Thanks For Visiting !

I'm sorry for a quite long inactivity :-D

Several drafts have actually been prepared, but unfortunately due to "many things around me in the last times" I didn't have chances to release any of them. This post shall be my last post for year 2008.

Happy new year for all of you. Thanks for visiting my blog!

TdC Fiber Network

It seems that TIME/TdC has a well-designed infrastructure! Wait, first of all : I currently don't affiliate with TIME, I'm not a TIME's marketing engine, either :-D

TIME dotCom's 100% fibre trunk network comprises not only of main and terrestrial fibre optic cable route linking the major towns of Peninsular Malaysia but is further complemented with submarine festoon fibre optic cable back-up systems with landing points around the perimeter of Peninsular Malaysia.

Another good point : TIME has provided its network map as you can see below. Even TM or SINGTEL don't provide such a thing (yet?)! :-D ... Some other notes:

• TIME's Information Super Highway was a project with a capital investment of over RM3.8 billion
• Its regional fiber optic cables are running along the major highways and complemented by submarine fiber optic cables along the coastlines, augmented where necessary with wireless, digital microwave and satellite connectivity
• Its land-based fibre optics stretch over 3,600 km in Peninsular Malaysia with lines criss-crossing the country and connecting into the main network along the 850 km North-South Expressway

• The submarine fiber optic cables totaling 1,624 km are laid along the coastline of Peninsular from Pulau Langkawi, Kedah to Kota Bharu, Kelantan connecting to 25 coastal sites.

TIME international partners (TdC Website):

• Optus and Telstra in Australia
• Hong Kong Telecom International in Hong Kong
• MCI in USA
• Indosat in Indonesia
• Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD) in Japan
• Jabatan Telekom Brunei in Brunei
• Philippines Long Distance Telephony (PLDT) in Philippines
• Singapore Telecom in Singapore
• Telephone Organisation of Thailand (TOT) in Thailand

TIME International Facilities:

• Two world class international gateway switches (ATT5ESS)
• Direct fibre links to Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, USA and Indonesia
• Undersea cables:
  Asia Pacific Cable Network (APCN)
  South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SEA-ME-WE 3)
  North Pacific Cable (NPC)
  Trans Pacific Cable 4 (TPC 4)
  Fibre Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG)
  Singapore-Malaysia Cable (SMC)
  Malaysia-Thailand-East (MTE)
  Thailand-Malaysia-West (TMW)
• Satellite Facility: AsiaSat
• A world class international network management centre, opens all year round

Source/Courtesy TdC

Global Internet Usage - 2008

Some notes from TM's perspective with regard to the Internet usage:

• Capacity demand is fueled by demand for IP-based services and bandwidth hungry applications – more “FAT” pipes
• Consumer Internet usage is shaped by the ever increasing use of video streaming and peer-to-peer applications. The lack of domestic content in most countries will further accentuate this behavior

• P2P singularly contributes to 45% of internet usage
• Peer to peer overtook web in 2000
• Video contents is to overtake Peer to Peer application in 2010

• This global trend is also seen in the Malaysian market specifically for the TM users of broadband

Source/Courtesy: TM/Cisco VNI

Domestic Capacity Price (Possibly 2008B or 2007)

Below are some tables indicating domestic leased line prices, for 2007 or up to 2008M I guess. These currently shall be cheaper, after some pressures from the government middle of last year. This information is based on the work of Rajat K. published by LirneASIA.

How could they get this ? :-D

STM-1/DS3/E2/E1 Prices - Source/Courtesy: Rajat K/LirneASIA 2008M

PT. Jabar Telematika (Jatel)

This "pipe" business seems to be attractive for everyone ! :-D

Recently, a local company owned by local government, PT. Jabar Telematika (Jatel) has announced its first fiber optic project in Bandung:

• Length : approx. 72 km (inside+outside the city)
• Investment : IDR 25 bn (approx. USD 2.3 mn)
• RFS : 04/2009
  

Other things:

• Jatel is a subsidiary of PT. Jasa Sarana (BUMD Jawa Barat province)
• (Next project) : connecting areas around Purbaleunyi (highway)
• Customers/Partners : BUMDes, PT. Pos, PLN, Bank Jabar (online payment) - initially 5 districts (kabupaten)
• Jatel shall support relevant governmental projects (credit, subsidies, school-net, e-health etc.); but it can also offer professional services to public enterprises
  

• http://www.jabar-telematika.com/ --> down! (as of the time of writing)
  

Malaysia - Connectivity + Bandwidth

TM operates 6 cable stations in western Malaysia and 5 in Serawak. All international connections happens through CSs in western. I would guess that TdC's CSs are already included (now, it's a subsidiary of TM, right ?) .

How much international bandwidth ? I think it isn't so much different as my previous post about this some times ago. For this year TM has projected to have totally 150+ Gbps bandwidth, which 70+ Gbps of them is dedicated for MY-US connections.

Source/Courtesy : TM

Thailand - Bandwidth

According to Jasmine Group, this year (2009) Thailand will have 70+ Gbps international bandwidth serving 4 mn broadband subscribers with "average ??" broadband speed of 4 Mbps.

Source/Courtesy : Jasmine

Some quotes (Jasmine) :

• Keypoint : High Bandwidth with Low Penetration of high speed Broadband
• Keypoint : Telecom liberalization
• Keypoint : Thailand should be viewed as an alternative route complementing Singapore

Some quotes - Opportunity :

• International Gateway to Indochina
• New technology available for Support (3G, WiMAX, NGN)
• Open for new Landing Station and Submarine Direct Link
• Co‐location and Data Center
• High Application and Content demand for Broadband, WiMAX and 3G

Telkom : Bandwidth, IP Transit Services, Price

December 2008, PT. Telkom has launched IP Transit services in 15 locations (11 cities), targeting corporates, schools/universities, ISPs, and the government.

• Coverage (12/2008) : Jakarta (Semanggi, Karet Tengsin, Gambir, Cyber Building), Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Solo, Bandung, Denpasar, Medan, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Batam, Semarang, Balikpapan
• 9 Customers (as of 12/2008) : Jaya Teknik, Departemen ESDM, Universitas Binus, Satcom, Pikanet, UI, ITS, Universitas Surabaya (?), Universitas Petra

Type of Telkom's IP transit service:

• Transit Global Best Path Optic --> best path routing
  
• Transit Global Dedicated Gateway Optic --> STIX and TM (possibly via TIS & DMCS)
  

Telkom's Internet bandwidth (Wartaekonomi,Vivanews) :

• 12B/2008 : 13 Gbps
• 01B/2009 : 30 Gbps
• 06E/2009 : 40 Gbps (after AAG in service)
  

If this is true, then Telkom should have at least 10 Gbps connection to SG/US through the new AAG cable/BSCS.

Price for IP Transit (inofficial):

• IDR 10 mn / Mbps (claimed 1:1 !)
  

Excelcomindo's New Cable : SJJK

I don't have so much information about this issue except a few things below. If I look at the statistics of my blog, I know that some of you might eventually have more information than I :-D . So why don't you share some "public domain" information ? (okay, the magic word - please!)

• Owner : XL (Excelcomindo Pratama)
• Main contractor/supplier : Alcatel Lucent Submarine
  
• Subcontractors : EGS Asia, Engkatama Indonesia, more ?
  
• CAPEX : approx. USD 120 mn ?? (if it's true, the length of the system shall be > 1,000 km)
  
• Project name : SJJK - guess S = Sumatera, J = Java, J = ?, K=Kalimantan
  
• Capacity : ??

Previously, it rumours that XL will deploy Dumai - Batam cable. Is it a part of this SJJK ??

Exploring BiZNET

BGP could (sometimes) be very interesting! Agree ? Disagree ? :-D Well, okay, at least for some people, communities (Opisboy-ers, heh ?? :-D )

I'm currently not a BGP expert, but it's quite fun to to see what we can do with it. So here I just want to share a case I've dealed with yesterday : BiZNET (yes, PT. Supra ...). If you do expertise in BGP, please advise ! :-D

It seems that BiZNET buys some transit capacities from pak Meneer :-D (AS4657, by the way how many ASNs does REACH currently have??). But it's quite odd, that I failed to see direct connections between BiZNET and REACH. Could it happen that these are tunneled via third parties (say, AS4761 or AS7473) ??

BiZNET seems has direct (upstream?) connections with the following networks:

• AS9002 RETN (?)
• AS3356 Level3
• AS15412 FLAG
• AS29208 DIAL TELECOM (?)
  
• AS3491 PCCWGlobal
• AS10217 NTT
• AS23947 Moratel (upstream?? - strange!)
  
• AS4761 Indosat
• AS9505 TWGate
• AS7473 Singtel

In addition, seems that BiZNET has special relationships with AS4862 (EQUANT ASIA), AS7597 (IIX APJII) and AS38154 (PSN). But is there no relationship with AS7717 ?? It should be ...

Asia America Gateway AAG (3)

Finally, AAG has a website! You may check http://asia-america-gateway.com !

But don't expect too much for now :-D It's almost similar to the TPE website, which is mainly intended for the members of the consortium. There is also no NEW information either. The website is maintained by PLDT and hosted at INFOCOM Technologies (Philippines).

"The birth of the AAG will revolutionize high bandwidth delivery between Asia and the USA. Designed for broadband traffic, it will provide much-needed diversity in traditional routes to the US and ensure alternate routes, expanded capacity and high levels of service during potential disasters. The AAG Cable System is expected to carry commercial traffic by first quarter of 2009."

Source/Courtesy AAG/asia-america-gateway.com

India's Cables : Another View

The table and picture below show another view of cables coming to/from India. It seems that the Indian government has set three locations for cable landing stations i.e. Mumbai, Cochin, Chennai.

Source/Courtesy Bharti (2005/2006?)

Malaysia's International Bandwidth

Couple days ago Telegeography has reported that "TM (Telekom Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.) set to increase backbone internet capacity". By quoting COO of TM Global (a subsidiary of TM) Rozaimy Rahman, it was said that till the end of this year TM will have 100 Gbps capacity. This will further be increased by 30% to 130 Gbps in 2009 to accomodate demand for online services.

TM is surely not the only player in the business, but it of course the major player. TdC is another player but since some times ago also controlled by TM. How about Global Transit ? How about other players (if any) ? Any advise is welcome :-D

Indonesian ISPs - ASN

Indonesia has currently 200+ licensed ISPs. Several times ago I was trying to get AS Numbers (Autonomous System Number) for some of them. But I had to use a rather "hard" way :-D (e.g. one-by-one).

Is there any "easy" way to grab ASNs for a group of ISPs (say those whose "Country=ID")??

• Moratel : AS 23947 | CEPATNET-AS-ID | 20031103 | 202.43.190.0/23
• Biznet : AS 17451 | BIZNET-AS-AP | 20001107 | 202.169.33.0/24
• Indosat : AS 4761 | INDOSAT-INP-AP | 19960716 | 202.152.161.0/24
• Lintasarta : AS 4800 | IDOLA-INDOSAT-AP | 19961225 | 202.152.0.0/18
• IndosatM2 (IM2) : AS 4795 | INDOSAT2-ID | 19961030 | 124.81.80.0/20
• Telkom : AS 17974 | TELKOMNET-AS2-AP | 20011008 | 202.134.0.0/24
• Telkomsel : AS 23693 | TELKOMSEL-ASN-ID | 20030328 | 202.3.208.0/20
• XL : AS 17885 | JKTXLNET-AS-AP | 20011030 | 202.152.224.0/24
• CBN : AS 4787 | ASN-CBN | 19961015 | 202.158.64.0/22 | 210.210.144.0/23
• Melsa : AS 9657 | MELSANET-ID-AP | 19990903 | 202.138.224.0/23
• Indonet : AS 9340 | INDONET-AS-AP | 19980730 | 202.159.32.0/21
• NAPInfo : AS 17727 | NAPINFO-AS-AP | 20010417 | 202.59.162.0/24
• ICON+ : AS 9341 | ICONPLN-ID-AP | 20020911 | 202.162.217.0/24
• DNET : AS 9794 | DNET-ID-AP | 19991229 |202.148.1.0/24
• Pacific Link : AS 4855 | PI-ID-AS-AP | 19961203 | 203.123.254.0/24
• Quasar : AS 18364 | QUASAR-ID | 20020809 | 202.81.63.0/24
• Radnet : AS 4434 | ERX-RADNET1-AS | 20020801 | 202.154.0.0/22
• CSM : AS 18379 | CSMNAP-AS-AP | 20020830 | 202.127.97.0/24

India : International Telecom Access

With regard to international telecommunication (actually cable :-D ) businesses, India has several players / facilities (as of March 2008):

• International Long Distance Operators : 14
• Cable Landing Stations LS : 6
• Cable Systems : 9

Bandwidth / Capacity :

• Total Designed Capacity : 18.60 Tbps
• Total Lit Capacity : 587.50 Gbps (3% of design capacity)
• Total Protected Capacity available : 100 Gbps (17% of lit capacity)
• Total Utilized Capacity : 91 Gbps (90% of protected capacity 15% of total lit capacity)
• Total Spare Capacity : 496.50 Gbps (85% of total lit capacity)

Credits: SK Gupta / TRAI

India : Telecom Growth

Well, this post is actually more to "Tower" rather than "Telecom" :-D

According to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India):

• 1991- Teledensity less than 1%
• 1991- Telecom sector opened to private operator to provide mobile
• 2003- Calling party pay regime was implemented
• 2004- The growth of mobile sector started to pick up
• Government announced in May 2006 to provide 250 Million telephones by 2007 and 500 Million telephones by 2010
• Most of the growth was in mobile sector as wireline was stagnating at around 40 Million
  

• The estimated number of tower required to reach the target was 135,000 towers by 2007 and 330,000 by 2010
• This required huge investment of USD 10 bn by 2007 and USD 25 bn by 2010 only to setup towers (approx. USD 75 th./BTS)

• Total Number of towers : 0.22 mn (as of 31.03.2008); 36% shared!
  
• Total Number of Wireless Subscribers: 261.06 mn
  

Credits: S K Gupta / TRAI

Thailand - Some (ICT) Facts

As of end 2007, Thailand has more than 50 mn mobile subscribers (80+% teledensity - wow!) and 12+ mn Internet users.

• In line with Internet users, the number of broadband subscribers was growing ; this means greater required bandwidth

• Liberalization of IGW (International GateWay) in 2006; there are 6 (six) international gateway operators in Thailand.

• After liberalization of international gateways, the number of Internet users increases (see pic below)
• In 2007 (right after liberalization of IGW) International Internet bandwidth increased by more than 2.5 times (around 25 Gbps as of Q4/2007)
  

Is any well-known international player licensed as IGW operator in Thailand ??

Thailand - Some ICT Statistics (Source/Courtesy ITU/Vaiva L.)

Lambda Providers

In early 2006, at APAN meeting, Yves Poppe has pointed three (early) transoceanic lambda providers (Yes, it's lambda, not just sub-wavelength capacity): Global Crossing, Level 3 and Tyco (now Tata). Currently, it shall be more than three of course. The interesting point is that demands for lambda services were initially coming from Research and Education (R&E) networking sector - in early 2000s. Well, it's no doubt, SURFnet was at a prominent role at those times.

Early transoceanic gigabit connectivities:

• First transatlantic gigabit level circuit : 2001: 2.5 gig Surfnet to Chicago Starlight
• First transpacific STM-4’s : 2001: two Transpac STM-4’s
• 2002: first transatlantic 10gb : Surfnet leads again

R&E Networking : Toward Dark Fiber

• National R&E networks start to go dark fiber: Canarie’s Bill St.Arnaud and Surfnet’s Kees Neggers amongst trailblazers; Lambda switching and speed records
• High Energy Physics and Astronomy provide much of the intercontinental impetus

Amsterdam - Early Lambda Capital

Credits: Yves Poppe; (formerly or still at) Tata Teleglobe

Jasa Marga's Fiber Optic Link (JSMR)

PT. Jasa Marga (JSMR) has begun developing their own fiber optic infrastructure; their first intercity optical cable links Bandung and Jakarta and it's actually ready for service since the end of 2007. Almost similar to PLN and PGN, it is initially intended to fulfill their internal needs e.g. to connect their offices, automate data collections, surveillance etc. But the cable capacity would surely more than these internal needs. Current terrestrial optical cable shall have at least 96 cores, right ?

• "Perseroan telah menyelesaikan pemasangan jaringan kabel fiber optik di sepanjang jalan tol (Bandung menuju Cawang, Jakarta) dan siap untuk dikomersialkan" (JSMR-2007)
• "T Jasa Marga Tbk (JSMR) berencana memasang kabel optik di sepanjang jalan tol seluruh Indonesia." (Bisnis.com-10/2008)
• Saat ini baru sepanjang jalan tol Jakarta-Bandung yang sudah terpasang, nanti akan kami pasang di seluruh ruas tol," - Direktur Utama Jasa Marga Frans S Sunito (Bisnis.com-10/2008)
  

SEACOM

SEACOM:

• Investors: Herakles (backed by Blackstone); Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan) through IPS; Venfin (led by South African Johann Rupert); Convergence Partners (led by former South African DoC DG Andile Ngcaba); Shanduka (led by South African Cyril Ramaphosa); Neotel (has pledged ZAR 20 million for cable station)
• CAPEX/Cost : approx. USD 650 mn
• RFS : June 2009
• Financing arranged by Nedbank and Investec
• Suppliers/Contractors : Tyco
• Length 15,000 km
• Links Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia
• Capacity : 2 FP, 1.28 Tbps design
  

Source SEACOM/Terabit

• "The connectivity from Egypt to Marseille, France, will be provided through Telecom Egypt's TE-North fibre pairs that SEACOM has purchased on the system. TE-North is a new cable currently being laid across the Mediterranean Sea"
• "SEACOM, which is privately funded and over three quarter African owned, will assist communication carriers in south and east Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks via India and Europe"
• "SEACOM will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections"
  

• "When it is fully functional in 2009, SEACOM will be a service provider of international fibre optic bandwidth along the east coast of Africa linking South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe"

• SEACOM is 76.25% African owned by: Industrial Promotion Services (26.25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development; Venfin Limited (25%); Convergence Partners (12.5%) ; Shanduka Group (12.5%)
• The remaining 23.75% is held by Herakles Telecom LLC

National Lambda Rail (NLR)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Source Reese/NLR

Quotes taken from nlr.net

The foundation of the NLR infrastructure is a dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM)-based national optical footprint using Cisco Systems' 15454 optical electronic systems, with a maximum capacity of 40 and 32 wavelengths per fiber pair respectively. Each wavelength can support transmission at 10 billion bits per second (10 Gbps). This optical system is deployed nationwide across roughly 15,000 route-miles of dark fiber that NLR has obtained through Level 3 Communications. Four NLR wavelengths have been implemented using 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PhY (physical layer), a technology and architecture that had previously been limited to metro-area networks. NLR can also support the SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) Technology employed in traditional telecommunications networks, if needed. The initial wavelengths provide:

• a national 10 Gbps IP network to support internetworking and end-to-end transport protocol experiments,
• the first-ever national switched Ethernet experimental network with circuit-like 1 Gbps services,
• a quick-start facility for new research projects in support of data- and computation intensive science projects, and a redundant sparing capability in the event of a channel-specific failure.

Additional wavelengths are activated across individual segments of the infrastructure as needed. A more detailed description of NLR services and a guide for researchers interested in using NLR services are available. Nearly a dozen research projects are already using NLR services.

Quotes taken from Wikipedia

National LambdaRail is a high-speed national computer network infrastructure in the United States that runs over fiber-optic lines, and is the first transcontinental Ethernet network. The name is shared by the organization of research institutions that developed the network, and, to date, plans to continue developing it. LambdaRail is similar to the Abilene Network, but LambdaRail permits deeper experimentation than Abilene does.

It is primarily oriented to aid terascale computing efforts and to be used as a network testbed for experimentation with next-generation large-scale networks. National LambdaRail is a university-based and -owned initiative, in contrast with Abilene and Internet2, which are university-corporate sponsorships. This gives universities more control to use the network for these research projects. National LambdaRail also supports a production layer on its infrastructure.

Links in the network use dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM), which allows up to 64 individual optical wavelengths to be used (depending on hardware configuration at each end) separated by 100 GHz spacing. At present, individual wavelengths are used to carry traditional OC-X (OC3, OC12, OC48 or OC192) TDM circuits or Ethernet signal for Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Internet2 + Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene) - Source internet2.edu

Quotes taken from internet2.edu

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies.

By bringing research and academia together with technology leaders from industry, government and the international community, Internet2 promotes collaboration and innovation that has a fundamental impact on the future of the Internet.

• Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium comprising more than 200 U.S. universities in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories and other institutions of higher learning as well as over 50 international partner organizations.
• Internet2 members leverage its high-performance network (i.e. I2 Network) and worldwide partnerships to support and enhance their educational and research missions.
• Beyond just providing network capacity, Internet2 actively engages our community in the development of important new technology including middleware, security, network research and performance measurement capabilities which are critical to the progress of the Internet.

Quotes taken from Wikipedia

Internet2 is a non-profit consortium that develops and deploys advanced high-performance network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet. It is led by over 200 universities and partners with many affiliate members and corporate members drawn from companies in the publishing, networking and other technology industries.

The original Internet2 project was founded informally in 1996 under the auspices of EDUCAUSE and was organized as the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) in 1997. UCAID later changed its name to Internet2. Internet2 is a registered trademark. The Internet2 consortium administrative headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Internet2 provides the U.S. research and education community with a network that satisfies their bandwidth-intensive requirements. The network itself is a dynamic, robust and cost-effective hybrid optical and packet network. It furnishes a 100Gb/s network backbone to more than 210 U.S. educational institutions, 70 corporations and 45 non-profit and government agencies.

The uses of the network span from collaborative applications, distributed research experiments, grid-based data analysis and social networking. Some of these applications are in varying levels of commercialization, such as IPv6, open-source middleware for secure network access, layer 2 VPNs and dynamic circuit networks.

Internet2, with help from its members, created the Abilene Network and was a prime investor in the National LambdaRail (NLR) project, with nearly 10 million dollars. During 2004–2006, Internet2 and NLR held extensive discussions regarding a possible merger. Key to this merger was the condition that Internet2 would operate its successor to Abilene using NLR's infrastructure (NLR has IRUs on actual fiber infrastructure from WilTel, now Level(3), where Internet2 utilizes leased optical wavelengths from Qwest for Abilene). Those talks paused in the Spring of 2006, resumed in March 2007 and eventually fell apart in September 2007.

Palapa Ring (7)

*Update*
According to some local news at the end of October, Powertek Utama Internusa has indeed withdrawn its membership from the consortium. This is based on some statements quoted from the consortium spokesperson Rakhmat Junaedi. But what a bit strange is that the company (Powertek) has stated that "it should not be finalized yet" !!

• "PT Powertek Utama Internusa akhirnya memutuskan untuk mundur dari megaproyek infrastruktur jaringan nasional Palapa Ring. Keputusan ini disambut baik anggota konsorsium. Mundurnya Powertek dibenarkan oleh juru bicara konsorsium Palapa Ring, Rakhmat Junaedi. Namun, ia menegaskan, meski telah menerima surat dari yang bersangkutan, proses mundurnya Powertek belum rampung seluruhnya." Bisnis.com 28/10/08
• "Ketika dikonfirmasi, CEO PT Powertek Utama Internusa Rose Melati Adikusuma, tak mau menyatakan secara tegas kemundurannya dari konsorsium. "Keputusannya belum final, jadi lebih baik tanyakan saja kepada konsorsium. Saya tak punya wewenang untuk membicarakan hal ini," tandasnya seraya mengelak mundurnya Powertek terkait kepentingan salah satu partai politik." Bisnis.com 28/10/08
  

*--*

There are two new things (as of October 2008).

1. It seems that in the last minutes Powertek has fulfilled its duty regarding the consortium's financial commitment to deposit 5% of the agreed total investment of each party (in this respect, Powertek shall invest around USD 30 mn). This fact revises my previous post: yes, Powertek is (up to now, still) in the Palapa Ring consortium!
2. As the result of the second pre-qualification process, GMSL and Tyco are out of the field! The consortium chooses NEC, ASN and Fujitsu-NSW.
   

Main One

MAIN One is a private cable system currently under construction; owned by Main Street Technologies: "led by Ms. Funke Opeke, who worked as an executive at Verizon, as the chief technology officer at MTN, and as chief operating officer of Nitel from late-2006 to early-2007".

• Branched system from Portugal to Angola
• Contractors/Suppliers : Tyco; contract awarded on April 2008
• CAPEX: USD 300 mn
• RfS: May 2010
• Length : 12,900 km
  

• Reportedly considering an extension to South Africa, but company representatives said that they were “a little disappointed with the South African Government’s attitude” toward foreign operators.
• The Phase 1 cable system will span 6,900 km and provide the much needed high capacity for international and internet connectivity to countries between Portugal and the West coast of Africa
• The submarine cable project is designed in two phases, with the second phase extending connectivity another 6,000 km to South Africa
• The dual fiber pair, 1.28 Terabits per second, Dense Wave Division Multiplex project will connect Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal in the first phase with onward connectivity through Portugal to Europe, Asia and the Americas; and extends to Angola and South Africa in the second phase
• The Main One Cable system will provide open access to regional telecom operators and Internet Service Providers at competitive rates that are less than 20% of current SAT-3 or Satellite international bandwidth prices in the region
  

Source/Courtesy Terabit/Main Street Tech.

TEAMS

TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is a point-to-point system connecting Mombasa, Kenya and Fujairah, UAE. It was initially proposed by Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2006.

• Supply contract awarded to ASN in October, 2007
• CAPEX : USD 82 mn
• Revised ownership, as of 2008: Gov’t. of Kenya (20%); UAE incumbent Etisalat (15%); Earmark for “Private Telecommunications Operators” (65%) -- Interested: Safaricom, UUNet, Access Kenya, Jamii Telecom
• Investors assuming 5% equity would pay USD 214/Mb/mo. for wet plant between Mombasa and Fujairah
  
• Onward connectivity from Fujairah to Europe or USA would be USD 55k to USD 100k per STM-1 per year, according to Kenyan gov’t
• RFS : ??
• Capacity : ??

Credits: M Ruddy/Terabit

*Update*
Quotes from Telegeography 11/03/2009

Eleven shareholders in The East African Marine Cable (TEAMS) international undersea cable project have signed an agreement to plough USD110 million into the fibre-optic link, while the Kenyan government has pledged another USD20 million. The government, Telkom Kenya and Safaricom each hold 20% in the TEAMS project, while Kenya Data Networks and Econet Wireless have 10% each. Other investors include Wananchi Online (5%) and Jamii Telkom (3.75%). Another five companies plan on buying a 1.25% stake each, while the remaining 5% has yet to be allocated, Reuters reports. The installation of the cable, which will link Mombasa in Kenya to Fujairah in the UAE, is due to begin later this month and is scheduled to be complete by June.

Quotes from Subtelforum 11/03/2009

Reuters Africa is reporting that eleven shareholders of The East African Marine Cable (TEAMS) have agreed to contribute $110 million to the project. The Kenyan government will contribute an additional $20 million. Major shareholders include Telkom Kenya, Safaricom, Econet Wireless, Kenya Data Networks, Wananchi Online and Jamii Telkom.

Bitange Ndemo of the Kenyan Information and Communications Ministry said that TEAMS is on track for completion in June.

EASSy

East African Submarine cable System (EASSy) was proposed by a consortium of regional (east African) operators.

• CAPEX : USD 265 mn; Financing from Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) including World Bank/IFC, EIB, ADB, AFD, KfW
• RfS: 2009
• Contractors: ASN
• Length: approx. 10,000 km
  
• Capacity: 1.4 Tbps design (after contract revisions); lit ?
  
• Linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique; Landings will be located in Port Sudan (Sudan), Djibouti (Djibouti), Mogadishu (Somalia) Mombasa (Kenya), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Toliary (Madagascar), Maputo (Mozambique) and Mtunzini (South Africa)

Source/Courtesy Terabit/EASSy

Intra-Asia Cables (2)

This shall be a try to give different looks for submarine fiber optic cables in Asia. It seems very crowded, in particular in the East Asia region and that around Singapore :-D

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 1 (Source/Courtesy Tata/LirneASIA/D. Goswami)

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 2 (Source/Courtesy Telegeography)

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 3 (Source/Courtesy Tata)

IAC = Intra Asia Cable ?? Is it the other name for TGN-IA ??

Intra-Asia Cables

Some times ago, I'd tried to find out more about Pacnet's EAC-C2C cables. It was not easy since both EAC and C2C are mature systems that operated since more than 6 years ago and that the ownership was changed several times. I found an interresting talk given by Yves Poppe at APAN meeting oneday in 2006: i.e. he addressed 3 "east Asian telecommunication aortas" :

• EAC (East Asia Crossing) : design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Jan 2001
• APCN-2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network - 2): design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
• C2C (City to City): design capacity --> 7.68 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
  

As reported by several media, Pacnet (formerly ANC) currently owns and operates both EAC and C2C. ANC took over EAC in January 2003.

3 Telecommunication Aortas in East Asia (Source Telegeography; taken from Yves Poppe's Talk) -- seems it is a typo: C2C <----> APCN2

FTTH in Italy

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Italy (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

India - Some Numbers (Again!)

Milestone for telecom growth in India

• 1994 –NTP 94
• 1999 –NTP 99
• 2001 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2002 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2003 –Abolished RPP
• 2004 –Launch of ADSL on Fixed line (Internet Boom)
• 2005 –74% Foreign Investment Allowed in Telecom Sector

International Bandwidth Usage (Ghosh/Aircel)

• China has more than 10 times of higher bandwidth usage as comparison to India
• By 2011 India is likely to have 1000 Gbps bandwidth usage

Others :

• As of 2007, India utilized 36+ Gbps international Internet bandwidth
• Current broadband penetration in India less than 1%
• Broadband to contribute the maximum to the capacity growth in India

( 2007 ? )

Source/Courtesy : Ghosh/Aircel

FTTH in the Netherlands

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in the Netherlands (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

Cables Passing Mediterranean

Just to mention several new cable systems in western Asia/Mediterranean which are planned or currently prepared/installed :

• IMEWE
• MENA
• MEF
• TE NORTH
• SEACOM
• FLAG MED
• FLAG EA
  
• EASSY
• EIG
• Other ??

Targeted RFS schedule and countries will be connected with each system can be seen below.

Source/Courtesy : Tordela/Sparkle

FTTH in the United States

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in the USA (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Slovenia

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Slovenia (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Iceland

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Iceland (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Norway

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Norway (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

i2i (Cable Network)

i2i stands for India to International. It is the first private cable to directly link India and Singapore. i2i was planned as a cable network spanning 10,800 km which would approximately be cost USD 650 mn. Phase 1 of i2i cable development covered a linear link between Chennai - Tuas and a terrestrial link between Chennai and Mumbai. What about Phase 2 or beyond ? This should include a submarine cable link between Mumbai and Singapore. Does anybody know?

• Contractors/Suppliers :ASN
• Repeatered system, 64
• Capacity 8 FP; 8.4 Tbps; 105 Lambdas; 10 Gbps; initial 160 Gbps
• Length 3,200 km
• Landing Points : Chennai (Madras) India, Tuas Singapore
• Owners: Bharti, SingTel
• CAPEX USD 250 mn
• RFS / Commercial Traffic: May 2002
• Contract Award: October 2000
• Construction : late 2000 - April 2002
• Wholesale capacity is available in STM-1, -4, -16, and -64 levels; 10-Gbit/sec wavelengths; and dark fiber, which can support 40-960 Gbits/sec.
  
• It was a plan to branch to Medan ?? (see below - at that time, Indosat would not let this happened :-D )
  
• A terrestrial link between Chennai and Mumbai (2,000 km - inlcudes in Phase-1 / USD 250 mn??)

i2icn - Phase 1 (Source/Courtesy ASN)

Another version (source Apman):

i2icn (Source Apman)

• Length : 3,200 km
• Capacity : 8,400 Gbps ; (8 fp x 105 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2001

FTTH in Denmark

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Denmark (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Sweden

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Sweden (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council