Malaysia : Broadband Infrastructure

I just found the picture illustrating transmission infrastructure in Malaysia. However, it might be outdated, since it is the condition in 2004. But, we can see some statistics:

• Long distance transmission infrastructure length approximately 70,000 km
• Main players : Telekom Malaysia, Time, Maxis, Fiberrail
  

Source MEWC Malaysia, 2004

Global Networks : Another Ochre Services ?

Thanks to Meneer for the pointer. I was thinking that Ochre Services was the only one, who has interest in wiring Singapore-Jakarta-Perth. I'm honestly still not sure whether these systems (Ochre and GN) will come into reality: whether they has secured how the projects will be financed? But let's see it. Previously I was not sure also about Surabaya - Hong Kong cable project, but it has been indeed executed. If one or more troubles come, I think, it is also possible that those companies collaborate ... something that happened like Pacnet's initiative and Unity cable. However, at a glance, it seems that Global Networks has a solid plan to enter the business in SG, AUS, and ID ...

The international sub-sea fibre optic cable network will connect Perth, Jakarta and Singapore while the domestic terrestrial networks in both Indonesia and Australia will interconnect with and provide greater capacity for telecommunications carriers, internet service providers and corporate entities to both the international and domestic networks at greater speed and at a lower cost than currently available. The international cable will also provide very important regional network redundancy and security particularly for Indonesia, Australia and all other South East Asian countries.

Plan (Indonesian Side):

Stage 1 of our domestic Indonesian terrestrial network will be approx 1,500 klm in length and be built to connect the key cities of Anyer, Jakarta, Cikampek, Bandung, Semarang, Jogya, Surabaya and Denpasar.

Stage 2 will consist of increasing the reach of our network to other areas within Indonesia, such as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Our network will provide an increase in much needed capacity and bandwidth on already over-utilised telecoms infrastructure and enable local businesses and consumers much more cost effective access to the internet and other communications services.

Source Global Networks Australia

First Media | FastNet : Over-Booking Ratio

Recently, Dicky Moechtar, director of PT First Media, said that the company has totally 3.5 Gbps bandwidth serving 122 th. customers. He also claimed that FastNet allows users to have external download rate 18 kBps (average I guess), which is according to him, three times faster than the usual external download rate offered by other operators.

If we take the numbers given by Dicky, then it seems that FastNet using an over-booking figure of around 1:5 (corresponds to 'simultaneous factor' of 0.2 for accessing service at the highest allowable rate - note: this is for external traffic!)

However, FastNet has currently also offers services based on rates! It could happen that they set better overbooking ratio for premium customers. However, for current situations, it seems that operators just play with "rates" which affects internal traffic only.

Over-Booking vs. Over-Provisioning

We might already be heard these terms, in particular if we are inside or at least talk about network-related-things in an ISP / NSP. Overbooking is "a term used to describe the sale of access to a service which exceeds the capacity of the service" (Wikipedia). Over-provisioning is exactly the opposite i.e. a term used to describe how much excess/free capacity are available compared to used-capacity. In the networking world, overbooked system, sometimes, is also called over-subscribed system.

Users/customers of a provider will not have anything against Over-Provisioning, right? :-D ... But the provider does! Why ? You know this already I think, it's more-or-less about trade-off between Quality for customers' side vs. cost for providers' side.

A good provider deploys not only over-booking but also over-provisioning! Confused? How could two opposite schemes can be deployed simultaneously ?? ... :-D ... Right, something like "space division multiplex"! A provider (not necessarily a good one) usually appllies over-booking at access level (including international or domestic/peering connections). A good provider usually applies over-provisioning in their core networks!

Bandwidth Price (4)

I just want to comment this local report. This is written by Arif Pitoyo (Bisnis) citing Galumbang Menak (CEO Gema Lintas Benua - a local Internet Service Provider). Below, I would use "GM|AP" to refer to this report. Summary of the report + my comments:

• It is predicted that Internet bandwidth leasing cost decreases by 50% !
• The figure would be around USD 100 to USD 300 / Mbps ! (he talked about supply cost in Java, I guess) - for comparison, in 2000 Internet via satellite links cost around USD 12 - 15 mn (?? that expensive ?)
  
• In 2004, Moratel and Excelcomindo have built SDH microwave link Batam - Singapore (total capacity 2 STM-1; claimed to be the first link entirely owned by local company) - GM|AP said "because of this link, Internet bandwidth has decreased to around USD 6 mn/Mbps" (that expensive ??)
• In 2007, as an impact of several new cables, the cost is further reduced to USD 200 / Mbps at wholesale level, and to USD 300 - 500 / Mbps at retail level (?? USD 6,000,000 to USD 300 ... ???)
• As I read this : "Dalam tempo 3 tahun kembali terjadi penurunan lebih dari 95%. Harga 2007 hanya 5% dari harga 3 tahun sebelumnya ini merupakan penurunan harga yang paling drastis sepanjang sejarah,ujarnya" it's a bit clear, writing error! ... should be thousand not million!!

• "Pada saat ini di tingkat wholesale, harga bandwidth Internet adalah sekitar US$50-US$70/Mbps, dan harga ini sudah bertahan dan stabil sampai 3 tahun belakangan ini" (where? Jakarta ? - or just another typo?)
• "Bandingkan dengan harganya di negara lain seperti Jepang dan Hong Kong yang hanya senilai US$7-US$9/Mbps/bulan di tingkat wholesale. Harga transit termurah di dunia tentunya adalah di AS sekitar US$3-US$7/Mbps/bulan di tingkat wholesale" - I don't know whether GM|AP has used some results of a certain research company, but Primetrica said that IP transit (GigE full port) in Hong Kong cost around USD 36 - 37 / Mbps, in Tokyo around USD 45 / Mbps, in LA around USD 6 - 30 / Mbps!
  

• "Sementara harga Internet melalui satelit, dalam 3 tahun terakhir relatif stabil pada kisaran US$1.500-US$3.000/Mbps per bulan dan diprediksi terus bertahan mengingat satelit memiliki kendala kapasitas maksimum 48 transponder" - this seems ok!
  

By the way, why has Galumbang Menak used "Gema Lintas Benua" instead of "Moratel" ? Did he leave Moratel after Smart Telecom's majority share acquisition?

Facebook Infrastructure Needs

Facebook has experienced a phenomenal growth. According to datacenterknowledge.com (03/2009):

• Facebook has been adding more than 600,000 new users a day in recent months; it just surpassed 200 mn users
  
• More than 24 percent of U.S. Internet users have Facebook accounts, as do 43 percent of the online audience in the UK
• The company may be spending as much as $1 million a month on electricity to power its servers and data center space
• Facebook hosts more than 10 billion photos posted by users

This all adds up to an enormous amount of data to store, manage and move across the Internet. And this is why Facebook needs more data center space.

Facebook Data Center:

• ACC4 (Ashburn, Virginia); DuPont Fabros? --> 10,000 square feets (929 square meters)
• ACC5 reserved (Ashburn, Virginia); DuPont Fabros? --> 20,000+ square feets; 6 MW power
• Digital Realty Thrust Q4/2008; location unknown, but DRT owns numerous data center properties in Europe --> could be strategical partnerships for expanding Facebook to overseas
• Terremark (Santa Clara - entire space) 02/2008
• Switch & Data (Palo Alto)
  

Bandwidth Price Points

According to Telegeography Research (2009B):

• Prices are declining due to growing supply, greater competition, liberalizing markets, and technological advancements
• Prices for higher-capacity products are dropping faster than lower-capacity products
• The more you buy, the less you pay per Mbps
• High capacity means high revenue
• Prices change in large steps
• Prices vary by geography, carrier, customer

Wholesale private lines (IPLC, etc.):

• Compound annual decline 3% - 12% (median private line prices 2005 - 2008)
• Prices vary by geography: different prices correspond to different market conditions (competition, supply/demand balance, etc); Hong-Kong - Tokyo price/km is 5x London-New York
• Price trens vary by capacity: larger capacity, greater decline
• Price per Mbps decreases with increasing capacity
• Prices vary by carrier: different prices correspond to different paths, market segments served, regional strengts, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.; price changes occur in steps up to 50%; CAGR ranges from 0% - 28%
  

IP Transit:

• Compound annual decline 16% - 26% (globally)
• Prices vary by geography : prices correspond to different costs of underlying transport and market conditions (competition, supply/demand balance, etc.); Rio de Janeiro is nearly 8x Los Angeles
• Prices vary by capacity: price per Mbps decreases with increasing capacity (a 10 Gbps port at $5 per Mbps is $600,000 annual revenue; FastE at $15 per Mbps is $18,000); Higher capacities, greater declines
• Prices vary by committed data rate (CDR): price pe Mbps decreases with increasing capacity; 200 Mbps CDR price is 54% higher per Mbps than full port (but 70% less revenue)
• Prices vary by carrier: different prices correspond to different market segments served, regional strengths, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.; price changes occur in steps of up to 50%; compound annual decline ranges 20% - 35%
  

IP VPN:

• Prices vary by geography: retail price trend is more stable than wholesale; CAGR ranges 5% - 23%
• Prices vary by carrier: prices vary due to different market segments served, regional strengths, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.
• Price changes occur in steps of up to 50%, but demonstrate some convergence - CAGR ranges 11% - 36%
• Price bundle includes value-added: port bandwidth remains dominant price component; other elements' proportion varies by region; less tied to commodity pricing dynamics
  

Other Notes:

• Shift to high-capacity products, which are declining in price more rapidly, compounds decline in revenue per bit
• Price declines outpaced by demand growth, implying growing revenue
• Anecdotal price is not necessarily the market price (nor is the median price)
• Other terms, conditions, and relationships can affect actual price paid for capacity