Displaying items by tag: subsea cable

New Zealand-based company Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP, and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity company specializing in undersea communications technology, announced that more than half of the 15,000km of undersea fiber-optic cable that comprise the Hawaiki transpacific cable system have been implemented by TE SubCom.

“The start of 2018 finds Hawaiki closer and closer to ready for service”, said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. “Landing the cable in its home country represents a major event for our team and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our New Zealand partners for their continuous support. Hawaiki will bring huge benefits to New Zealand in terms of greater connectivity to Australia and the US, security of supply, diversity and increased business opportunities for the telecom and IT industries.”

With several thousands of kilometers of undersea fiber-optic cable on board, TE SubCom’s cable-laying vessel CS Responder is now berthed in Auckland, poised to begin marine activities for the New Zealand leg of the transoceanic cable system later this month. The operation will include the landing of the Hawaiki cable in Mangawhai Heads.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license was granted to Hawaiki in December 2017. The US domestic segment between Oregon and Hawaii was completed in the last quarter of 2017. The international segment between Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii has been underway since early November 2017.

Cable landings in Pacific City, Oregon; Oahu, Hawaii; and Sydney, Australia have been successfully completed. Cable landing in American Samoa is scheduled in March 2018, and the Hawaiki cable system will be ready for service in June 2018.

Chris Carobene, vice president, Marine Services, TE SubCom said, “We’re proud of the progress to date on the Hawaiki system and look forward to it being ready for service later this year. The project showcases the SubCom team’s expertise in the transpacific market and has been a great example of the kind of partnership that results in a successful venture.”

Hawaiki will link Australia and New Zealand to the mainland United States, as well as Hawaii and American Samoa, with options to expand to additional South Pacific islands. With more than 43 Tb of new capacity available to the market, Hawaiki will introduce true competition and dramatically drop the cost of connectivity across the Pacific region.

As the first and only carrier-neutral cable system between Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., Hawaiki will be in a unique position to meet new market requirements and deliver tailored capacity solution at the most competitive price.

Huawei Marine announced it has commenced work on Desk Study and Marine Survey works in conjunction with key investor Tropic Science Co., Ltd. (Tropical Science) to construct the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) submarine cable, which connects South Asia with East Africa. With initial work underway, the project is targeted for completion in Q4, 2019.

The project has a total length of 13,000 km, and will connect South Asia (Pakistan) and East Africa (Djibouti) and Kenya, with a northern expansion to Egypt and further southern expansion from Kenya to South Africa.

The project will facilitate connectivity from China to Pakistan via existing terrestrial cable networks and create the shortest route from China to Europe via Africa. This network topology substantially reduces existing network lengths by up to 50 percent and when completed, will provide a cost-effective, diverse route for the escalating demand for capacity between Asia, Africa and Europe.

Tropical Science believes Africa’s market capacity is more attractive than many other regions as its networks are developing rapidly and the number of internet users in Africa is also growing at an unprecedented rate. The construction of this international information highway will become an important enabler of East Africa’s telecommunications as well as its social and economic development in future.

“We are pleased to commence work on this important project to ensure a timely delivery programme,” said Mao Shengjiang, COO of Huawei Marine. “Our customer-centric focus and commitment to quality and on-time delivery, is a hallmark of our company values. I would like to thank Tropical Science and our other partners for their trust in Huawei Marine.”

In October, at the 3rd Asia Pacific Submarine Networks Forum, Tropic Science, China-ASEAN Information Harbor, China Construction Bank and Huawei Marine signed and MOU for the construction of the PEACE submarine cable project.

New Zealand-based Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd company, announced that the 14,000 km of undersea fiber-optic cable that comprise the Hawaiki transpacific cable system are in the final stages of being loaded aboard TE SubCom’s cable laying vessels ‘CS Global Sentinel’and‘CS Responder’. Installation of the system will commence in early October 2017.

“The coming months will see the realization of our vision for Hawaiki, a system that will impact the capabilities and economies of hundreds of Pacific communities,” said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. “Considering the scope of the project, the progress to date has been staggering. It is a thrill to reach the installation phase and know that we will soon be ready to light the system and deliver much needed capacity to the region.”

Manufacturing has concluded at SubCom’s Newington, New Hampshire, U.S. facility, including more than 14,000 km of cable for Hawaiki and more than 170 completed repeaters. Cable has been fully loaded onto the ‘CS Global Sentinel’, and the ‘CS Responder’load is near completion. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the cable landing in Pacific City, Oregon and Sydney, Australia has been completed.

All installation permits for Australia, New Zealand and Oregon are already in hand, and continue to progress as expected in Hawaii. In Sydney, the construction of the land duct route is complete, the installation of the terminal equipment has started and the pulling of the land cable is scheduled to begin shortly. In New Zealand, the construction of the land duct route is complete and the construction of a new cable station is underway. The system is on schedule for completion by mid-2018.

Hawaiki will link Australia and New Zealand to the mainland United States, as well as Hawaii and American Samoa, with options to expand to additional South Pacific islands. Hawaiki will be the highest cross-sectional capacity link between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand. The carrier-neutral cable system was co-developed by New Zealand-based entrepreneurs Sir Eion Edgar, Malcolm Dick and Remi Galasso.  

Globe Telecom, one of the Philippines’ largest telecommunications providers, has launched the US$250 million Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) submarine cable system, providing direct links between Davao City and the United States. The 14,500-kilometer cable system uses 100Gbps transmission technology to deliver 20 terabits per second capacity (Tb/s).

The SEA-US cable system was built by a consortium of seven international telecommunications companies and links five areas and territories that include Manado (Indonesia), Davao (Philippines), Piti (Guam), Oahu (Hawaii, United States), and Los Angeles (California, United States).

“It is important to keep our country competitive. We are sworn and bound by our duty to keep on improving the internet. This signals our entry towards first world internet,” Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said during its launching event on August 11 at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

He said that the SEA-US submarine cable system would enable to support the growth of businesses in Mindanao and lessen the country’s dependence on international cable systems for its internet connection.

“First world connection is more than just fast internet but is also about building a better nation that transcends borders and opens infinite possibilities for everyone,” said Cu. “We are excited about this development because of the immense benefits that the SEA-US undersea cable system will bring to the Philippines.

Cu added: “For one, it will provide support for the expanding business requirement for data in the Mindanao region where the cable landing station is located and in the country as a whole. This will also ease our dependence on international cable systems and ensure the resiliency of the country’s internet connectivity.”

The SEA-US cable system is connected to the Globe cable landing station in Brgy. Talomo, Davao City, which also houses the power feed equipment necessary to run the system. Outside of Luzon, the undersea cable is the first direct connection of Globe to the United States via Guam, Hawaii, and California, offering faster transmission of data to the US.

It also bypasses the Taiwan earthquake zone to ensure uninterrupted connectivity and greater resiliency to prevent an incident similar to a major quake in 2006 where international cables were broken causing the Philippines to be isolated for a few days in terms of internet connection.

Aside from forming part of the SEA-US consortium, Globe is also a member of an international consortium of telecommunications and technology companies, operating the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable (SJC) system.

SJC is an 8,900-kilometer cable system linking seven territories that include Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the Philippines, including the option to link with Thailand. The cable infrastructure is currently being upgraded to bring an increase of 6.5 Tb/s capacity with state of the art 100G technology.

Deep Blue Cable announced it has contracted TE SubCom to build and deploy the Deep Blue subsea cable system. The pan-Caribbean system design spans nearly 12,000km with initial landing points in 12 markets throughout the region, including the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands, with dual diverse landings in the U.S., which will include the first landing of a cable on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Speaking to Telecom Review, Deep Blue CEO Steve Scott said the Deep Blue subsea cable network will offer an initial capacity of 6 Tbps per fiber pair and is projected to be completed in Q4 of 2019. It will ensure availability, competitive pricing and capacity resilience, he said.
The Deep Blue network will benefit the region’s businesses and consumers by offering significantly higher design capacity, lower unit costs, lower latency through direct connectivity, and the ability to leverage advancements in reliability such as improved route planning and installation techniques. 

Based in St. Lucia, Deep Blue cable is the developer, owner and operator of the system that will provide connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the United States. By ensuring competitive pricing and resilience through alternative supply, Deep Blue cable will provide connectivity to international and regional telecommunications operators, regional network providers, Over-the-Top (OTT) providers, data centers, governments, and large enterprises, including financial services, and oil and gas companies.

“Deep Blue Cable has great confidence in TE SubCom and its ability to build a state-of-the-art subsea cable system that will provide long overdue advanced connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the Americas,” said Scott. “The Deep Blue cable system will play a critical role in serving developing Caribbean countries that are now experiencing a surge in demand for advanced telecom services and currently rely on fibre-optic connectivity that is technologically and economically disadvantaged.” 

The Deep Blue cable system will be a network providing direct fibre connectivity between major traffic hubs, as well as optical add/drop connectivity to many smaller markets throughout the region. Using TE SubCom’s proven OADM (optical add/drop multiplexer) branching unit technology, Deep Blue Cable can cost-effectively supply international bandwidth across a range of Caribbean markets, large and small, in a scalable manner over time. 

“TE SubCom is pleased to be entrusted by Deep Blue Cable with the construction of their fibre-optic subsea cable system, which will expand and enhance connectivity across the Caribbean region and to the Americas,” said Mike Rieger, vice president of sales at TE SubCom. “In a region that has experienced no significant fibre-optic deployment in recent years, this submarine cable will satisfy not only the current spike in demand for connectivity in developing Caribbean countries, but also future requirements driven by projected growth.”

Internet has been restored in Somalia after a broken undersea cable was being repaired. The three weeks outage, according to the government, costs the economy millions of dollars. However, because of the outage, Islamist militant attacks had dropped in the country, a police officer said.

Businesses in Somalia were forced to close shops or come up with innovative ways to keep running during the internet blackout. The country’s telecom minister told state radio that the outage was the equivalent of about $10 million in daily economic output.

The blackout hit all landline and mobile users including those with access to private satellite connections. Somalia’s Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman apologized to citizens and called for them to have backup plans.

The Minister told Reuters: “We urge internet companies to have backup so that people do not suffer another outage in the future.”

The outage came at a time when Somalia is slowly recovering from Islamist attacks after the army and an African Union peacekeeping force helped to drive out the likes of al Shabaab from Mogadishu and other strongholds in the nation.

“There were almost no blasts in Mogadishu during the outage,” said police officer Nur Bile discussing the decline in attacks by al Shabaab during the internet blackout, because the Islamist group is said to use the web to publicize their attacks and spread their ideology. “Al Shabaab launched the attacks and the media spreads the news on the internet,” he added.

The Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) consortium announced that the world’s largest submarine cable system in more than a decade has officially launched, with services commencing from Europe to the Far East.

AAE-1 is a unique, next generation cable system - the first submarine cable system to link  all major Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European regions, seamlessly combining  terrestrial and subsea routes to provide the lowest latency connections between the regions.

With a capacity of at least 40 terabits per second across 5 fiber pairs, AAE-1 is designed from the outset with 100Gbps transmission technology, which may be upgraded in the future to fulfill increasing bandwidth demand. Configured with express routes and the minimum number of hops between Points of Presence (PoPs) in Europe and Asia, AAE-1 is the high performance, economic solution for OTTs, international carriers and enterprise businesses.

Six specialized cable ships and numerous support vessels have been engaged in completing the installation in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Thailand. Network equipment has been deployed and tested at more than half of the AAE-1 cable landing stations. The protected transit routes across Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are also nearing completion.

By working closely with experienced suppliers and with the integral support of its owners, this complex project continues to progress as planned. When the system enters service, AAE-1 shall serve as a primary route for the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, supporting all forms of communication and applications; broadband internet, video, voice and data. Demand fueled by the economic expansion of countries will elevate AAE-1’s status as critical infrastructure, essential for growth along the route.

Under the cooperation of China Unicom, CIL (HyalRoute), Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, GT5L,  Mobily, Omantel, Ooredoo, OTEG, PCCW, PTCL, Reliance Jio, Retelit, Telecom Egypt,  TeleYemen, TOT, Viettel, VNPT and VTC, AAE-1 connects Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, with Malaysia and Singapore, then onwards to Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France. Not only as the primary route of choice, AAE-1’s completion will now provide protection and diversity to existing vulnerable and heavily congested routes.

With diversified termination in Asia (Telecom House Hong Kong and Equinix/Global Switch  Singapore) and three options in Europe (Greece, Italy and France InterXion MRS1 and  MRS2, Marseille), AAE-1 is the unique robust, high capacity low-latency bandwidth solution along the Eurasia corridor.

According to the AAE-1 consortium, the segments connecting Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France have been launched for service. The other segments including Myanmar, Yemen, Cambodia and Hong Kong are expected to be ready for service in October.

Spanish and Brazilian government officials have confirmed that a proposed fiber optic submarine cable between the two countries has been given the go-ahead.

The 9,200 km-long (5,700 mile) Ella-Link, previously known as Eula-Link, will connect to data centers in Madrid, Lisbon and São Paulo, as well as connecting to Fortazela, the archipelagoes of Madeira, Spain’s Canary Islands and Africa’s Cape Verde. A 72Tbps cable, it will be the first fiber optic submarine cable between Europe and Brazil, with the only existing direct link being a 20Gb copper cable laid in 1999.

Ella-Link, a partnership between Spanish submarine cable operator Isla-Link and Brazilian telecoms provider Telebras, will be operator neutral. Alcatel Submarine Networks will be responsible for the project.

The European Commission provided €25 million ($27.2m) in financial support for the cable, as part of its Building Europe Link to Latin America (BELLA) initiative. Current cost estimates were not provided, but when a version of Ella Link was announced by then-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2014, it was pegged at $185 million.

During the event to launch the underwater Ella-Link telecommunications cable that took place in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, explained that the new connection will reduce the time to transmit data by 40%, as well as improve the quality, reliability and confidentiality of communications between Ibero-America and Europe.

Rajoy commented that the new cable is “a necessary connection between Europe and Ibero-America” and “an example of public-private cooperation”, in which the European Union has also played a “very important” role, with a contribution of 25 million euros.

Rajoy also pointed out that the new underwater cable, which connects the cities of Fortaleza and Lisbon – to then connect with Madrid – is “a modern connection” with a very high capacity of “no less than 72 terabytes per second”.

According to Rajoy, the new connection between Latin America and Europe “will reduce the time to transmit data between the two continents by 40% and will also help us to improve quality, reliability and confidentiality.”

Confidentiality was previously touted as a key reason for the cable, with communications between Brazil and the EU currently routed through North America, despite the fact that the Iberian Peninsula is roughly 60 kilometers (37mi) closer to Fortaleza than to Miami.

The question of United States’ dominance in matters of Atlantic Ocean submarine cable affairs came to the fore in 2013, after a series of damaging revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, brought to light the extent of the agency’s surveillance operations.

Rousseff, who in 2013 postponed a state visit to Washington after it was revealed the NSA spied on her email account and phone records, said in 2014 when announcing the cable: “We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don’t want businesses to be spied upon.”

She continued: “The internet is one of the best things man has ever invented. So we agreed for the need to guarantee … the neutrality of the network, a democratic area where we can protect freedom of expression.”

AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra announced they have entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build a new international subsea cable system that will connect Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

Once completed, the INDIGO cable system (previously known as APX West & Central) will strengthen links between Australia and the fast-growing Southeast Asian markets, providing lower latency and enhanced reliability. Using today’s coherent optical technology, each of the two-fibre pairs will have a minimum capacity of 18 terabits per second, with the option to increase this capacity in the future.

The system will use a two-fibre pair ‘open cable’ design with spectrum sharing technology. Consortium members will have spectrum ownership providing the ability to independently take advantage of technology advancements and future upgrades as required.

The INDIGO cable system will span approximately 9,000km and connect Singapore and Perth, and onwards to Sydney. Within the system, there will be two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit. The new cable will land in existing facilities in Singapore, Australia, and Indonesia.

“With internet data consumption growing by 70 percent in Asia last year alone, these sorts of investments in international networks are critical for meeting the needs of connected consumers and businesses,” said Telstra’s Group Managing Director of Global Services and International David Burns.

“This will be an important piece of technology infrastructure connecting Southeast Asia and Australia, and follows a number of recent network enhancements Telstra has undertaken to meet growing demand for data and better connectivity from our customers across the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

“This strategic alliance is a great leap forward for Australian Research and Education,” said Chris Hancock, AARNet’s CEO. “It will provide critical infrastructure for meeting the future growth in collaborative research and transnational education between Australia and our Asian partners.”

Alexander Rusli, President Director and CEO Indosat Ooredoo, said: "We are committed to provide robust digital and telecommunications access to Indonesians. INDIGO’s consortium is a strategic and crucial partnership for Indosat Ooredoo that will help provide the digital services needed by Indonesian society.”

“Together, we will enable world-class data connectivity and internet access in line with our vision as Indonesia's leading digital telco,” he added. “High-speed network infrastructure availability, both into and out of Indonesia, is important for business and personal consumers in Indonesia to be able to connect to global content. We are confident this strong partnership with the consortium will deliver a reliable alternative for ever-growing data traffic.”

Ooi Seng Keat, Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise at Singtel said: “The construction of INDIGO is timely to meet the rising demand for high-speed broadband between Asia and Australia. This cable system complements our global connectivity that links Asia, the US, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. INDIGO will be a new data superhighway that facilitates Singtel and our subsidiary Optus to catalyze the development of digital economies across the regions.”

ASN will construct the cable, which is expected to be completed by mid-2019.

Newly appointed Chairman of the Turk Telecom International (TTI) Group Management Board, Mehmet Toros, has underlined that the organization's main focus is to generate new sales and enhance business cooperation on the newly launched matchless PoP 'SEA-ME-WE-5' underwater cable system.

Turk Telecom International is a leading telecommunications firm in the Middle East, Asia, Turkey, CIS and Eastern Europe. It provides a full range of infrastructure, connectivity, internet and wholesale voice services to incumbents, alternative carriers, mobile operators, internet service providers, content providers and corporate customers.

In an interview, Mr. Toros spoke about the ambitious 'SEA-ME-WE-5' project which brings together 19 operators in 18 countries connecting three continents. It is a global milestone in the telecommunications industry which will open up new opportunities for greater trade and economic growth; plus strengthen ties among multiple countries and people of various cultures. With its state of the art technology, SEA-ME-WE-5 presents matchless communication quality along its route from Asia to Western Europe.

Can you outline the current company structure in relations to mergers, and take us through the process over the last twelve months?

Turk Telecom International is the international arm of the Turk Telecom parent company (which is the incumbent operator in Turkey) and it also has mobile, broadband departments and broadband infrastructure. However, Turk Telecom International is involved mainly in wholesale voice and data business internationally on behalf of Turk Telecom.

One of the main offices in Turk Telecom International is based in Budapest, but we have technical teams and our state-of-the art NOC center in Austria and our management offices are located in Istanbul. Last year, there were some changes at management level, not only in Turk Telecom International, but also in Turk Telecom parent company. The group CEO and the VPs have been changed in Turk Telecom, and I have been appointed as the Chairman of the Management Board of Turk Telecom International Group.

We have also replaced the CTO and CBSO have changed our organizational structure - we merged our chief marketing and chief sales officer under the title of chief commercial officer. In addition, we have appointed a Managing Director at Turk Telecom International to be responsible for mainly technical and operational issues which may arise within the organization. Turk Telecom International has entities and representatives in sixteen different countries.

What can you tell us about your footprint in the markets - let's start with the Middle East and Africa, and then let's examine your presence in the Asian market?

The Middle East is one of the most important markets for Turk Telecom International - we have initiatives and joint-operations with consultants in the Middle East. The biggest project we launched as part of the SEA-ME-5 Consortium was the unique and matchless SEA-ME-WE-5 subsea cable system. Turk Telecom International started to investigate long submarine cables, and we subsequently decided to join the SEA-ME-WE-5 consortium.

The SEA-ME-WE-5 submarine cables systems were deployed in December 2016 - and I'd like to express my gratitude to my colleagues in the marketing communication department at Turk Telecom International, because Turk Telecom International has recently been awarded to manage all marketing communications related tasks of the SEA-ME-WE-5 consortium.

In February, TTI hosted very successfully the SEA-ME-WE-5 Project Launch Celebration Event in Istanbul. With the completion of this advanced and innovative project, Turkey now has adequate infrastructure to meet the country's rising data demand at an initial capacity of 24 Tbps.

We made an investment of around $50m in the SEA-ME-WE-5 subsea cable systems and we have other initiatives in and around the Middle East. In relation to Africa we are focusing on Eastern Africa. In Asia, southern Asia we're going to reach throughout the SEA-ME-WE-5 underwater cable system and capacities.