70 - Submarine Cable News and Analysis - SubTel Forumsubtelforum.com/articles/wp-content/STF_70.pdf · 03/12/2011 · Regs: Oral Session WE2A ... Etisalat Inks BBG Internet Agreement

70m a Y

2013ISSN 1948-3031

Voiceof the

Industry

Subsea Capacity Edition

In This IssueTime Has Come For Taking Innovation Under Water The How And Why Of A New Repeater

SEACOM ndash Upgrading the African Internet

lsquoOnwards and Eastwardsrsquo E-marine MD amp CEO Highlights The Challenges And Ambitions Of Hosting The Next SubOptic

Trends In African International Capacity Purchasing

Statistics

Issue65Released

Issue66Released

Issue67Released

Issue69Released

Issue68Released

ISSN No 1948-3031

PUBLISHER Wayne NielsenMANAGING EDITOR Kevin G Summers

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Stewart Ash Stuart Barnes Tony Frisch Stephen Jarvis Omar Jassim Bin Kalban Arunachalam Kandasamy Mike Last Brian Lavalleacutee Joerg Schwartz

Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine is published bimonthly by Submarine Telecoms Forum Inc and is an independent commercial publication serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fiber technologies and techniques Submarine Telecoms Forum may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or in part without the permission of the publishers

Liability while every care is taken in preparation of this publication the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein or any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication

Contributions are welcomed Please forward to the Managing Editor at editorsubtelforumcom

Submarine Telecoms Forum Inc21495 Ridgetop Circle Suite 201Sterling Virginia 20166 USAsubtelforumcom

Copyright copy 2013 Submarine Telecoms Forum Inc

Welcome to Issue 70 of SubTel Forum our Capacity SubOptic 2013 Wrap-up

edition

The last time my family and I visited Normandy was in 1993 just before SubOptic in Versailles

At the time we were standing at the beginning of an incredible ramp-up of the industry Our BTM team was one of maybe ten exhibitors and we were all tucked away in a single large tent that was attached to various meeting and presentation rooms The number of participants was surely much smaller than recent years but the enthusiasm (and subsequent flow of wine) was certainly not lacking Coming back to Paris last month was among other things an interesting opportunity to review how our industry has evolved over the years and where we might be headed

I came away with some interesting thoughts about the state of play today in our industry The business is

certainly alive but whether it is moving positively or negatively depends on who you met in the various receptions Finance issues continue to be a concern and a number of systems expected for launch last year are looking anew for 2013 Technology continues to improve by leaps and bounds with no end in sight But interestingly not a number of new system names were floated At a minimum SubOptic proved again to be an excellent opportunity to catch-up with old friends and network with new colleagues and assess for oneself the direction of things

And Normandy continues to be a wonderful visit and the 15th century farm manor we stayed in again even has internet ndash although the younger members of our group who were responsible for uploading the final edition of STF Today might take umbrage with that

ExordiumWayne Nielsen

News Now 5

Capacity Statistics 9

SubOptic 2013 RecapStephen Jarvis

Time Has Come For Taking Innovation Under Water The How And Why Of A New RepeaterStuart Barnes Tony Frischamp Joerg Schwartz

In This IssueSEACOM ndash Upgrading the African InternetBrian Lavalleacutee amp Arunachalam Kandasamy

lsquoOnwards and Eastwardsrsquo E-marine MD amp CEO Highlights The Challenges And Ambitions Of Hosting The Next SubOptic Omar Jassim Bin Kalban

Trends In African International Capacity PurchasingMike Last

Back ReflectionStewart Ash

Conferences 44

Advertiser Index 45

CodaKevin G Summers

Africa Coast To Europe Submarine Fibre-optic Cable Inaugurated In Accra

BT opens global development centre in Bangalore

Africa Coast to Europe Consortium and Alcatel-Lucent Further Strengthen Broadband Continuity In Africa With Maintenance Service Agreement

Africa Gains In Connectivity With Submarine Deals

Alcatel-Lucent To Help Ensure Continuity Of Broadband Services In Africa By Signing Maintenance Services for West Africa Cable System

Allied Fiber Launches Miami to Atlanta Segment of Its Network-Neutral Fiber and Colocation System

News Now Bharti Airtel to buy optical

network gear from US-based Ciena Communications

BICS Selects Infinera DTN-X for 500G Pan-European Network

Breaking News SubOptic 2016 in Dubai

Business is Tough Out There Guest Speaker Chris Burke

Cable Repairs on a Crowded Continental Shelf Oral Sesson TH2B

Coherent Transponders Oral Session TU2C

Columbus Networks and CWC Form JV to Expand Subsea Network Platform

Coping with National Security Regs Oral Session WE2A

Corning Optical Cabling Used by Allied Fiber for Ambitious Dark Fiber Project

Corning to Provide Optical Cabling Solutions for Miami-to-Atlanta Segment of Allied Fiberrsquos Network-Neutral System Build

CSA Demonstrates Capabilities of USV During Live Field Tests

DeepOcean acquires a 50 interest in ADUS

DeepOcean Group Awarded Trenching Contract in the North Sea

Different Viewpoints on Reliability Masterclass Tutorial 3

E-marine Brings World ECFS Consortium Selected Xtera for Upgrading its Caribbean Festoon Subsea Cable System

ECFS Consortium Selected Xtera for Upgrading its Caribbean Festoon Subsea Cable System

Ed Parsons Keynote Speech 2

Egypt Divers Caught While Cutting Internet Cable

Emmanuel Desurvire Keynote Speaker

Era of High Spectral Efficiency Oral Session TU2C (330)

Etisalat Inks BBG Internet Agreement

Expresso ACE Fibre Cable Ready For Launch In Ghana This Week

Finance Round Table 1

From Start to Finish Xtera Expands Turnkey Offering and Joins ICPC

Global Marine Appoints Bill Donaldson as New Chief Financial Officer

Globenet Completes Construction Of Bermuda-US (Segment 5) Replacement

GlobeNet Opens Fastest US Hibernia Networks Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary

Huawei Marine Achieve Breakeven by Year-end of 2012

India Seeks Innovation Now Goes Under Water Xtera Announces New Repeater for Subsea Cable Systems

Kenya Seacom Launches a Cloud Services Unit

Matt Ridley Keynote Speaker 1

Namibia Telecomrsquos Own Pops for WACS Connection

NGD And The Welsh Pirates Poison and Politics Masterclass 10

Protecting Subsea Cables Using AIS Oral Session TU1B (1100)

Protecting the Submarine Cables That Wire Our World

Prysmian Group Opens New Optical Cable Plant In Slatina Romania

Reliance Communications Ltd Reliance Globalcom integrates Hawk cable system with Reliance Global Network

Reliance Globalcom activates Mobily on its Hawk submarine cable system

Reliance Globalcomrsquos Hawk Submarine Cable Creates New Middle East India Opportunities

Reliance Jio to use Bharti Airtelrsquos i2i submarine cable for international connectivity

RIL Vodafone Others Tie Up To Construct Undersea Cable

Sabotage Threat to Undersea Cables is Overblown

News Now

Seaborn Networks Selects Equinix for First Sao Paulo Gateway to US

Severed cable blamed for Syrian Internet cut

Single-Mode Fiber offers high power low loss at 100 Gbps

Sri Lanka Dialog says submarine cable will give high speeds

Sri Lanka State-of-the-Art Advances Set New Standard for Spectral Efficiency and Distance

STF Today - Monday Wrap Up

STF Today SubOptic 2013

STF Today SubOptic 2013 - Episode 4

STF Today SubOptic 2013 Wrap Up - Day Three

STF Today SubOptic 2013 Wrap Up - Tuesday

Submarine Fibre Collaboration Sees Local Expertise For Australian Oil And Gas

Syriarsquos Internet Restored After Blackout

TE Subcom Awarded Epic Contract For Chevron Jack amp St Malo Undersea Network

TE SubCom Awarded Supply Contract Of Poseidon Undersea Cable System By Ocean Specialists Inc

TE SubCom Demonstrates Record-Breaking Transpacific Transmission

Telecom Italia Sparkle Selects iconectiv for Accurate Routing of Voice and SMS and Fraud Prevention

Telstra Eyes Slatteryrsquos Singapore Undersea Cable

Telx Secures New US Connections to Brazil With Seaborn Networks

The Future of the Industry Roundtable 3

The Legal Detail Masterclass Tutorial 6

Top 10 telecom operators UAE Oman to be connected to new undersea cable system

Undersea Cable Cut Affects 50 of Pakistanrsquos Internet Traffic

Undersea Cable From Brazil Skips Miami

Upgrades Guide Session 3

Visualizing the Impacts of Cable Breaks Oral Session WE1B

Why Undersea Internet Cables Are More Vulnerable Than You Think

WIOCC Continues African Expansion

WIOCC Xtera Expands Turnkey Offering and Joins ICPC

News Now

The Undersea Cable Report 2013From Terabit Consulting

Intelligent intelligence -go beyond the numbers

The most diligent quan-titative and qualitative analysis of the undersea cable market - 1600 pages of data intel-ligence and forecasts that can be found no-where else

Terabit Consulting ana-lysts led by Director of International Research Michael Ruddy tell you whatrsquos real and whatrsquos not where wersquove been and where wersquore headed

YOUR KEY TO UNDERSTANDING AND HARNESSINGTHE $20 BILLION UNDERSEA MARKET OPPORTUNITY

The Undersea Cable Report capitalizes on Terabit Consultingrsquos global on-site experience working with carriers cable operators financiers and governments in over 70 countries on dozens of leading projects (eg AJC BRICS EASSy Hibernia SEAS TBI) - a world of experience at your fingertips in a single resource

For more information visit wwwterabitconsultingcomor email us at infoterabitconsultingcom

or call +1 617 444 8605

The Undersea Cable Report 2013 is your single source of information for top-level decision-making - with the most detailed profiles data market analysis and forecasts available

bull valuableintelligencebull innovativemodelingbull thoughtfulinsightbull globalperspectivebull respectedexpertise

bull Theupgrademarketbull Globalregion-by-regionandroute-by-route

analysisbull Reliabledetailedforecastsbull accuratereliabledata

bull 680+detailedunderseacableprofilesbull Capacitydemandcapacitysupplyand

capacitypricingbull Ownershipsystemsupplyfinancingand

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

In an interview for a previous article John Horne one of the conference organizers said ldquoI think there

needs to be a forum such as Sub-Optic where representatives from all parts of the industry can get togetherrdquo He told me that the thing that makes SubOptic something special is the overall focus on paper presentation and the exchange of information from all areas

Well in the opinion of someone who didnrsquot know what the term ldquodark fiberrdquo meant prior to attending Mike Conradirsquos talk on how a lawyer handles due diligence the 2013 SubOptic more than met that standard

I am not a member of the telecoms industry I feel like thatrsquos an important distinction to make Irsquom a run-of-the-mill freelance journalist which puts me at a disadvantage compared to most everyone reading this magazine in terms of Sub-sea Telecoms knowledge

Itrsquos for that reason that when I attended the SubOptic I was fairly astounded by the information that was being shared in the various master classes sessions and round-tables Maybe this was normal for everyone who knows what to expect but it was something for the uninitiated to watch all the different

sessions one on the calculations of cost and return on spare parts another on the challenges of piracy I could never have imagined that the various presentations could deal with such a range of macro and micro issues that the industry deals with

In my work for the STFToday blog following the conference I attended 19 of these events The first day began with the set-up of the stands (well technically the conference began with

the ceremony the following morning) The very first event I attended was a master class on reliability both of systems and their components Tony Frisch and Ed West represented both the supply and the demand side of the issue thoroughly examining the cost and return on buying replacement components

The rest of the day included a Guide Session on upgrades led by Colin Wallace of Ciena and a master class

on the legal side of the industry This included two distinct issues The first was presented by Mike Conradi from DLA Piper on the subject of how a lawyer handles due diligence The second was an ominous presentation by Simon Airey also of DLA Piper on the new UK Bribery Act

ldquoWhat we donrsquot know is that the enforcement regime has changedrdquo Airey said He made it clear that times are changing and the world is taking a zero tolerance policy towards bribery

The next morning began with the conference opening and welcome

Speeches were made by Richard Elliot Chairman of the Program Committee Fiona Beck President of the SubOptic Executive Committee and Philippe Dumont President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks the company that hosted the conference in Paris

This was directly followed by the first keynote speaker Matt Ridley scientist journalist and author of ldquoThe Rational Optimist How Prosperity Evolvesrdquo

ldquoThe world economy is booming ahead at three to four percent a yearrdquo Ridley said His speech consisted of statistics and examples of how the world scary

place that itrsquos been the last few years has actually been steadily improving for many years and will continue to do so

Events I made it to that day included three oral sessions and a guest speaker The guest speaker was named Chris Burke I mention this session especially for two reasons First no one expected the topic he gave his speech on Second more than one person came up to me afterwards to see if wersquod taped it and if they could have a copy

The people in senior capacities have become largely unskilled Burke said

There has been a phenomena where executives may have no real experience with the products youre trying to sell them Because of this he explains people need to learn how to explain why they should want their product despite their relative inexperience in the industry He even had a seven step plan to go with it

The keynote speaker the next morning was from Ed Parsons Geospacial Technologist for Google I can honestly

say I will never again look something up on Google without noticing how it sorts items by distance from my location which is just one way the company employs GPS Parsons makes the point that Googles real purpose is to provide information Apparently about 13 of the information people search for is location related Even when the question isnt about a specific location Google uses location to better narrow down the answers they give you

But his speech was truly about the growth of the internet which apparently has a few more users coming just around the corner ldquoHow are we going to make the internet helpful for these next billion peoplerdquo There is growing use of smart phones specifically for internet purposes in countries like Kenya

ldquoWersquove got to work hard to make broadband as accessible everywhere elserdquo Parsons said

For that day I attended two oral sessions and a roundtable on Finance One of the oral sessions was on the topic of Regulatory Permits and Network Security Kent Bressie gave an impressive look at the way national security concerns are becoming a major worry for cable companies

There has been a shift in perception So much so that when there is a break in a cable the first thought isnt an accident but a terrorist attack This has led to all sorts of new oversight by governments according to Bressie

The final keynote speaker was Emmanuel Desurvire who I apparently owe for the bandwidth I previously thought was naturally occurring For

his speech he explains the history of the erbium-doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs) a technology that made higher bandwidths possible

For the last days events I managed to attend two roundtables an oral session and a master class The first of the roundtables was entitled Africa The Impact of an Unprecedented Wave of Investment Its moderated by Yves Ruggeri of France Telecom Orange Participants include Funke Opeke of Main One Angelique Weeks of Liberian Regulator Nzioka Waita of Safaricom and Antonio Nunes of Angola Cables

The issues discussed ranged all over According to Waita there is a discrepancy in price for terrestrial lines In some cases the cost for a far greater distance may be cheaper than closer areas Weeks asked the question How much is the private sector willing to invest without a clear return Capacity can get to the more isolated areas but it requires the wireless option We can get it out there Its imperative How fast is the question

The master class I attended was one I couldnrsquot pass up Pirates Poison and Politics There were four presenters

whose topic varied greatly My favorite of them was David Tossell of Alcatel-Lucent He spoke on Piracy

A total of 76 vessels were recently attacked by pirates Despite the almost humorous things that come to mind when mentioning pirates itrsquos not that funny of an issue Submarine cables are located all over the work The threat of piracy and robbery is nothing new says Tossell Itrsquos recently become more of a problem

However the presenter that left the greatest impact was Ryoichi Yatabe speaking about dealing the aftermath of Fukushima and nuclear contamination on the water As many would remember the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11 2011 at 246 pm

More than 20 cable faults in 7 systems occurred The company KCS repaired 11 of the cables They experienced a number of challenges The first of

which was easing customersrsquo confusion Fear of nuclear contamination caused chaos during the process Next they had to determine a permissible level of exposure so that they could repair cables near the Fukushima disaster Preventative measures they took included revising the manual on security against radioactivity collecting data using protective gear and using multiple ways of measuring radioactivity while working Lastly cable repair was particularly difficult because of the earthquake Landslides had congested and buried the cables The repairs took a total of 154 days

The day ended with a bang The closing ceremony for the 2013 SobOptic conference featured an awards ceremony for a few different honors handed out by Fiona Beck and Wayne

Nielsen owner of SubTel Forum which donated the awards

bull Best Paper from a Newcomer Nicole Starosielski

bull Best Poster Andy Palmer-Felgatebull Best Paper Presented Elisabeth

Rivera Hartling

An Award for Outstanding Contribution was also given to Elaine Stafford and Fiona Beck After that came the big news First Beck stepped down from her position in SubOptic

Im pleased to announce your new president is Yves Ruggeri announced Beck She had completed her two year term as president of the executive committee of SubOptic and had to pass the baton

Ruggeri then invited the general manager of E-Marine to the stage and made a big announcement Ibrahim Alowais was introduced at the SubOptic closing ceremony as it was announced that E-Marine will host SubOptic 2016 in Dubai

ldquoSubOptic enables us to not only celebrate and consider the state of our industry but it also enables us to look forward with the best the industry has to offerrdquo said Alowais ldquoLike our industry Dubai has also changedhellip Itrsquos only right that we should welcome the worldrsquos largest conference in the submarine cable industry We are confident that E-Marine and Dubai will be the perfect platform to hostrdquo

And that finished out an exciting conference Look forward to three years from now in Dubai

Stephen Jarvis is a freelance writer in the Washington DC area He has published articles and done editorial work with

several publications including Submarine Telecoms Forum Also he has been a speaker for the Popular Culture Association American Culture Association National Conference

and the winners are

The Best Paper From a Newcomer Nicole Starosielski New York University

ldquoSurfacing A Digital Mapping of Submarine Cablesrdquo Abstract - There is a lack of public awareness about the importance of submarine cable systems even despite the recent increase in the circulation of visual and geographic information about them This lack of awareness can inhibit policy regulation and investment This paper discusses an opportunity to improve the ldquocable literacyrdquo of the general public including policy-makers and regulators ldquoSurfacingrdquo a digital map of submarine cables built using web technologies is designed in game-like format in which the user becomes the signal traverses the network and learns about the challenges companies face in constructing and maintaining cable systems

Best Poster Andy Palmer-Felgate Verizon

ldquoMarine Maintenance in the Zones - a global comparison of repair commencement timesrdquo Abstract - Many factors can impact the time it takes to commence a submarine cable repair permits transits vessel availability weather spares availability and security requirements to name just a few This paper takes available repair durations spanning several years from across all of the Worldrsquos maintenance zones (ACMA MECMA SEAIOCMA YZ amp NAZ) to compare and contrast the mean time to repair by region In addition the underlying reasons for the widely varying timescales are explored and common themes identified The findings of this paper shed light on the geopolitical issues impacting the expeditious repair of submarine cables which may have profound economic consequences for carriers and end-users alike in the countries and regions affected Whilst no attempt is made here to suggest solutions by presenting quantified regional differences in mean time to repair we aim to provide a global overview of what has become a significant issue for international carriers

Best Paper Presented Elisabeth Rivera Hartling Ciena

ldquoUsing Coherent Technology for Simple Accurate Performance Budgetingrdquo Abstract - Coherent technology powered by advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) provides access to a rich set of information on the optical field Despite this current practices in performance budgeting and system acceptance focus only on the pre-FEC bit error ratio translated to dBQ2 and ignore the set of measures offered by coherent technology In this paper we discuss how coherent technology with advanced DSP can measure in real-time necessary components to derive performance budgets We demonstrate a working example using commercially available 100 Gbs coherent DP-QPSK modems with high gain soft FEC

Time Has Come For Taking Innovation Under Water

The How and Why Of a New Repeater

Stuart Barnes Tony Frisch

amp Joerg Schwartz

Since the introduction of fiber optics to submarine telecommunications in the 1980rsquos there has only been

one major evolutionary change in repeater technology this being the switch from regenerative (3R) repeaters to optically-amplified repeaters which made the undersea plant agnostic to the line rate and format Such low speed of innovation seems surprising if compared with other advances in undersea communication technology For example letrsquos have a look at how terminal equipment and in particular the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) line rate has changed over the same period The first repeatered cable system was UK-Belgium 5 laid in 1986 operated with a single plesiochronous channel (it was regenerative) at 140Mbits recently 100Gbits per wavelength was deployed on submarine links of the GBI network by Xtera With odd releases (such as 420Mbits) there were eight incremental changes to the line rate per system or subsequently wavelength in a period where repeater technology has only changed once Submerged plant however needs to be very much more reliable than terminal equipment that explains the reluctance of suppliers to make changes without some pressure

Other than the miniaturized 2-pair repeater developed by start-up company RedSky (subsequently acquired by Huawei Marine Networks) and some internal improvements such as better spectral flattening repeater technology has been little changed for well over

a decade With the introduction of coherent detection techniques coupled with breakthroughs in Forward Error Correction (FEC) ndash such as soft-decision coding ndash the TDM approach continues to be appealing However there is not much further to go with FEC other

Lightweight repeater undergoing extensive terrestrial test to simulate deployment handling and recovery

digital technologies to allow transmit pulse shaping and mitigate the effects of non-linear impairments seem likely to be a route to increased capacity There is no doubt that scientists and engineers will continue to rise to this challenge but it is equally clear that this is not the only solution and that revisiting the somewhat neglected submerged amplifier might also yield some benefits

About 3 years ago Xtera therefore embarked on a journey to develop a new repeater to satisfy the conflicting needs of the industry On the one hand it had to be evolutionary to meet the stringent reliability expectations of the industry but on the other hand it also had to address the need for more bandwidthcapacity at lower cost per transmitted bit

One key advantage that Xtera had from the beginning was its rich history in Raman amplifier design Xtera started its company history in the late 1990rsquos as a start-up that was specifically focused on Raman amplifier design filing well over 100 patents on this topic alone This has been a consistent theme running through all its product innovations both in terrestrial and unrepeatered submarine systems

where Raman amplification leads to higher line capacity and longer reach when compared to the conventional amplification approach Coupled with that the UK arm of Xtera has a rich vein of skills in long-haul submarine system design and had been able to learn from the experience of upgrading a number of different systems

So what are the main differentiators that are accessible by using Raman amplification technology in a repeater There are actually two answers to this question the Raman effect can be used to create gain in the line fiber thus attaining a noise figure that is inherently lower than that of a traditional Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) the Raman effect can also be utilized to create gain outside the fixed window provided by classical EDFA amplifiers The former opens the gate to increasing the inter-repeater spans for some specific applications while the latter can be used to widen the useable optical bandwidth in a system

So far Raman amplification has had no place in a real submerged amplifier although there have been numerous publications some suggesting a hybrid mix of EDFA and distributed Raman However the pumps needed are less

efficient than EDFA pumps and more power is required which might explain why people have shied away from this approach so far Through careful attention to the electronic design and using more modern approaches to drive circuitry Xtera has overcome this barrier and is now able to offer the first hybrid EDFA distributed Raman amplifier for use underwater

In doing this Xtera has not forgotten the critical standards of performance and reliability demanded by the submarine communications industry with a design that uses six pumps per amplifier pair with redundancy to cover the possibility of a pump failing Xtera has also selected pumps which have very good reliability pedigree and will also be using control supervisory unit redundancy Throughout the whole design and development process Xtera has always been mindful of the conservative approach that is demanded by submarine cable system operators The first repeater release has a bandwidth of more than 50nm on transoceanic distances ndash nonetheless a significant increase over current EDFA designs ndash with an overall architecture that will be recognizable as essentially an evolution from the ldquoindustry standardrdquo

Next Xtera has developed a modular approach to amplifier design that allows the offering of at least three variants of the optical amplifier to target different market segments Xtera has also learned from terrestrial amplifier module suppliers who long ago surpassed subsea cable system industry in terms of miniaturization Allied to some proprietary tricks Xtera has developed a product that is easier

to manufacture offering the option to assemble the repeater in much less specialized clean room environments and that may also offer the ability to take some of the assembly and test closer to the deployment location

Finally Titanium was chosen for the housing and external metal units Titanium has become the material of first choice in the hydrospace sector in

particular oil and gas It has the best specific strength of all the candidate materials and excellent corrosion characteristics in sea water Together with a small form factor amplifier module Xtera has evolved a much lighter smaller form factor product that is suitable for both surface laying and plough burial In general the mechanical design was equally challenging from inside to outside The first challenge was building a scalable internal unit that gave intimate contact with the inside polymeric liner (need for electrical insulation) in order to give optimal heat transfer to the outside of the repeater and supported by comprehensive thermal modeling Xtera has carried out extensive work with Southampton University to understand some of the fundamental characteristics of Titanium such as corrosion thermal and hydrogen permittivity In addition Xtera had to design new bulkheads and seals and new interconnection solutions These designs were extensively tested at a conceptual level prior to mechanical testing and formal qualification

The journey has been long and arduous as one would expect from a multi-disciplinary task such as this with full knowledge that some of the concepts

Armored cable being made ready

for recent sea trial

discussed above would require extensive concept and qualification testing often with the assistance of cable or installation partners In addition to designing a higher-bandwidth amplifier Xtera had to select electrical and optical components to meet the stringent reliability requirements of the industry From an electrical perspective Xtera was focused not only on the control and supervisory aspects but also on broader system requirements such as surge resilience and the high voltage reliability of the extremity boxes that join the repeater to the cables

Formal and extensive qualification is the subject in this industry that burns up a lot of time and cost Based on in-house experience developing and introducing terminal equipment to the submarine systems market Xtera felt it necessary to ask a reputable Tier 1 operator to act as an independent qualification authority this Tier 1 operator has audited the design specification and qualification process which includes the usual gamut of terrestrial testing and sea trials The latter were facilitated by Xterarsquos already ongoing and expanding activities in the submarine turnkey market through which Xtera has already executed a number of full system deployments ranging from redeployments to completely new systems and including repeatered and unrepeatered installations of different sizes Through this Xtera has not only vastly expanded its in-house expertise in planning and execution of submerged installation but also developed

partnerships with cable manufacturers survey companies or marine installation suppliers

These partnerships combined with in-house SLTE and abundant system engineering expertise will enable Xtera to be a serious player in this market by having control of the following elements either through an internal resource or through partnership means system design transmission equipment design and manufacture ocean cable installation plant and finally repeater technology Having established relationships with recognized leaders in cable and installation Xtera was happy to embark on an exciting journey that has led to todayrsquos product ndash which will continue by serving the needs of new customers that are looking for a new generation of submerged plant for maximizing the reach capacity and value of their subsea assets

Dr Stuart Barnes joined Xtera in 2007 and serves as the CTO for submarine systems Stuart has over 30 years of experience in the submarine telecommunications business

Prior to Xtera Stuart was the founder and COO of Polariq as well as founder and CTO of both Azea Networks and of ilotron In addition Dr Barnes has held senior management positions at Atlas Venture Alcatel Recherche STC Submarine Systems and STC Cables Newport Stuart holds over 20 patents has published over 40 papers and has been recently

appointed to the Advisory Board of the Aston University Institute of Photonics

Tony Frisch started at BTrsquos Research labs and then moved to Alcatel Australia becoming involved in testing submarine systems A move to Bell Labs gave him experience in

terminal design and troubleshooting after which he went back to Alcatel France where he worked in Alcatel Submarine Networksrsquo Technical Sales before moving to head Product Marketing He is now SVP Repeaters for Xtera Communications

Dr Joerg Schwartz is responsible for Xterarsquos Turnkey Solutions product offering delivering end-to-end submarine solutions to network operators based on

the companyrsquos transmission equipment and project execution expertise Prior to this Joerg has directed the NXT system definition and developed Xterarsquos systems engineering team providing network solution design field and lab trials sales support and systems research Other previous experiences include engineering and operational management roles for Ericsson submarine terminal development for Alcatel and founding an optical components company

SEaCOm ndash Upgrading the african Internet

Brian Lavalleacutee amp

arunachalam Kandasamy

The African Market

Affordable access to broadband is a major contributor to economic growth in developing countries According to a 2011 study by the World Bank a 138 percent increase in a countryrsquos GDP growth is experienced for every 10 percent increase in broadband penetration mdash higher than any other telecommunication service Since Africa has for different reasons traditionally lagged behind other continents in terms of economic development improving its telecommunications networks

represents a significant opportunity to close the broadband divide with the rest of the world Since bandwidth access and cost is a major hindrance to the increased use of IT improving the African telecom infrastructure using the

latest in optical networking technology and supporting infrastructure is seen as an ideal way to improve the lives and livelihoods of Africans in a relatively short period of time As world economies become increasingly interconnected modern telecom networks are essential for Africa to enjoy the benefits of globalization

As shown in Figure 1 Africa currently lags behind the rest of the world but decisive steps are being taken to increase its broadband Internet connectivity Connecting to the global network infrastructure as well as

enabling intra-Africa connectivity on a reliable basis and at competitive costs will continue the process of putting Africa on an equal footing with the rest of the world Reliable and high-speed connections allow Africans to access content both local and offshore serve

up its own brand of localized language and culture content participate in global markets enhance productivity and grow online business opportunities mdash all in relatively short order

According to TeleGeography2 Africa has already experienced 77 percent CAGR associated with international bandwidth usage from 2008 to 2012 clearly demonstrating its growing adoption and reliance on international connectivity Numerous submarine cables connecting the African continent to the rest of the world as well as continuing investment in terrestrial networks and access have fueled this astounding growth which will only continue as reliable lower cost bandwidth particularly among the less connected landlocked countries proliferates Broadband connectivity can revolutionize how people solve problems at individual community business security and national levels Benefits related to tourism education manufacturing job creation healthcare productivity economic growth and even social inclusion can be realized from improved access to affordable broadband So itrsquos no surprise that substantial investment in Africarsquos

Figure 1 Internet

penetration in Africa

(2Q2012)1

1 Internet World Stats copy Copyright Miniwatts Market-

ing Group

2 International Bandwidth Usage by Region from 2008-2012 TeleGeography

telecom infrastructure both in the terrestrial and submarine segments continues to increase

SEACOM the Company

SEACOM is a privately owned and operated pan-African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabler driving the development of the African Internet being built on the backbone of open-access and equitable

principles African ownership of SEACOM currently stands at over 75 percent and this high level of regional ownership and local presence enables SEACOM to better understand and address African market dynamics and associated demands SEACOM developed and financed the first high-speed submarine cable serving the route between South Africa and Europe via East Africa and India to offer high-quality and affordable Internet

connectivity services This directly addressed the growing digital divide previously experienced by numerous underserved countries along the south and east African coast as well as several landlocked countries By replacing previously utilized satellite communications technology and all of its limitations when compared to fiber optic networks SEACOM brings the African telecommunications infrastructure on par with the rest of the developed world

SEACOM provides reliable international and intra-Africa bandwidth to African carriers at wholesale prices and their diverse and growing network offers city-to-city services to African carriers for connectivity within Africa and to and from Europe and Asia Each CLS and data center attached to the SEACOM network is operated on an ldquoopen accessrdquo principle which permits direct access to any licensed or license-exempt operator thereby acting as a catalyst to the East and South African telecommunication markets

To reach inland across provinces regions and cities SEACOM leverages its subsidiaries and local partners in each served country to carry telecommunications infrastructure

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

3 copy Copyright SEACOM 2013

deep into landlocked countries SEACOM has developed and continues to do so numerous relationships to bring the benefits of the SEACOM communications network to southern and eastern Africa and continue the transformation that they started in 2009

SEACOM the Network

In late 2007 SEACOM began construction of their ambitious submarine cable network which was completed and Ready for Service (RFS) by mid 2009 The SEACOM submarine fiber optic network system was launched in 2009 and serves to directly interconnect South Africa and East Africa with Europe and Southern Asia and has already connected many African countries including South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Kenya Rwanda Uganda Djibouti and Ethiopia SEACOM enables Africans to enjoy high-bandwidth services such as HDTV IPTV true broadband Internet peer-to-peer networks cloud as well as numerous other connectivity-related services

To ensure the SEACOM submarine cable is properly maintained SEACOM has a 24x7 Network Operations

Center (NOC) based in Pune (India) and employs adequate trained and skilled resources across the network SEACOM has continued to develop and mesh its network to offer diversity and resilience by securing capacity from other suppliers on the East and West coasts of Africa as well as multiple routes within Europe and across Egypt (the only African carrier to offer this in Egypt) This capacity can be used for the customers who opt for protected services from SEACOM as full service services supplier SEACOMlsquos IP-T and MPLS networks are designed as highly meshed and resilient offering multiple breakouts to the Internet in London (UK) Marseilles (France) and Mumbai

(India) which provide increased resilience for IP customers in the event of network interruptions

Network Upgrade Challenges

Given the current unabated adoption of broadband connectivity in the African markets served by SEACOM it was evident their fully owned submarine cable network needed to be upgraded to maintain pace with increased capacity demands using the very latest in coherent-based optical transmission technology SEACOM required a Submarine Line Terminating Equipment (SLTE) upgrade solution that allowed 10 Gbs

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

and 40 Gbs channels to coexist on the same wet plant This allows existing 10 Gbs channels based on legacy Intensity Modulated Direct Detection (IMDD) technology to be redeployed or replaced as required without unnecessarily stranding network assets It is a relatively simple task to upgrade submarine networks to the latest in coherent optical transmission technology using card swaps at the SLTE that require no alterations to the existing wet plant However in the case of the SEACOM submarine network the presence of two Branching Units (BU) meant added network design complexity which was overcome using innovative submarine network technologies and design techniques

As shown in Figure 3 the SEACOM network has two branching units in their network that together provide access between Zafarana (Egypt) Djibouti City (Djibouti) Mombasa (Kenya) and Mumbai (India) Given the distance from BU-A to Djibouti is relatively short and that standard unamplified adddrop to and from shore is implemented upgrading this portion of the segment is relatively straight forward However BU-B is a non-standard BU fed by three amplified chains making it more of a challenge from a power balancing

perspective for wavelengths traveling different distances between India and Africa SLTE transponders using legacy IMDD have different launch power and receiver sensitivity requirements when compared to newer coherent technology-based transponders This means that obtaining optimum transmission performance is more involved when these two different transmission technologies share the same wet plant over varied distances However by leveraging deep understandings in IMDD coherent transmission and wet plant technologies SEACOM successfully increased capacity over targeted segments of their submarine network assets using 40 Gbs technology with a rapid and smooth evolution path to 100 Gbs as dictated by future market dynamics

More than just the Line Rate

Although channel line rates receive a lot of attention in the media there is far more to upgrading a network The line rate is just one aspect of a typical upgrade which also includes client-side interfaces management integration rolling traffic from lower rate channels to higher rates channels andor moving channels within the available repeater spectrum Higher

channel rates offer improved spectral efficiency and higher total capacities of wet plants that vastly surpass original maximum capacities However the types of services (SONETSDH OTN andor Ethernet) that are mapped into these higher channel rates must also be planned to incorporate more expensive yet flexible multi-protocol client-side interfaces or lower cost yet inflexible single-protocol (Ethernet) client-side interfaces The decision must maximize the return on investment of the capacity upgrade while meeting market demands of today and tomorrow Separating the client-side and line-side functions to different circuit packs facilitates the decision as they can be changed as the market evolves while being able to maintain use of the more expensive coherent-based line-side optical interfaces

Once client-side and line-side hardware has been evaluated and selected management integration of this new hardware comes to the forefront because the network Operations team will spend most of their time interfacing to this new hardware via the Network Management System (NMS) A seamless hardware upgrade requires a seamless NMS upgrade which was part of SEACOMrsquos decision-making process

from the start Fortunately third-party upgrades on existing wet plants are facilitated via flexible NMS offerings that enabled SEACOM to manage both the existing and upgraded portions of their expansive network from a remote location allowing for proactive and reactive management of their network assets from the Network Operations Center (NOC) The uniquely long distances associated with submarine networks make efficient network management from a remote relocation that much more important to submarine cable operators

SEACOM upgraded their network using 40 Gbs coherent-based technology to meet current market demands with the option to upgrade to the latest in 100 Gbs technology as market dynamics continue to evolve The mixing of 10 Gbs 40 Gbs and 100 Gbs channels is possible using the latest in coherent-based technology allowing SEACOM to select different channel rates to meet their specific market demands while avoiding the expensive stranding of network assets Channels can be moved within the spectrum to maximize end-to-end transmission performance or replaced outright with new higher rate technologies as offerings evolve

Boosting the African Economy

Africa is the second-largest and second-most populous continent on Earth It covers roughly six percent of the worldrsquos total surface area and 204 percent of the total land area According to the United Nations as of 2011 African had a population of just over one billion people or roughly 14 percent of the worldrsquos total population of about 7 billion people However accessing over one billion people with a relatively limited telecom infrastructure means that the broadband and digital divide could continue to increase were it not for the significant investments being made by major telecom service providers such as SEACOM Increased access to lower cost reliable and scalable bandwidth is one key solution to aid Africa in its quest to improve its national economies and the welfare of its people Increasing submarine network capacity that interconnects Africa to the rest of the world at more accessible prices is a significant step towards improving the economies of many African countries along with associated benefits of a higher standard of living

Governments around the world understand that investing in their

national broadband infrastructure and its capabilities represents a down payment in the future of their citizens Failure to do so means the very real risk of lagging permanently behind developed countries within the interconnected global economy SEACOM recognizes this imperative and has embarked on a journey to not only turn up the first submarine cable in 2009 to connect South Africa and East Africa to the rest of the world but to maintain pace with subsequent growth by upgrading their network from 10 Gbs to 40 Gbs technology today and 100 Gbs tomorrow

Brian Lavalleacutee is the Director responsible for Global Networks Solutions at Ciena

Arunachalam Kandasamy is Head of Network Operations at SEACOM

lsquoOnwards and Eastwardsrsquo E-marine mD amp CEO Highlights The Challenges and

ambitions Of Hosting The Next SubOptic

Omar Jassim Bin Kalban

With over 700 delegates and four days of in-depth and insightful

industry discussions and networking opportunities SubOptic 2013 was one of the most successful events in its 27 year history So as this prestigious event moves East from Paris to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) E-marine has a major challenge ahead to make it as good if not better than the last event

As the Middle Eastrsquos principal provider of submarine cable solutions it is an honour to be awarded the privilege of hosting the next edition of this outstanding event As an organisation that has helped to pioneer the development of the Middle Eastrsquos subsea cable infrastructure we are excited to bring this important global event to the region E-marine has become part of the growth engine that helps to facilitate the communications infrastructure in the Middle East and beyond and makes a major contribution to the advancement of the region ndash stretching from India and Iraq to Egypt and Tanzania

The company was born out of a need to serve the region from the region and has over 25 years of subsea cable experience in the Middle East During

this time E-marine has laid some of the first communication cables to the United Arab Emirates connecting it together with neighboring countries The Arabian peninsula has been a critical location in the progress of submarine telegraphy between the East and the West since the end of the 19th century and more recently the Middle East region has seen an influx in the construction and announcement of new submarine cable systems and competing terrestrial systems along with the total demand for international

capacity from the Gulf countries which is showing significant growth

So the arrival of SubOptic to Dubai in 2016 will be during what is a critical and exciting time against a backdrop of significant growth in capacity that is expected to take place over the coming years

The appetite for businesses and consumers for new services and applications particularly mobile broadband growth continues to drive

cable initiatives to expand connectivity and capacity and the pace of change continues to accelerate

And as with any rapidly changing industry it is critical for the industry and the companies that form part of it to be aware of and prepared for fluctuating business drivers that can impact our organisationsrsquo SubOptic Dubai will enable us to not only celebrate and consider the state of industry today and the role it has played throughout history but enable us to look forward to its commercial and technological future with the best experts the industry has to offer

As hosts we are thrilled that the SubOptic Committee is entrusting E-marine to host the event outside of Europe Japan or the United States for its 30th anniversary Much like our rapidly changing industry Dubai has also changed beyond belief since the first SubOptic event back in 1986 when it was a very different place to what it is today From its humble beginning as a pearl diving centre to one of the worldrsquos fastest growing cities on earth Dubai has earned itself the reputation as lsquothe gateway between the east and the westrsquo As someone who has personally witnessed this rapid change I look forward to welcoming delegates to experience our wonderful city that

despite being modern manages to hold on to its cultural heritage

The strategic location of the UAE and Dubai is fitting not only because of its excellent flight connections and a world renowned hospitality industry but with many subsea cables running through the region this too makes it the ideal place to discuss and promote the submarine cable industry

We have the worldrsquos tallest building the worldrsquos largest mall and worldrsquos biggest aquarium among many other record breaking achievements so it is only right that we should welcome the worldrsquos largest conference in the

submarine cable industry From the timeless tranquility of the desert to the lively bustle of the souk Dubai offers a kaleidoscope of attractions It is also a major international business hub with excellent infrastructure The city has also established itself as a leading conference and exhibitions destination and we have already begun working searching for the best deals at the best venues to match the merit of this event

The event programme will be generated over the next year and will

have a strong focus on the future of the industry We will work closely with the Programme Chair and Executive Committee to develop one of the most exciting and engaging progammes to date

We are confident that that Dubai will offer the perfect platform for the ninth edition of SubOptic on its 30th anniversary

Omar Jassim Bin Kalban is Managing Director and CEO of E-marine the principal provider of submarine cable solutions

in the Middle East He is responsible for leading the companyrsquos operations and driving profitable growth in the region as well as ensuring a superior customer experience for regional and international customersHe oversees all elements of the business which operates in the Middle East subsea cable region stretching from Sri Lanka in the East spanning across The Gulf and Red Sea to South Africa in the West This also includes E-marinersquos cable and storage depots in Hamriyah UAE and Salalah Oman and the E-marine fleet of cable ships remotely operated vehicles and marine facilities which are considered to be one of the most important support pillars for the regional digital infrastructure He began his career as a graduate trainee with Etisalat-UAE in the 1980s after graduating from North-Eastern University Boston Massachusetts with a degree in Electrical Engineering Omar was appointed as CEO of E-marine in 1998 to create develop and grow a stand-alone unit for subsea cables and services at regional and international levels

Trends In african International Capacity Purchasing

mike Last

An increasing number of reports are highlighting the strengthening presence

of Africa on the worldrsquos economic stage and the steep growth curves exhibited by many economies in the worldrsquos second largest continent The Economist for example reported1 that for the period 2001 to 2010 six of the ten fastest growing global economies were in Africa Analysts anticipate an overall increase in GDP of between 5 and 7 per cent across the continent as a whole this year and it is predicted that for the period 2011 to 2015 no less than seven of the ten fastest growing economies in the world will be in Africa - raising the continentrsquos profile in the global marketplace still higher

1 lsquoAfrica risingrsquo The Economist - 3 December 2011

Improved ICT infrastructure and particularly the recent advances in international connectivity is playing a critical role in this economic growth Meanwhile business and domestic customers in Africa are displaying a seemingly insatiable appetite for the reliable high-performance services enabled by the diversity-rich high-capacity bandwidth becoming available through the integration of new submarine cables with enhanced terrestrial networks

A combination of improved internet access and the increasing affordability of high-specification mobile handsets have contributed to the phenomenal growth of mobile internet and data services over the past few years and these are playing a pivotal role in Africarsquos economic expansion

According to the World Bank2 Africarsquos mobile phone market has expanded rapidly from around 50 million subscribers in 2003 to approximately 650 million at the end of 2012 ndash making it larger than both the European Union and the United States At the same

2 ICTrsquos delivering home-grown development solutions in Africa (World Develop-ment Bank December 2012 - httpwebworldbankorgWBSITEEXTERNALTOPICSEXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES0contentMDK23325885~pagePK210058~piPK210062~theSitePK28282300html

time Internet bandwidth has grown enormously as hundreds of thousands of kilometres of new fibre-optic cables have been laid across the continent and millions of dollars have been invested in new mobile technologies to serve an increasing number of its 1 billion citizens Mobile penetration across the continent now exceeds 60 compared to approximately 85 globally and this is up from around 20 just seven years ago3 Mobile penetration in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to reach 75 by 2016

Growth in internet usage in Africa has also been staggering from 45 million users at the start of the century to more than 167 million at the end of 20124 Unlike most other parts of the world the relatively high cost (compared to average income) of PC ownership and the limited availability of fixed-line infrastructure in Africa have resulted in the majority of this growth coming from mobile internet In South Africa for example more than 90 of broadband internet is delivered over mobile devices and in Kenya more than 98 of internet access is over the mobile infrastructure

3 httpwwwgsmacompublicpolicywp-contentuploads201204africamo-bileobservatory2011-1pdf4 Internet World Stats January 2013 Miniwatts Marketing Group - httpwwwinternetworldstatscomstats1htm

These transformational changes which are radically improving how businesses in Africa operate and positively impacting the way many Africans go about their daily lives have only been possible with the dramatic advances made in the availability reach reliability capacity and diversity of international submarine and terrestrial fibre connectivity into within and out of Africa

From availability and price to diversity and quality

The explosive growth in Africarsquos international connectivity has led to some radical shifts in the decision-making thinking being applied to purchasing international capacity into and out of Africa

Historically the only consideration for carriers looking to purchase international connectivity into and out of Africa was purely and simply its Availability ndash was there an international submarine cable to which they could connect If not then expensive satellite connectivity was the only option

At the beginning of 2009 only two international cables served sub-Saharan

Africa SAT3SAFE connecting a number of countries across western and southern Africa and Atlantis-2 linking Senegal and Cape Verde to South America and Europe Most international links used expensive low capacity satellite circuits with the high costs severely restricting internet uptake and inhibiting rollout of broadband services

However since 2009 nine new cables have come on stream ndash Main One Glo-1 WACS (West Africa Cable System)

and ACE (African Coast to Europe) serving the west African region and on the east coast Seacom TEAMS (The East African Marine System) LION2 (Lower Indian Ocean Network) SEAS (Seychelles East Africa System) and EASSy (East African Submarine System) ndash bringing the total design capacity of international submarine cables into and out of sub-Saharan Africa to more than 22Tbps

Terrestrial networks improving too

As new submarine cables were landed this strengthened the business case for improving the reach reliability and capacity of terrestrial fibre networks within Africa

Between 1995 and 2005 US$25 billion was invested in the ICT sector in sub-Saharan Africa mainly by

private operators and investors This investment resulted in a rapid expansion of communication networks and by 2006 more than half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa was living under a mobile footprint In some African countries such as Kenya and Malawi almost the entire population is now within range of a mobile network

This investment is ongoing according to Hamilton Research5 by Q1 2013 5 Africa Bandwidth Maps - httpwwwafricabandwidth-

Africarsquos total inventory of terrestrial transmission networks had surpassed 785500 kms - laid end-to-end that is enough network infrastructure to wrap around the earth more than 19 times This compares to 702295 kms in Jan 2012 660230 kms in June 2011 585468 kms in June 2010 and 465659 kms in June 2009 Of the total inventory 438838 km is fibre-optic network ndash representing the vast majority of

new deployments Over the last 12 months an average of gt115 kms of new fibre network entered service per day and there will soon be continuous interconnected terrestrial fibre network running from Cape Town to Cairo

Equally importantly the new cables have also encouraged a competitive market for capacity sales As a result Price increasingly became the key consideration in the purchasing mapscom

decision for international submarine cable capacity into Africa As wholesale prices fell operators were able to purchase more capacity to meet the ever-growing demands of their customers

With increasing availability and falling costs of high-speed international connectivity into Africa domestic and business end-users have become

increasingly dependent upon the high-performance services on offer and the opportunities they create From improved business efficiency and productivity through to accessing music and video streaming online gaming and popular social networking applications such as Facebook YouTube and Twitter customers now want expect and demand access to these internet-enabled functions 24x7x365

This evolution in end-user expectations heralded a further change in international capacity buying behaviour The leading ISPs telcos and carriers started to place greater emphasis on securing network Diversity to reduce the impact of individual cable cuts and other service-affecting disruptions so that they could deliver the high-quality services increasingly demanded by their customers

In the most competitive markets the discussion is no longer simply about whether or not to invest in diversity it is now about having sufficient diversity ndash truly redundant capacity on multiple cables In such competitive environments a key consideration for carriers national operators and ISPs is to provide their customers with the highest quality of service as excessive downtime risks an exodus of customers to lsquomore reliablersquo competitors This means ensuring they have sufficient capacity and enough diversity across the right networks ndash ie those that will best serve them and their customers in terms of service continuity network resilience and network management

As a result purchasing in the international African capacity market has recently begun to evolve a step

further with the focus increasingly shifting from simple diversity to securing a High-quality network Here quality encompasses many different aspects of the overall international capacity offering how well protected and reliable the primary network route is the ability to deliver alternative routes to avoid network bottlenecks how quickly and efficiently traffic can be re-routed when a service interruption does occur and the costs associated with this levels of support responsiveness to changing requirements and the desire to create long-term partnerships

Opportunity Africa

For Africa as a whole continued expansion of the ICT industry is a critical enabler for growth - attracting foreign investment and financing creating opportunity and employment generating income and improving lives It will also continue to be one of the key factors in the ongoing emergence of a larger and more influential African middle-class

For African and international telcos and ISPs a powerful combination of factors ndash including the explosion in mobile broadband uptake and huge

growth in the use of data-rich personal and business applications ndash is making the African continent a place of genuine and significant opportunity

Whilst the wave of new submarine cable deployments to connect up Africa has largely subsided local cable builds large-scale capacity purchases and upgrades will ensure that the competitive market for international bandwidth continues With telcos and ISPs keen to take advantage of the opportunities presented by developments in Africa buying behaviours will continue to evolve in the market for international connectivity into within and out of Africa

Mike Last Director Marketing amp International Business Development at WIOCC

Back Reflection by Stewart ash

Other Atlantic Telegraph Cables

Aficionados of the history of our industry will probably be familiar with the famous story of the Atlantic Telegraph This traditionally covers the period from the initial attempts in 1857-58 to the finally successful 1865 and 1866 cables However this was by no means the end of the story

In 1866 the two working transatlantic telegraph cables were owned and operated by the Anglo-American Telegraph company which had bought out the New York Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company in 1864 It had a working relationship with the Atlantic Telegraph Company up until the two companies merged in 1873 For a few years they enjoyed a monopoly over trans-Atlantic telegraphy and with it a virtual license to print money

In France thoughts quickly turned to direct communication with the USA Freacutedeacuteric Emile Baron drsquoErlanger (1832-1911) and Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (1816-99) backed by British finance launched a new company the French Atlantic Telegraph Company (La Socieacuteteacute du Cacircble Translantique Franccedilaise) in 1869 This company laid a cable between Brest and St Pierre (a French territory off of Newfoundland) with an extension to Cape Cod Massachusetts This cable was manufactured and installed by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) In 1873 the French Company was absorbed by Anglo-American At the time of the take-over the French Company already had another trans-Atlantic cable on order from Telcon it was intended for Brest to Halifax Nova Scotia Anglo-American diverted this

to a Hearts Content to Valentia cable and Telcon laid it in 1873 This left a residue from the original order of approximately 1000nm of cable and so a further order for 976nm was placed with Telcon and a new Newfoundland-Valentia cable was laid in 1874

In 1873 John Pender (1816-96) with significant support from Siemens Brothers set up The Direct United States Cable Company with the intention of directly linking the UK and the USA However it soon became clear that with the available technology the transmission speed would be too slow to compete with existing cables and so the direct route was abandoned An intermediate landing was essential and so in 1874 the Faraday on its maiden voyage laid the cable from Rye Beach USA to Tor Bay Nova Scotia and on to Ballinskelligs in Ireland John

Pender and William Siemens had a significant financial investment in this company which was originally intended to compete with the Anglo-American group of which Pender was then the chairman However as the direct route proved impractical the Direct Company very quickly came to a revenue sharing arrangement with Anglo

In 1879 a French financier Monsieur Augustin Thomas Pouyer-Quertier (1820-91) was behind the formation

to the respective contributions This was similar to the deal agreed with the Direct Company earlier

In 1881 Jason ldquoJayrdquo Gould (1836-1892) set up the American Telegraph and Cable Company that installed a Siemens Brothers manufactured trans-Atlantic cable between Nova Scotia and Sennen Cove in Cornwall A second Siemens Brothers trans-Atlantic cable was laid for the company in 1882 The Western Union Telegraph Company was the pioneer of land telegraphy in the USA and it entered submarine telegraphy when it acquired a majority share-holding in the International Ocean Telegraph Company in 1873 In 1881 Western Union entered the trans-Atlantic cable market when it made an agreement to lease the American Telegraph and Cable Companyrsquos cables Weston Union very quickly established a close working relationship with Anglo-American a co-operation which was destined to survive for some decades

By 1882 there were four companies operating telegraph cables across the Atlantic but because of the agreements in place between them they were all effectively under the control of Anglo-American and Western Union This

of La Compagnie Franccedilaise due Teacuteleacutegraphe de Paris agrave New York A trans-Atlantic cable was ordered from Siemens Brothers and was laid between Brest and St Pierre with extensions from St Pierre to Cape Cod and Brest to Cornwall The company came to be known as the P-Q Company after its founder Shortly after the cable went into commercial service P-Q negotiated a commercial arrangement with Anglo-American Their agreement was for the pooling of all earnings the income from the pool to be divided in proportion

meant that there was no competition and consequently pricing was high and very similar on all routes

On 28th September 1883 a co-partnership was entered into between John William Mackay (1831-1902) an American mining magnate born in Dublin who had made his fortune in Gold and Silver mines first in California and then Nevada James Gordon Bennett (1841-1918) proprietor of the New York Herald and Arthur Edmund Denis Dillon (1812-92) 16th Viscount of Costello Gallen in County

Mayo Ireland On 3rd November 1883 the partners accepted a proposal from Siemens Brothers for two trans-Atlantic cables On the 10th December 1883 the Commercial Cable Company (CCC) was incorporated in New York and took over the rights of the Siemens Brothers contracts A new and significant player had entered the arena As a newspaper owner Bennett recognized the importance of telegraph in obtaining news from Europe and was perturbed by the high cost of obtaining it over the existing

cables Consequently the CCC was set up with the duel intention of providing the Herald with preferential rates and to compete with the Anglo-American Western Union cartel The main links were from Waterville to Nova Scotia with an extension on the American side to New York and on the European side extensions to Weston-super-Mare and Le Havre The main trans-oceanic cables opened for traffic on Christmas Eve 1884 with the extensions being in place by 1885 The aggressive pricing of the CCC immediately captured a lot of traffic from the incumbent carriers This initial success was to start a price war that would rage for several years But that is another story and for that you will have to wait until the next edition

where itrsquos never been done before

ICPC21-23 May 2013Miami USAWebsite

Submarine Networks Africa27-30 May 2013Johannesburg South AfricaWebsite

Submarine Networks World10-12 September 2013SingaporeWebsite

Submarine Cable Forum4-5 November 2013Miami USAWebsite

Conferences

advertisers IndexISSN 1948-3031

Issue Themes

January Global Outlook

March Finance amp Legal

May Subsea Capacity

July Regional Systems

September Offshore Energy

November System Upgrades

Advertising enquiries

SALES MANAgERKristian Nielsen

Tel +1 (703) 444-0845Email knielsensubtelforumcom

Copyright copy 2013 Submarine Telecoms Forum Inc submit your article ideas to editorsubtelforumcom

Participate

Terabit Consulting wwwterabitconsultingcom 8

WFN Strategies wwwwfnstrategiescom 43

by Kevin G Summers

So did you enjoy SubOptic in Paris I hear that the food and wine in that part of the world are passably

good and the scenery is pleasent They even say that the language is fairly romantic I also heard that SubOptic was spectacular I wish I could have been there but lucky for me I was able to keep tabs on the conference thanks to STF-Today

Thats right SubTel Forum had people on the ground at SubOptic They were blogging live from various sessions interviewing panelists and ending each day with a recap of that days news and events I almost felt like I was there except for the Chacircteauneuf-du-Pape I was able to check our site every morning and learn about the highlights of the previous day

Did you use STF-Today What did you think Do you have any suggestions

that could improve the service for future conferences As always we at SubTel Forum want to hear your thoughts and suggestions I also want to thank Stephen Jarvis and Kacy Nielsen whithout whom our SubOptic coverage would not have been possible

Thanks for reading and well see you in July with our next issue

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

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Button 203

Button 161

Statistics

Issue65Released

Issue66Released

Issue67Released

Issue69Released

Issue68Released

ISSN No 1948-3031

edition

News Now 5

Conferences 44

Advertiser Index 45

CodaKevin G Summers

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

ISSN No 1948-3031

edition

News Now 5

Conferences 44

Advertiser Index 45

CodaKevin G Summers

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

News Now 5

Conferences 44

Advertiser Index 45

CodaKevin G Summers

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

News Now

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

or call +1 617 444 8605

projectcosts

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Capacity Statistics

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

SubOptic 2013 Recap

Stephen Jarvis

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Rivera Hartling

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

and the winners are

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

amp Joerg Schwartz

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

The African Market

Figure 1 Internet

(2Q2012)1

ing Group

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

SEACOM the Company

Figure 2 SEACOM

submarine cable

network3

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

SEACOM the Network

Figure 3 Submarine

cable network

details

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

mike Last

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Opportunity Africa

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Conferences

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Issue Themes

May Subsea Capacity

Participate

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

by Kevin G Summers

Button 186

Button 185

Button 170

Button 202

Button 203

Button 161

Documents

70 - Submarine Cable News and Analysis - SubTel Forumsubtelforum.com/articles/wp-content/STF_70.pdf · 03/12/2011 · Regs: Oral Session WE2A ... Etisalat Inks BBG Internet Agreement