Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

Most African cables traverse the Congo Canyon as opposed to detouring around it. The canyon is not particular deep, but it is huge in terms of floor coverage. Depth varies from 1400 to 1600 meters. Le Trou Sans Fond canyon off Abidjan drops 2300 meters where the canyon meets the continental shelf. It is perfect recipe for sediment and debris avalanches.  These canyons were created by strong river currents that carve the ocean bottom and also deposit sediment. Debris and sediment slides can easily crush the older African cables lying at the bottom. In contrast, both Equiano and 2Africa are routed around these danger spots. That increases latency, but reduces outages. Sometimes African ISPs are short sighted in this matter. They take WACS despite the exorbitant costs and high likelihood of extended down time because it is a bit faster.  An interesting question is how long will WACS be worth operating given the accumulated optical loss from one or two outages each year. The more ...

My understanding is that standard practice is to slice a damaged cable in two prior to retrieval. Hard to lift a 14,530 kilometer cable otherwise. 😃

 National security analysts please note, there is no sabotage category because there are no credible cases of sabotage. The IPCC study estimates 3,224 subsea fibre optic cable repairs over the last 18 years. It classifies 84% of outages as caused by fishing and anchors, 5% due to abrasion, 4% due to plant failure (subsea optical amplifiers or PFEs), and 7% due to geological disturbances such as turbidity currents induced by earthquakes or heavy rains or debris slides in subterranean caverns. Abrasion often leads to shunt faults where water reaches the power conductor.

Probably not. Right now carriers are charging $7K to $9K per month for a 100G wave linking IColo1 and IColo2. This is the pricing of a cozy oligopoly, not a competitive market. Moreover, the carriers have inflated their costs by using brand name hardware when comparable products like Smart Optics offer 50% to 60% discounts on both the price tag and operating expenses (there is good Layer 1 networking gear with no recurring costs in the form of port activation fees or licensing). I can refer you to a smart optics VAR. In contrast, you can lease today recently manufactured dark fibre pairs between IColo 1 and IColo 2 for $1,100 per month for the 18 kilometer primary path and $1,400 for the 23 kilometer backup path. So for $2,500 a month on a 3 year contract you can get a fully diverse fibre ring between these two important data centers. Moreover, it is unlikely you need long range optics. Each fibre pair can do 10 to 20 terabits.

***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...

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.

Hi Everyone, I will be in Singapore next week and am available to meet. You can reach me at roderick.beck@networksourcing.net .

Term: 2 Years. 2Africa Djibouti CLS cross connects are $125 per month and 100G backhaul to Djibouti Data Center is $1100 per month. 

A point: Most carrier neutral Mumbai data centers. Z point: SG1, Singapore. Term: 1 Year. NRC: $10K.

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.

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

EXA unveiled its first home grown long haul subsea cable project today. Meridian is a 24 fibre pair cable that should reach or exceed the half petabit per second transmission milestone. It will land in New Jersey, and at Brean, UK, where EXA's low latency Express cable (a Hibernia Atlantic project that was RFS in 2015) lands. I believe EXA will deploy a prefabricated, modular cable landing station in New Jersey to ensure the physical diversity that hyperscaler clients desire. Another possibility is the NJFX facility. The term 'Meridian' can refer to the Meridian line that goes through Greenwich, UK and connects the North and South poles. The term also means 'the peak of success or excellence'.  This cable project is a gutsy move. There have no pure carrier projects connecting North America to Europe since the Express cable went live. From 2016 to the present all Atlantic cables have been hyperscaler owned and designed. So EXA is counting on hyperscalers to take fibr...

Apparently the Saudi Arabian regulator is refusing to allow local carriers to sell dark fiber to the subsea cable consortiums that desire to bypass the Red Sea. This is a big blow. Buying lit Layer 1 transport across Saudi Arabia is an economic no go for intercontinental cables. I guess I should not be surprised given Saudi women are still under the guardianship of their nearest male relatives, but it is still disappointing. 😡 Middle Eastern governments love to project themselves as progressive forces, but they often fail to implement decisive reforms. Old ways die hard.  Several reliable sources tell me that the 2Africa consortium is considering terrestrial Northeast routes to the 2Africa Sudan CLS. There are other routing options as well. Houthi occupation of key Red Sea islands this past week simply reinforces the need to bypass the Red Sea. Get it done, gentlemen.

It is not a coincidence. Starlink needs terrestrial connectivity just like any other ISP. Mombasa is the single most important East African coast subsea hub with Djibouti in second place. Notice that Starlink placed its transmitter dishes on platforms to achieve the 20 degree from horizon visibility required for their network.

A branching unit moving on a conveyor belt to be lowered into the ocean. Branching units have evolved from simply splitting the fibre pairs into two paths to switching fibre pairs and wavelengths. This enables bandwidth to be allocated to the path where demand is the greatest.

A point: IColo 1 or IColo 2. Z point: JB1. Term: 2 Years. Customer responisible for cross connects. 2Africa is the Lambourghini of African subsea cables. Better designed than other system with the possible exception of Equiano. Deeply buried in coastal waters and routed to avoid danger spots.

Details are limited, but carriers have been bidding on extending the Peace cable from Mombasa to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I think the big drawback is the iron grip of Tanzania's state owned fibre optic network on connectivity. It has resulted in much higher Layer 1 and Layer 2 prices than in deregulated Kenya. This is a serious deterrent to investment. It means the local ISP and telecom ecosystem is small and may not be enough to sustain the minimum rate of return required to justify the project. The distance is small between Mombasa and Dar Es Salaam so I expect any cable to be unrepeatered.

1. All terrestrial route with good outage history and longest outage only 17 hours. Find a subsea cable with a record that good. 2. Three year MRC: $26.5K MRC.

TM is a consortium member of the Bay of Bengal Gateway Cable. They also own 2 fiber pairs on the low latency ASE cable. Finally, they are participating in the almost ready Echo project, Candle, and others. To the far right, Bhavin Shaw, Country Manager, UK and Europe. In the middle, Carla Netto, Senior Manager Sales and Enterprise Development.

LS1/CT1; $17,500 MRC; Two year term. LS1/OADC; $17,500 MRC; Two year term.