Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

Hi Everyone,  I am available to help you acquire Layer 1-3 network capacity based on your requirements. In general I don't charge procurement fees because the carriers will pay me for any subsequent sales. So if you work with me and you buy, then you will contract directly with the network operator. This ensures you get the best possible price. My value-added is my knowledge of the operators, market pricing, delivery performance, latency, uptime, commercial flexibility, strengths, weaknesses, and the like. I am also good at negotiating deal terms on your behalf.  In a few cases I take a retainer because the client is looking for long term consulting.  You can reach me at roderick.beck@networksourcing.net. I live part of the year in Europe and also in Africa. 

1. Fully diverse and fully buried dark fibre pairs or individual strands available for lease or IRU between IColo1, IColo2, Telehouse, Nyali Exchange, Seacom CLS, and 2Africa Shanzu CLS. Unlike other providers, the fiber connects to the data centers via buried conduits. Not power poles. End to end burial. 2. Sixty Euros per kilometer on three year lease deals. 3. New ultra-loss fiber manufactured in 2024. 4. Repair SLA based on 4 hours mean time to repair.

Route Latency SG/Marseille 136 ms Mombasa/Marseille 104 ms Karachi/Marseille 92 ms Karachi/Signapore 82 ms Kenya/Singapore 93 ms.

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.

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

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.

Two year term.

MRC: $32.5K. A point: Most Mumbai DCs. Z point: SG3.  Cable: IAX.

Mombasa Icolo 1/Djibouti CLS; $23,500 MRC; 3 Years. Protected backhaul to Djibiouti data center only $1,050 extra. 🙂  Mombasa Icolo 2/JB Terraco; $25,400 MRC; 3 Years. Backhaul protected.

RTD: 135 milliseconds. Term: 1 Year. Only one wave available.

Mumbai/Singapore; IAX Cable; 100G Wave; $35K MRC; 3 Years. Secaucus Equinix/Ashburn Equinix; 100G Wave; Diverse to Usual Suspects; $1,350 MRC; 5 Years. Ghana/Nigeria; 2Africa Cable; 100G Wave; $20.5 MRC; 3 Years. LA Coresite/Slough Equinix; Route protected 10G; $3250 MRC; 1 Year. Dallas Equinix/Ashburn Equinix; 100G; $2200 MRC; 3 Years. Singapore/California; 10G; SEA-US; $7500 MRC; 2 Years.  Singapore/Tokyo; 100G; ADC; $15K MRC; 3 Years.  Singapore/Marseille; 100G; Peace; Non-Chinese carrier & equipment; $19.5K MRC; 3 Years.  Tallinn/Amsterdam; 100G; $2500 MRC; 3 Years.  Sofia/Istanbul; 100G; Highly stable and diverse paths; $6,500 MRC; 3 Years.

 African subsea cable leased capacity prices have bottomed around $18K to $22K MRC per 100G per month for Equiano and 2Africa. Examples include Lisbon to Lagos and Ghana to Lagos. Prices are not going lower. First of all, Google kept some Equiano capacity for itself and Facebook kept 4 of 2Africa's 16 pairs for itself. Moreover, 2Africa lands in over 25 countries. So average capacity per country excluding Facebook is approximately 6 Tbps. That figure would fall further if the Red Sea segment is ever completed. Finally, all consortium members for both cables are keeping some capacity for their own Internet backbones. Corroborating evidence that prices will remain stable is that consortium carriers are reluctant to sell wavelength or spectrum IRUs. Carriers sell IRUs for two reasons. The first is network asset portfolio rebalancing. If a carrier has plentiful capacity on cable X with relatively low pricing, it might sell an IRU to obtain capacity on cable Y that it can ...

A point: Ashburn Equinix or 56 Marietta, Atlanta. Z point: Madrid Interxion 2. Term: 3 Years Bandwidth: 100G. Service: Layer 1. MRC: $5,990. NRC: $0.

***No European terrestrial routes are more subject to outages than those linking EU nations to Turkey via Bulgaria. Many so-called diverse routes share a common pinch point, namely the same conduit system alongside a Bulgarian road that goes to the Turkish border. Rumor has it that this conduit system was not properly permitted and hence lacks proper legal protection. Construction-caused outages are rampant on the Bulgarian side of the border. Outages peak in the summer.  ***Fully diverse diverse routes linking Sofia Telepoint to Mednautilus, Istanbul. Several border crossings. Three year 100G wave MRC: 6500€. No use of oil or gas pipelines. Two fully diverse 100G waves are 12K Euros.

LS1/PAIX Accra; 100G; Three Years; $25K MRC. London/Lagos; 10G; Three Years; $10K MRC. 2Africa cross connect charges are limited to $150 per month and the cable's reliability will be much better than SAT-3, MainOne, WACS, and ACE. It is buried deeper with better designed back haul and avoids the Congo and the Le Trou Sans Fond canyons. Note the Red Sea segment from Egypt to Oman is incomplete. There is no schedule for its completion.

A point: TY3. Z point: 2905 Diehl Road, Aurora Illinois. Service: 10G Wave (Layer 1). Subsea Cable: Topaz. MRC: $11,999. NRC: $1250. Term: 1 Year.

1. ASE; 100G Wave; Tokyo/Singapore; $19K MRC; 2 Years. 2. AAE1; 10G Wave; Marseille/Singapore; $3,500 MRC; 3 Years. 3. Juno; 100G Wave; Tokyo/LA; $16,461 MRC; 3 Years. 4. ADC; 100G Wave; HK/Singapore; $12.3K MRC; 3 Years. 5. Faster; 100G Wave; TY2/Coresite LA; $18.2k MRC; 3 Years.

The eight fibre pair ADC system went live in November of last year. Its design capacity is slightly above 160 Tbps. Consortium members and large capacity owners include China Telecom, China Unicom, PLDT (the Philippine incumbent), Singtel, Softbank, TATA, and Vietel. TATA owns a fibre pair marketed under its own brand, TGN-IA2. NEC built the Asia Direct Cable. ADC 100G pricing for the Singapore to Tokyo route varies from $13.5K to $18.5K MRC on three year contracts. If you wish to avoid Chinese carriers, yet enjoy competitive pricing, TATA is a good choice. By a Chinese carrier I mean a network licensed to operate in mainland China and hence subject to its national security laws. These laws dictate that Chinese operators must cooperate with Chinese national security agencies. That's a big problem. In contrast, as just one example, Apple refused to cooperate with the FBI on unlocking a phone in an investigation. So there is a clear difference between China and the Wes...

ASE is one of the lowest latency cables serving the Asia Financial Triangle of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Offer requires a one year contract. 

AAE1; $21.5K MRC; Two Year Term. Peace; $17.5K MRC; One Year Term. A points: MRS2. Z points: SG1/SG3. Customer responsible for cross connects.