News
A round up of the key events in the subsea industry as we prepare for the Submarine Networks Europe event
This week was a big one for the subsea cable industry, as the long awaited South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) landed in the city of Fotaleza, Brazil. Construction of the system began in Luganda, Angola, back in December 2017.
The four, 100Gbps fibre pair cable system will provide 40Tbps in much needed, trans-Atlantic capacity.
In the run up to the Submarine Networks Europe event in London next week, this week’s Friday review will look back at the key events from the subsea sector over the last few weeks.
Caribbean connectivity
Spiralling demand for capacity between the US and Latin America is fuelling talk of new cable routes in the coming years. The Cayman Islands is emerging as a potential connectivity hub for routes between the US’ Gulf of Mexico and emerging markets in Central America.
"Given our geographic proximity to just about all of Central America, Cayman could become a central connection point for those countries to jump onto a new cable link to the USA," said JP Morgan, chief executive officer at OfReg.
OfReg will be on hand at the Submarine Networks Europe event, to discuss strategies and opportunities for opening up the Caribbean nation to international businesses and investors.
Carrier Neutral Facilities
The role of carrier neutral facilities will be a key focus of the Submarine Network Europe agenda this year. Both Gil Santaliz, founder and CEO of the New Jersey Fiber Exchange and Mike Hollands, director of market development and strategy at Interxion, will be speaking about the importance of these facilities at the event.
"A submarine cable that terminates in a carrier neutral data centre secures commercial and operational benefits for the cable’s owners and consortium members. From a commercial perspective, the carrier neutral data centre operator ensures a level playing field for all parties, removing the high commercial costs often associated with cable landing stations that are owned by one specific carrier. Operationally, because the carrier neutral facility is home to multiple networks, content providers and service providers, the process of establishing cross connects to partners is more efficient," said Mike Hollands.
OTT players
Increasingly subsea operators are looking to OTT players to provide the investment that drives new projects.
"The subsea industry is facing a dramatic increase in capacity demand, driven by content providers (OTTs), due to internet penetration and broadband access networks (4G and Fibre to the Home) and the improved capability of mobile devices. Multiple new projects are coming into force mainly financed by OTTs with a private model (with a carrier as project manager). The traffic carried is moving from the carrier’s backbone traffic to the OTTs backbone traffic," said Giuseppe Sini, head of international business unit, at Italian telecoms firm, Retelit.
Submarine Networks Europe’s conference agenda will carefully explore the role of the OTT players in helping to shape the industry going forward. During a specialised panel session on Day 1 of the conference, a hand-picked panel of experts will analyse the role of the OTT players in the subsea sector and ask – can OTT investment in the subsea sector continue at its current rate?
Making it pay
Fresh from their success on the Havfrue project, Aqua Comms will be sharing their insights into creating a profitable business model for subsea projects.
"Our primary goal here is to build a model that makes sense and is financially viable in the very, very difficult market of the Atlantic. If we succeed in this, we can look to extend that model out to markets that offer much better financial gains. The margins outside of the Atlantic are much higher, so if we can make our model work in the low margin markets, then we can transfer it out [to somewhere more profitable] in the future," said Nigel Bayliff, CEO of subsea specialist firm Aqua Comms.
