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My Advice To East Africa Cable Capacity Buyers: Don't Over Shop

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***Next year we should get 2Africa finally connected to Marseille. But the cost and hence pricing of those links will be relatively high because the consortium must pay and operate terrestrial bypass from either Djibouti or Mombasa to the Sudan 2Africa CLS. Market pricing will decline from current levels, but probably not as much as the majority expects. ***Many of you are over shopping. For example, 2Africa market pricing between JB and Mombasa ranges from upper twenties to lower 40s. Real negotiation is give and take. Not just ask. You want lower price, then prepare to offer long terms or enlarge the deal. You will fail in procurement if your standard opening line is 'give me the lower price possible'. ***When you get a great offer, take it. The East Coast is a tight market. Don't take that offer back to other carriers and try to beat them down. It's annoying and alienates vendors. It is also amateurish. Your focus should be long term relationships, not short term opp...
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Most Last Mile Fiber Access In Nairobi And Mombasa Is Via Power Poles And GPON Architecture

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This device is probably a GPON fiber splitter that takes a fiber pair and splits into many fiber pairs to serve individual homes or buildings. These devices are ubiquitous in Kenya. GPON stands for gigabit passive optical network. It is a point-to-multipoint fibre architecture that requires no power at the premise. The use of passive devices greatly simplifies the network and reduces deployment costs.
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Singapore Stay: September 21-25

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Hi Everyone, I will be in Singapore next week and am available to meet. You can reach me at roderick.beck@networksourcing.net .
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2Africa Djibouti CLS/JB1 100G Wave: $36K MRC

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Term: 2 Years. 2Africa Djibouti CLS cross connects are $125 per month and 100G backhaul to Djibouti Data Center is $1100 per month. 
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Mumbai/Singapore Bay of Bengal Gateway 100G Wave: $38.5K MRC

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A point: Most carrier neutral Mumbai data centers. Z point: SG1, Singapore. Term: 1 Year. NRC: $10K.
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Lessons From 2026 ITW Africa Conference In Nairobi

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1. Hyperscalers are worried that a capacity shortage will materialize two or three years down the road due to robust traffic growth and the absence of any major subsea cable project in the pipeline. Their network investment teams are studying the issue. 2. 2Africa is bypassing the Red Sea by building Northeast African routes that will connect either Mombasa to the Sudan 2Africa CLS in the Red Sea or a route from Djibouti to the same CLS. Decision has not yet been made. 3. 2Africa from Mombasa to Marseille should be live next summer. This will bring relief to carriers and ISPs alike. 4. Africa-1 project is struggling and may be out of funds. 5. Mombasa is the subsea cable hub, but Nairobi is the data center for Kenya. 6. Excess capacity on Equiano and 2Africa exists and ISPs should stock up before the Telecom Winter arrives.
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2x 100G EIG Waves: Djibouti/Marseille

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EIG upgrade has been delayed until 2028. Three year MRC: Under $40K for right customer. Life of system I00G wave IRU ~ $1 million. 
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