Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

Optical wavelengths are composed of fundamental building blocks known as optical container units. The industry has recognized that current wavelength transmission rates are too chunky or insufficiently granular. There are limited number of sizes with many customers struggling to justify the leap from 100G to the relatively new 400G standard. Or even the 10G to 100G leap. On the supplier side the limited size options of wavelengths can lead to stranded spectrum. For example, you might have enough spectrum for 5G or 150G or 650G. In all these cases the stranded capacity represents lost revenue in a cut throat, ferociously competitive wholesale market. In general network operators struggle to achieve their targeted rates of return on capital because they are selling quasi-homogeneous products in a market where price comparisons are easy and buyers have strong incentive to minimize costs.  The ODUflex standard was introduced in part to create wavelengths below the 2.5G level. The funda...

1. Equiano 100G; LS1, Lisbon/OADC, Lagos; $18.5K MRC; Two Year Term. 2. WACS 100G; LS1/Abidjan CLS; $34.5K MRC; Three Year Term. 3. Equiano 100G; LS1/Capetown Terraco; $20.5K MRC; Two Year Term. 4. 2Africa 100G; LS1/2Africa CLS, Congo; $38.5K MRC, Three Year Term. 5. Route Protected 100G; Capetown CT1-CT2/JB2; $7,800 MRC; Three Year Term.

Southern Cross subsea cable system is implementing ODUflex, which is a relatively new ITU standard that allows granular Layer 1 bandwidth. No longer are we limited to 100G, 400G, and 800G for either subsea or terrestrial networks. Interestingly enough, Hauwei proposed the new standard and was its primary champion. All wavelengths consist of optical containers and ODUflex allows optical containers to be stacked at 1.25 Gps intervals. So you can lease 1.25 Gbps wavelength up to 400G in 1.25 Gbps increments. Note that port sizes are still 10G, 100G, 400G or 800G. So to access a 150G transmission rate the customer needs 400G intefaces. Ciena is one of the the vendors to implement ODUflex along with Hauwei. More details here: https://lnkd.in/dZvNbubc. It is worth noting that granular bandwidth is being implemented on the newer cables which Southern Cross owns like Next.  The commercial motivation is poor take up of 400G wavelengths. The only real customers for 400Gs are very big bandwi...

London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Marseille, Madrid, Munich, Vienna, and many more are Layer 1 400G wave ready. Standard three year pricing is under 3000€ per month plus at least 1200 Euros a month in cross connect savings over buying 4x 100Gs. Many routes have been completely redone including conduit and ILAs with new ultra-low loss fibre and unique city approaches. 

LS1/Capetown CT1; 10G; Equiano; $6500 MRC.  Marseille/Singapore; Peace; $20K per month; 1 year.  Marseille/Singapore; AAE1; $24K a month; 2 year.  Singapore/Tokyo; ADC; $15K on a 3 year.  Mombasa/Marseille; $45K MRC; 1 year.  10x or more 100G European waves; 925€ per wave; 3 years.  Lagos/LS1; $20K; 2 years.  NY4 Secaucus Equinix/Ashburn Equinix; $1300; 3 years.  Ashburn Equinix/Telehouse 2 Paris; Dunant; $5250; 3 year.  Dallas Equinix/Ashburn Equinix; $2400; 3 year. 

Advice For Buyers Very little SWM5 and AAE1 capacity on the key Marseille/Singapore route. Moreover, the Peace Cable is still 4 months away, and SWM6 at least 6 months out. Blue-Raman's Marseille/Mumbai segment is scheduled to go live November, 2025.  Plenty of Equiano capacity   so now is the time to grab it over the next 6 months. I know several vendors holding 500Gs to multiple terabits ready to cut a deal.  European wavelengths have never been cheaper. It is now possible to build a basic 100G European backbone that includes 10x 100G waves for 10K Euros or less per month. So now is the time for African ISPs to expand their networks into Europe to peer and buy better transit. I have intimate knowledge of pricing, latency, resiliency, and physical diversity options across the major long haul European providers. My expertise will save a lot of time as well as avoid costly mistakes.  The badass 240 terabit per second Firmina cable is coming to South America and it wi...

Milano/Palermo;  2,000€.  Milano/Thessaloniki; 7,500€.  Coresite 1 Wilshire/San Jose Equinix; $1,750.  Hawaii DC/Coresite 1 Wilshire; $17,500. LS1 Lisbon/MDXI Equinix Lagos; $25,000.  CT2 Capetown South Africa/JB2 Johannesburg; Route Protected ; $8,500.  Valencia, Spain/Madrid Interxion 2; 1,250€.  Ashburn Equinix/Telehouse 2 Paris; Dunant Cable ; $6,250.  HK/Singapore; AAG  cable ; $13,500.  TY4 Tokyo/Coresite 1 Wilshire; Unity Cable ; $18,500.  

A Big European Network Wants Your Business.  Huge, dense footprint encompassing both data centers and commercial buildings.  Includes the most reliable subsea cable across the English Channel linking London and Amsterdam.  Fibre in the Chunnel as well.  Both 100G and 400G wavelengths available.  For those ready to 'ascend' to the next  level, spectrum is also available.  Metro dark fibre in key markets like London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris.  Fast Provisioning. Ranges from two to four weeks.   Latency optimized routes for both general Layer 1 consumers like ISPs and financial traders.  Full diversity possible between all city pairs. 

Three Year 100G Layer 1 Transport: Low Latency As Well As Highly Diverse Routes Available  Telehouse 2 Paris/Slough Equinix;  1100€ MRC; No install charges.  MAD2/MRS2; 1100€ MRC; No install fees.  LD8/AM5; 1150€ MRC; No install fees.  London Dark Fibre Rings; Key DCs; 1000€ MRC; NRC waived.  Frankfurt Dark Fibre Rings; Key DCs; 900€ MRC; NRC waived.  Tallinn/Frankfurt; 2000€ MRC; NRC waived.  Moscow/Frankfurt; 4000€ MRC; NRC waived.  Milano/Palermo; 2300€ MRC; NRC waived. 

My best guess is that this extraordinary project goes fully live by the end of the first quarter of 2025. So far only the Kenya/Tanzania/South Africa segments have been activated and it is not clear whether they passing live traffic at this point. For more details, click on  https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/2africa-cable-set-live-between-south-africa-and-kenya/.  The 2Africa subsea network is based on the principle of carrier neutrality. So in principle cable landing station ownership or operating licenses should not matter in carrier vendor selection. But until practice proves neutrality is being honored, it is best to request capacity from a provider that operates one or both cable landing stations. This advice does not apply to routes that use carrier neutral data centres to house the CLS. So, for example, the Genoa/South Africa path uses GN1 Equinix to house the CLS in Italy and also Teraco data centres. Opportunistic CLS behavior is far less likely when a carrie...

I have teamed up with a nimble African carrier that can quickly deliver  100G waves on the Equiano   cable between carrier neutral data centres for $25K a month or less on 1 year contracts. Both Lisbon/Lagos and Lagos/South Africa routes. Best of all, the provider has a Lagos metro fibre network so it can extend your network on its own fibre from OADC where the Equiano CLS is housed to MDXI Equinix and other data important centres like Rack Centre. This offers significant cost savings over Bharti Airtel and China Mobile International.  We provide 100G wavelength rings between OADC, MDXI, and Rack Centre at prices far less than the customary market offers which vary from $7K to $11K per 100G span. Most Equiano cable capacity providers including t he Chinese and Indian carriers do not own fibre between the Lagos telecom hotels and hence their end-to-end capacity quote will rise by $5K to $10K once wavelength tails are included. Currently no dark fibre is available in Lago...

The least expensive Mumbai/Singapore cable is BBG ( Bay of Bengal Gateway ) and it enjoys the advantage of also directly connecting Singapore to Oman and the UAE. So most bypass route solutions use it. So the standard choice is to buy Oman/Singapore on BBG. Once the traffic reaches Oman a plethora of options present themselves. The traffic can be routed overland to Frankfurt via a consortium of carriers that have created the Ameers or Ameer2 terrestrial cable. Or one can hop on a subsea cable to Iraq or Iran, traverse it, and then forward through Turkey to Europe. There are many operators offering bypass routes from UAE and Oman to Europe. Most are pitching resiliency or low latency. Some of them offer route protected 100G service.  The Ameers cable (see the Orange marketing below) is a Turk Telekom led carrier consortium that has stitched together their fibre networks to provide an end-to-end service. This reflects Turk Telekom's vision of being a bridge between Europe and the Mi...