/3/2009 4/4/2009 Emden Germany 3/23/2009 4/3/2009 Pozzuoli Italy 4/7/2009 4/11/2009 Halden Norway Global Sentinel 3/19/2009 3/29/2009 Portland(OR USA) United States of America 4/25/2009 4/26/2009 San Francisco United States of America 3/12/2009 3/18/2009 Port Angeles United States of America Ile de Batz 4/14/2009 4/16/2009 Catania Italy 5/2/2009 Limassol Cyprus Ile de Brehat 4/7/2009 4/7/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 4/12/2009 4/12/2009 Gibraltar Gibraltar 4/6/2009 4/6/2009 Everingen Netherlands 4/8/2009 4/9/2009 Brest France Ile de Sein 4/28/2009 4/28/2009 Suez Arab Republic of Egypt 3/6/2009 3/6/2009 Port Said Arab Republic of Egypt 3/16/2009 4/1/2009 Skaramanga Greece IT Interceptor 4/18/2009 4/18/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 4/27/2009 4/30/2009 Bristol United Kingdom 4/1/2009 4/18/2009 Calais France IT Intrepid 3/26/2009 4/1/2009 Halifax Canada 38 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME KDD Pacific Link 4/15/2009 Shimonoseki Japan 3/29/2009 4/13/2009 Kitakyushu Japan 4/14/2009 4/14/2009 Busan Republic of Korea KDDI Ocean Link 3/21/2009 3/27/2009 Yokohama Japan 4/15/2009 Yokohama Japan 3/13/2009 3/21/2009 Shanghai People’s Republic of China Leon Thevenin 4/5/2009 4/5/2009 Stornoway United Kingdom 3/4/2009 3/4/2009 Gibraltar Gibraltar 3/23/2009 3/23/2009 Brest France 4/12/2009 Brest France 3/18/2009 3/19/2009 Algeciras Spain 3/4/2009 3/18/2009 Santa Cruz de Tenerife Canary Islands Lodbrog 3/14/2009 3/16/2009 Keelung Taiwan 4/21/2009 4/26/2009 Keelung Taiwan Maersk Responder 5/4/2009 Portland(AUS) Australia 3/21/2009 3/24/2009 Pasir Gudang Malaysia 3/10/2009 3/21/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 3/24/2009 4/15/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 4/15/2009 4/20/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore Manta III 4/4/2009 4/27/2009 Halifax Canada 4/27/2009 Flushing Netherlands Nexans Skagerrak 4/13/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 4/7/2009 4/13/2009 Haikou People’s Republic of China Niwa 3/23/2009 3/25/2009 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates 4/7/2009 4/12/2009 Fujairah Anch. United Arab Emirates Nordkabel 3/18/2009 3/19/2009 Harstad Norway Normand Cutter 4/24/2009 Rosyth United Kingdom 4/1/2009 4/1/2009 Gibraltar Gibraltar 4/6/2009 4/21/2009 Rotterdam Netherlands 4/22/2009 4/22/2009 Rotterdam Netherlands 3/28/2009 3/28/2009 Messina Strait Italy 3/18/2009 3/19/2009 Brindisi Italy 3/19/2009 3/28/2009 Brindisi Italy Pacific Guardian 3/24/2009 Curacao Netherlands Antilles 39 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Pertinacia 3/9/2009 3/10/2009 Vitoria Brazil Peter Faber 3/25/2009 3/25/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 4/4/2009 4/7/2009 Valletta Malta 4/8/2009 4/10/2009 Valletta Malta 4/12/2009 4/13/2009 Valletta Malta 4/26/2009 4/27/2009 Valletta Malta 3/8/2009 3/25/2009 Dunkirk France Pleijel 4/19/2009 Kalmar Sweden Polar Queen 3/16/2009 4/8/2009 Gladstone Australia Raymond Croze 4/25/2009 4/25/2009 Messina Strait Italy 5/7/2009 5/7/2009 Messina Strait Italy 4/25/2009 4/26/2009 Catania Italy 4/28/2009 4/28/2009 Dardanelles Turkey 5/5/2009 5/5/2009 Dardanelles Turkey 4/28/2009 5/5/2009 Black Sea Rene Descartes 4/23/2009 4/25/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 4/30/2009 4/30/2009 Hong Kong People’s Republic of China Rubicon Maverick 3/26/2009 4/18/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore Sarku Clementine 3/11/2009 4/10/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore 4/13/2009 Singapore Republic of Singapore SD Newton 4/11/2009 4/15/2009 Plymouth United Kingdom 3/15/2009 3/15/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 4/9/2009 4/9/2009 Dover Strait United Kingdom 3/12/2009 3/14/2009 Portsmouth United Kingdom 4/4/2009 4/5/2009 Leith United Kingdom Segero 3/11/2009 3/12/2009 Shanghai People’s Republic of China 4/16/2009 4/17/2009 Shanghai People’s Republic of China Skandi Neptune 4/26/2009 5/3/2009 Mobile United States of America Team Oman 3/27/2009 3/29/2009 Emden Germany 3/30/2009 4/3/2009 Wilhelmshaven Germany 4/4/2009 4/4/2009 Brunsbuttel Germany 4/6/2009 4/26/2009 Gdansk Poland 4/26/2009 4/30/2009 Gdansk Poland Teliri 4/19/2009 4/20/2009 Augusta Italy 40 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Teliri 5/2/2009 Catania Italy 4/20/2009 4/20/2009 Malta Malta 4/16/2009 4/17/2009 Kalamata Greece Teneo 4/2/2009 4/7/2009 Dar es Salaam Tanzania 3/4/2009 3/7/2009 Maputo Mozambique 3/12/2009 3/13/2009 Durban South Africa Texas 3/6/2009 3/16/2009 Marsaxlokk Malta 4/16/2009 4/18/2009 Valletta Malta 4/29/2009 Valletta Malta Toisa Pisces 3/27/2009 4/21/2009 Mobile United States of America 3/8/2009 3/20/2009 Coatzacoalcos Mexico Tyco Decisive 4/9/2009 4/22/2009 Hitachi Japan Tyco Dependable 3/12/2009 4/23/2009 Baltimore United States of America 4/25/2009 5/1/2009 Baltimore United States of America Tyco Durable 4/23/2009 4/29/2009 Hitachi Japan 4/23/2009 4/23/2009 Qingdao People’s Republic of China Tyco Resolute 3/23/2009 3/28/2009 Dar es Salaam Tanzania Tyco Responder 3/22/2009 3/22/2009 Suez Arab Republic of Egypt 4/3/2009 Mumbai India 3/29/2009 3/30/2009 Salalah Sultanate of Oman Umm Al Anber 4/7/2009 4/13/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates 4/30/2009 Hamriyah United Arab Emirates Viking Forcados 5/2/2009 Apapa-Lagos Nigeria Wartena 4/22/2009 4/23/2009 Kalmar Sweden Wave Mercury 3/28/2009 4/1/2009 Taichung Taiwan 4/9/2009 Shanghai People’s Republic of China Wave Sentinel 3/28/2009 4/30/2009 Portland(GBR) United Kingdom 3/10/2009 3/14/2009 Brest France 3/20/2009 3/20/2009 Brest France 3/27/2009 3/27/2009 Brest France 3/14/2009 3/16/2009 Funchal Wave Venture 3/19/2009 3/20/2009 Taichung Taiwan 4/7/2009 4/8/2009 Taichung Taiwan 4/15/2009 4/25/2009 Taichung Taiwan 41 Warrior event was still in everyone’s memory. It is for these reasons among others that STC (UK) rejected the Alcatel‘s suggestion to come with a joint bid, to offer a “European” solution. One of the winning factors has been the Letter to a friend Port-Botany cable factory. Such a factory was a strongMy requirement Conference from OTC (now Telstra) and from Jean Devos the Australian Government. Alcatel was the most motivated. Such a factory could expand its influence in the Pacific where the three other players were historically well established in this region, which represents My dear friend a large part of their market. They saw this factory as a risk for their existing facilities! I delivered a conference in the framework of through fragile glass fiber lying quietly on the I fullySubOptic supported ‘87 in Versailles their reactions, came at but the Iright asked time. 1 my local “Université pour tous” , and it went ocean floors. They were glad to learn about themIt is towhere recognize the Australian the fact teams that there discovered is not the quite well. I was proud to show an audience of theand various l’Astrolabe, aspects landed of in our 1788 activity: to discover Huge that (yet?)French such model, a thing aas close a “Global cooperation Government” between Myabout 100 Dear people the Friend“système nerveux de la capacity,Captain diverseCook was ownership, already aroundsuppliers, bearing fibers, the or Alcatela “Global and Regulator.” FT, exactly I what invited they them wanted to think to es- planète, une aventure humaine et technique.” amplifiers, and marine work and hazards. They about, and perhaps come to the conclusion, British flag. So Botany Bay is now for me the tablish in their country. “BotanyIn others Bay” words, and for the few of you who paid particular attention to the history behind that our situation today is “life,” like flowers at symbol of a dream which becomes a reality! My friend, things are changed since, but cannot read French, my subject was the global this: Graham Bell, the Great Eastern, the gutta spring, when a “plan” could very well produce I published recently a modest novel, whose title Tasman 2 has been yet another chapter one thing stays true: When you offer something, network as it is today, highlighting what it percha, the first transatlantic cable, and the a “cold winter.” ismeant Botany for Bay. the manyIt is the people place involved in Australia over where the messagein this long of Queen Anglo-French Victoria to competition! U.S. president The the reader can see between the lines if you are last two centuries. Alcatel established a Jamesaward Buchanan, to Alcatel whichcame outtook as an a hourbig surpriseto cross to Jeanor not Devos genuinely motivated and sincere. Then submarine cable fac- themany, ocean. including inside Alcatel. Everybody was your offer becomes really attractive and this Younger folks today are oftentory in skeptical 1989 as partabout of naturally expecting the British to win that bat- opens the route to “Botany Bay.” science and industry. The mediaits contract speaks offor these the Whattle, and they such had andifficulty expectation believing was atis that thistime as risky, polluting, and Tasman unethical. 2 link. I wanted In this globalvery logical.network is not the result of a “plan” but See you soon. to show them an examplesame of anbay, enthusiastic where two the mereThere result were of aso great many deal difficulties of “regional” and development, offering thecenturies people workingbefore the in initiatives–amisunderstanding typical French between reaction! Australia and JeanJean Devos Devos is a senior consultant with Submarcom Consulting. He its industry a lot of opportunity,French passion, expedition and France, the being the French presence Submarcom Consulting Infrastructure should naturally be a “common is also one of the founders and a rewards. “La Pérouse” made of in the Pacific area, the worse being the nuclear board member of Axiom, a Paris two ships, La Boussole asset”bomb i.e experiment a “public asset”.in Tahiti! How The can sad someone Rainbow based company specialized in That night, most of the attendees, though highly think that the “marché,” i.e. the market, will Submarine systems projects study educated and experienced, “discovered” the produce an optimized network? The market & management. He spent three major role of the undersea fiber optic network. overinvests on thick route, and under invests in years developing Tyco’s i