Subsea Cable News - SMW6, Mist, 2Africa

  • Mist delayed due to hard rock at Indian CLS. Construction teams find the rock between the CLS and the beach manhole is too hard for directional drilling. A new path around the rock is required. 
  • SMW6 will only go live in 2026. 
  • APG down 12 months since start of 2023. Cursed cable. 
  • 2Africa struggling due to delays in the Northeastern Africa quadrant. 
  • Bifrost behind schedule. Ground breaking on the Jakarta CLS was just in June and just a few days ago for the second CLS. Figure late 2025. 
  • Peace cable is cheap in part because 40% of potential customers will not use it because Chinese companies built and equipped it. .
  • Equiano 10G prices are relatively high because many carriers only offering 100G. There is a dearth of 10G providers. 
  • Anjana and Firmina on schedule because neither cable is a consortium. Consortiums are too slow and make mediocre decisions. 
  • Bay of Bengal Gateway capacity is low and prices rising. 
  • 2Africa 100G prices between Mombasa and South Africa are sky high in the $60K to $80K range. 
  • Lots of buyers screwing themselves by second guessing great deals. They get great offers, continue shopping, and lo and behold, the great offers disappear. Then they cry. 😀
  • A WACS cable landing station is charging a one time fee of $15K plus $4500 per month for any cross connect between 100G ports. Definitely cost-based pricing. 😆
    • One Blue-Raman provider's sales force is quoting 2Q2025 for RFS when oneof the CLS operators saying November, 2025. Honesty is the best policy. 
    • ADC on track for 1Q2025 opening. 
    Map of World's Undersea Fibre Optic Cables


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