Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

1. The UK, South Africa, and Portugal POPs are passing traffic today. A. UK POPs include Slough Equinix. B. Lisbon includes both LS1 & the new Altice facility. C. South Africa: CT1, CT2. 2. Raxio is the main 2Africa POP in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Hand offs also include the CLS itself. Originally the planned PAIX data center was intended to be the main 2African POP. However, it is either cancelled or delayed. Not clear at this moment. 3. 2Africa POPs in Lagos include MDXI and also new Digital Realty site. The former Medallion DC where most 2Africa SLTEs will be housed will only open its doors in late September. So Lagos may not be live til late 2025. 4. There are plans to extend 2Africa from the Pointe Noir and Muanda cable landing stations to Kinshasa OADC. It will take the form of a fibre ring. The Kinshasa back haul fibre was part of the original 2Africa network plan. 5. Dark fibre connecting Brazzaville and Kinshasa is available for sale. 6. Dark fibre connecting many Abidjan data...

1. 2Africa is vastly superior to the older African cables in cost, performance, and footprint. It has 9x the capacity of WACS or ACE. Cross connects are capped at $150 per month at the CLS and most hand offs are at carrier neutral facilities. The cable is buried 2 meters in deep in shallow coastal waters (1000 meters or less in depth) versus 1 meter or less for older systems. It bypasses all known danger spots such as subsea canyons with their debris slides. 2. Sénégal A. ONIX is the main 2Africa POP in Dakar. Note that consortium members are free to place their SLTEs where they desire in Dakar. So other sites may also be on-net. The Dakar CLS just houses the power feed equipment. B. ONIX just opened its doors to customers so expect 2Africa service to begin near year's end. C Sénégal is a significant challenge for capacity buyers because at least one major consortium player elected to skip it. D. I have great 100G pricing for the LS1 to ONIX route at $17.5K a month on a 1 year term...

***Senegal is the one of the most challenging on-net 2Africa countries. 1. Sonatel appears to have a monopoly on Dakar metro fibre. This spells trouble. 2. Sonatel's landline infrastructure monopoly may be one reason many 2Africa consortium members declined capacity into Senegal, despite its strategic location as the natural Northwest Africa telecom hub. Another reason might be their lack of mobile operations in that country as Senegal is a small market. 3. ONIX data center is the place to be in Senegal. Carrier neutral and on-net for 2Africa. Most African ISPs coming to me for advice plan to make ONIX their home. 4. I expect 100G pricing to be high due to the dearth of capacity. Figure low 30s for 100Gs to Europe and upper 20s for 100Gs to West African countries. ***Ghana is much friendlier. Many 2Africa carriers are on-net at the CLS and also the very popular PAIX data center. In fact, I know one that has built a ring from the CLS to PAIX reflecting strong demand for the latter. ...

Funke Opeke, the CEO and founder of MainOne, resigned after selling her firm to Equinix for $320 million. MainOne was one of the first carrier neutral data centre companies in Nigeria and its MDXI facility is almost a must-have for ISPs. MainOne began life as a subsea cable company. At some point Opeke realized that carrier neutral data centers was an attractive business due to high occupancy rates and significant customer switching costs. Moreover, since African data centers often lack good connectivity, the MainOne cable was an excellent complement to any data center facility. MainOne just opened a new facility in Ghana, one of Africa's bright spots in terms of political culture, economic development, and pluralism. Click on this for more details https://thetechcapital.com/funke-opeke-resigns-as-ceo-of-mainone-following-320m-equinix-deal/. I guess I am too woke for the old telecom guard who have often expressed me to the idea that appointing women as senior managers is '...