Tata's Cables

Let's begin with a Wiki quotation :-)

Tata Communications, formerly known Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited or VSNL, is India's largest telecommunication company in international long distance, enterprise data and internet services. Part of the Tata Group, Tata Communications is based in Mumbai and has operations in over 80 cities spread across 40 countries. Tata Teleservices, one of India's largest and least congested cellular providers, is a subsidiary of Tata Communications. Through its subsidiary Tyco Global Network, it is also one of the world's largest submarine cable bandwidth providers and has the world's largest network of submarine cables. Other subsidiaries of Tata Communications include VSNL International Canada, formerly known as Teleglobe while it is the majority share-holder of Neotel, South Africa's second-largest cellular operator.

In 1986, VSNL was formed as a Government of India-owned company and 1996, Tata Teleservices was established. In 2000, Tata Group acquired controlling stake in VSNL which was later expanded to 46%. In 2007, VSNL was renamed as Tata Communications which also included Tata Teleservices.

Currently, Tata:

• has 100% ownership in 3 cable systems (TGN-Atlantic, TGN-Pacific, TIC); both TGN cables operate at >1 Tbps lit capacity
• is a leading investor in 3 consortium' cable systems (SAT3/SAFE, SMW3, SMW4)
• fully/partially owns 206,356 km fiber cable around the world
• offers a wide range of services e.g. SDH/SONET, IP, GbE, Wavelength
• offers diverse redundancy and protection capabilities; greatest diversity to and within India

Additionally, they also prepare several new cable systems:

• TGN-IA (Intra Asia) - I have mentioned this several times ago
  
• TGN-EA (EurAsia)
• IMEWE
• SEACOM
• other ?

The last three (TGN-EA, IMEWE, SEACOM) connect among other Marseille and Mumbai. Are they really three different systems ??

Tata's Cables (Operational / In Preparation); Source/Courtesy Tata

SJC Plan

Southeast-asia Japan Cable (SJC) is currently in the planning stage. This second Google-led cable initiative will extend Unity cable to Southeast Asia.

• RFS: earliest 2011 (Alan Mauldin's estimate)
• Corsortium members: Google, Bharti, SingTel, KDDI, Global Transit (all these companies are also member of Unity Japan-US)
• Consortium members (SJC only): Globe Telecom Philippines, TOT Thailand
• Contractors/suppliers: ??? the same as Unity ???
• Current status: planning stage; preparation of supply contract
• CAPEX ???
  

Southeast-asia Japan Cable (SJC) Plan (Source/Courtesy Telegeography)

Several things are for me questionable:

• Why shall the cable land in Tuas ? This is usually used for cable coming from the west; as a preparation to extend to South Asia or just a Telegeography's typo ?
• Global Transit's HQ is in KL, but there is no Malaysian leg of the cable??
  

Additionally, Commsday said:

• "Google is reportedly looking for partners for the construction of a new subsea cable connecting to Africa"; (link eastwards to Asia or northwards to Europe is unclear but CAPEX estimate is revealed i.e. approx. USD 80 mn)
• "The SCJ will link to PPC-1"; "The cable would allow Pipe to provide direct capacity from Australia to Japan and the US at a substantial discount given likely pricing trends and presents new competition for AJC and a number of other emerging east asian systems planned by the likes of Pacnet, Reliance and Tata"
  

Google's Africa cable would be a hint; I guess extending the cable from SG to Africa would be a bit cheaper while covering traffic to/from South Asia and Middle East. Second, it was for me a surprise that Pipe which closely cooperates with Tata will also indirectly involve in this Google project :-). You might want to see this Tata's cable.

PPC-1 (Pipe Pacific Cable-1)

PPC-1 is owned (via its subsidiaries) by PIPE Networks, which is claimed itself as "Australia's largest peering provider and operates 16 IX points in 6 cities with over 130 active connections". PIPE has a close partnership with VSNL(Tata), in particular as the company intends to expand its business to the international wholesale market.

• Contractors: Tyco (contract on January 2008)
• Landing points: Collaroy beach, Cromer Sydney (Aus), Madang (PNG) near SEACOM, Tata Piti TGNP Guam (US)
• Capacity: 2 FP (4 in segment Cromer CLS - BU Sydney??); 1 FP for Australia-Guam trunk, 1 FP for Australia-PNG-Guam, 1.92 Tbps design, 140 Gbps initial for Australia-Guam, 10 Gbps for the other trunk; 96 Lambdas @ 10 Gbps
  
• Length: Approx. 6,900 km
• Others: 4 BU (1 Passive off Sydney; 3 Active/OADM)
• Products: 2.5 Gbps unprotected wavelengths; 10 Gbps unprotected wavelengths; SDH; dark fiber
• Cable burial: 1.5m burial to 2km off Sydney; 1m burial to 1km off Madang
• CAPEX:
• RFS: July 2009
  

• "PPC-1 is the first 'new' cable to land in PNG since 1960's"
• Connections from Guam to other destination are facilitated by Tata
• PPC-2 will extend PPC-1 to the North Island of NZ (partnership with Kordia)

PPC-1 (Source/Courtesy: Brett Worrall/PIPE Intl. taken from Subtel)

Intra-Asia & Transpacific Cables

According to Byron Clatterbuck (Tata), current supply for transpacific connection is as follows:

TGN-Pacific

• Capacity: 8 FP; 96 channels at 10 Gbps each; 1.4 Tbps lit; 7.8 Tbps design
• Owner: Tata/TGN

JUSCN

• Capacity: 4 FP; 1.28 Tbps lit & design (full occupied) ??
• Owner: Consortium

PC-1

• Capacity: 4 FP; 320 Gbps lit; 1.28 Tbps design
• Owner: (same owner as Southern Cross??)

How about intra-Asia segments? There are also many alternatives. This includes EAC-C2C (Pacnet), IAC, TIC, Flag (FNAL). There might be also several other systems.

Tata currently expands their intra-Asia presences by constructing TGN-Intra Asia (TGN-IA):

• Length: approx. 6,800 km
• Capacity: 4 FP; 320 Gbps lit; 3.84 Tbps design
• Services: STM1/4/16/64 - GbE?
• RFS: Q3/2008
• Contractors: Tyco ?

TGN IA (Intra Asia) and TGN Pacific - Source/Courtesy: Tata

A (Possibly) New Competitor for Matrix and Jakabare

A competitor or a friend ? :-) It could actually be a potential partner if you want to connect to Western Australia!

I don't remember precisely how, but yesterday my Firefox browser took me to Ochre's website. Honestly, I've never heard Ochre before, so I was a bit surprised; similar to the moment where I read about the MCS project for the first time.

Facts, Plans & Quotes (Brett O’Riley, Subtelforum):

• It will connect Singapore (possibly Changi), Jakarta and Perth
• "The proposed multi-terabit network would link Perth to Jakarta and Singapore, with initial branches to oil and gas facilities at Geraldton and Dampier"
  
• RFS : Q2/2010
• Capacity : 2 FP; channels ? design ? lit ?
• CAPEX : approx. USD 150 mn
• The project is "modelled on an earlier project mooted by Nava Networks that was abandoned following the 2002 market collapse"
• "It was confirmed that Asia Netcom had agreed to provide landing stations in Singapore" (ANC --> PACNET)
• "While only 10% of Australia’s international traffic originates on the west coast, service providers have become increasingly concerned about the lack of diversity and the high prices available on the current SEA-ME-WE-3 link"
  

Ochre's SIA (Singapore Indonesia Australia) Cable Plan; Courtesy of Ochre Services

Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) Cable System

TPE (Trans-Pacific Express) is claimed to be "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and China" and "the first major undersea system to land on the US West Coast in more than seven years". TPE will have a more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China, and thus it will be a major enhancement to the current cable systems between these nations.

TPE links China (Chongming and Qingdao), South Korea, Taiwan, and USA (Nedonna Beach). TPE is owned by a joint venture (ownership is evently split) between 6 telcos: China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Korea Telecom, Verizon Communications, AT&T and NTT (the two latest joined in 03/2008).

• Consortium agreement: early 2007 ?
• CAPEX : USD 500 mn
• Length : approx. 17,700 km (11,000 miles)
• RFS : August (Q3) 2008 ??
• Capacity : 5.12 Tbps design, 1.28 Tbps initial (other source 2.56 Tbps); 10 Gbps channel; FP? Lambdas?; customers may utilize individual connections running at 10 Gbps

If TPE and AAG are completed, AT&T shall be the first large company having capacity on both systems. And if they have connections from China/Taiwan to Phillipines/Guam they may offer survivable transpacific connection services earlier than PACNET EAC-Pacific. True??

Source/Courtesy TPE Consortium?, taken from Wikipedia

Bandwidth "Under Water"

As Asia NetCom (currently PACNET) introduced its idea for EAC Pacific one or two years ago, they underlined the fact that due to underserved routes from South and South-East Asia, Japan-US connections have become a bottleneck. They have shown a picture similar to one below. It has attracted my attention since it split Asia into three regions together with their connectivity parameters. At least, it was something different than we might see in the free version of TeleGeography's reports/databases :-D CMIIW!

After a closer look at the given bandwidth figures and comparing with other publications (TeleGeography etc.), I have to conclude that it isn't real i.e. ANC possibly gave the capacity based on design numbers (fully equiped system). Right ?? Wrong ??

What is actually in the water ? The second pic gives us a hint for trans-pacific segment based on information provided by REACH.

Unity Cable System

Unity is a new multi-terabit transpacific cable system with Google's taste :-D As you can see at this post, I've misunderstood that EAC Pacific would completely be a new transpac cable. It shall actually be a part of the Unity cable. To my knowledge, there are currently three competing parties offering new Asia-US connections:

• Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) : Verizon's Taste :-)
• Asia America Gateway (AAG)
• Unity : PACNET, Google etc.

Any other planned cables ?

Some public information about Unity:

• It connects Los Angeles, US to Chikura, Japan
• Length : approx. 10,000km
• Contractors: NEC Corp. + Tyco Telecommunications; the contract was signed on February 23, 2008.
• Members of Unity consortium : Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI, Pacnet and SingTel
• CAPEX: approx. USD 300 mn
• RFS: Q1/2010
• Capacity: up to 8 FPs (recently deployed only 5 ?; 2 FP owned by PACNET); 96 Lambdas @ 10 Gbps (design); lit ?

Unity Route Map (Source/Courtesy Unity, NEC corp.)

PGASKOM (PGAS Telekomunikasi Nusantara)

It is not easy to find information for PGASKOM's backbone. PGASKOM is subsidiary of PGN (Perusahaan Gas Negara) which provides connection services using its fiber optic infrastructure currently installed along its gas pipes spanning from SG/Batam to Southern Sumatera (in the near future to Cilegon Banten and maybe to Jakarta). In an indirect press release several times ago as recorded by local newspapers (detik.com/bisnis?), PGASKOM shall have 96 core / 24 core fiber for terrestrial and submarine segments, respectively. Several cores shall already be leased by (some incumbent) telcos. Anybody knows more ??

Update
I've just found my copy of the more-than-1-year press-record :-)

• 4 fiber cores used for internal purpose; 2 cores are leased by Indosat
• Currently in operation: Grisik (Southern Sumatra) - Batam - Singapore
• (Possibly still) under construction: Grisik - Banjarnegara (Cilegon) via the SSWJ (South Sumatra West Java) pipes
• Telkom and PGN/PGASKOM have signed an MoU several times ago, possibly for using PGN infrastructure

New Asian/Transpacific Submarine Cables

In addition to AAG, several new cable systems in/via Asia are developed (just commissioned or currently under construction). This includes :

• Trans-Pacific Express (US-China)
• FLAG NGN (Intra-Asia, Intra-Africa, Mediterranean, Trans-Pacific)
• IMEWE/TIC (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Europe)
• East Asia Crossing (EAC) Extension
  

From a certain point of view EAC transpacific might offer a better network robustness than AAG since it uses two separate routes to connect to the US (something similar to the Apollo cable system for Transatlantic connection). Some other information about the EAC extension:

• Transpacific ring system connecting South East Asia (the Phillipines) directly to the US
• Configuration: Design capacity 2.56Tbps; initial capacity 200Gbps; 4 FPs, DWDM
• RFS: July 2008 ?
  

Courtesy EAC, Taken from George McLaughlin, APAN

Asia America Gateway AAG (2)

One day in 2007 George McLaughlin has mentioned AAG as a possible infrastructure for supporting future Asian networks (APAN - in the context of RENs). It shall at the begin this year a decision whether or not APAN acquires a stake in the consortium. Since the Hengchun's earthquake many people see AAG as a potential infrastructure for increasing network reliability between (South/South-East) Asia and the USA, since it uses different routes than the usual Asia-US submarine cables. AAG also plays an important and strategic role that it can be extended to other countries/continents, thus increasing network reliability at a global scale (see the pic below).

How is the status of AAG currently ? I've found several new things, but not much :-)

• CAPEX : USD 550 mn (update to this post)
• "The Philippine leg of Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable system landed in the northern province of La Union" (this happened several times ago; PLDT contributes USD 50 mn for this project)
• RFS Q4/2008, commercial traffic early 2009
  

AAG - Map and Possible Extensions

AAG West Portion (REACH)

Cable Crossings at Hongkong Landing Point (South Lantau?)

First Generation Domestic Optical Cable Systems

PT. Indosat has begun to deploy submarine cables since 1985 (optical?). PT. Telkom on the other side has stated that the TIS cable is its first optical submarine cable system.

Recently, according to ASN record, Telkom has already deployed an optical submarine cable system in 90s. Which is true ? Is it only the matter that TIS is international while the other is domestic ?

The records:

• Name : Northern Route Java-Bali
  
• System/family : unrepeatered
• Contractor : ASN
• Length : 55 / 3 km
• Capacity: STM-16 lit / 6 FPs
  
• Service date : 1995

Jakasusi, Jasutra & SKKL-JS

Below are several domestic submarine fiber optic cable systems owned by PT. Indosat.

Jakasusi (JAva KAlimantan SUlaweSI) :

• Jakasusi segment 1 (B1) connects Banyu Urip (Jawa Timur) to Takesung (Kalimantan Selatan)
• Jakasusi segment 2 (B2) connects Takesung (Kalsel) to Aeng Batu Batu (Sulawesi Selatan)
• Length 1,000 km
• CAPEX USD 40 mio.
• Construction period : March 2006 - October 2006
• Contractor : Alcatel (ASN)
• Subcontractors :EGS Asia Ltd (route survey, burial assessment survey - February 2006)
  
• Capacity : ?

Jasutra (JAva SUmaTeRA) :

• CAPEX: USD 6 mio.
• Contractor : Alcatel (ASN)
• System : (shall be) unrepeatered
• Capacity : ?
• Construction period : 2006 ?
  

SKKL-JS (Sistem Komunikasi Kabel Laut - Jakarta Surabaya)

• Familly/system : repeatered
• Contractor : Alcatel (ASN)
• Capacity : 5 Gbps / 1 FP
• Length (km) : 730
• Number of repeaters : 7
• Service date : 1996

Anybody knows JATISEMARAK ?

Jasuka

Jasuka (Jawa Sumatera and Kalimantan) backbone is owned by PT. Telkom and was operated since early 2006. It consists of 2 rings and connects 30 cities in the islands including

• Ring 1 : Jakarta, Tanjung Pakis, Tanjung Pandan, Pontianak, Batam, Dumai, Pekanbaru, Jambi, Palembang,Baturaja, Bandar Lampung
• Ring 2 : Medan, Tebing Tinggi, Rantau Prapat, Pekanbaru, Bukit Tinggi, Padang, Sibolga, Pematang Siantar

Several other facts:

• Contractors : NEC-Siemens consortium
• Subcontractors : EGS Asia (cable route study and survey, burial assessment survey), NTTNE Marine (GMSL NTT venture), SBSS (GMSL China Tel venture)
• Construction period : 2005 - 2006
• Length : 10,080 (10,040?) km submarine, 780 km terrestrial
• CAPEX : approx. USD 55 mio (?)
• Capacity : 20 Gbps initial (submarine), 10 Gbps initial (terrestrial), upgreadable to 320 Gbps, 32 Lambdas possibly 1 or 2 FP (submarine)
• Cable breaks this year (2008) : Jakarta - Tanjung Pandan; Jambi - Rengat (HPBB?)

TIS Cable

TIS stands for Thailand Indonesia Singapore. As indicated by the name, it is an optical submarine cable spanning from Songkhla (Thailand) to Batam (Indonesia) via Changi (Singapore). TIS cable was the first submarine cable project of PT. Telkom.

• Operated since December 2003
• Length: approx. 1,100 km
• Owners: consortium of SingTel, CAT Telecom, and PT. Telkom
• CAPEX: USD 36 mio.
• Capacity: design 320 Gbps, initial 30 Gbps
• Contractor: NEC Corp.
• Construction: 11/2002-12/2003
• Repeatered and unrepeatered system
  

DMCS

Dumai Melaka Cable System (DMCS) is owned jointly by PT. Telkom and Telekom Malaysia. This was the second submarine cable project of PT. Telkom after the TIS (Thailand Indonesia Singapore) cable.

• Length approx. 160 km
• Contractor : NEC Corp.
• Capacity : design 320 Gbps, initial 20 Gbps protected (10 Gbps channels, 16 Lambdas, 2 FP)
• Unrepeatered system
• CAPEX : USD 9.3 - 11 mio.
• Construction: 06/2004 - 12/2004, official RfS 17/02/2005
  

Jakabare

If we look at the route maps published by nec.co.jp and matrixnetworks.sg, it seems that Jakabare and MCS share almost similar route path. I did a rough image matching on both pics; the result can be seen below. Except that Jakabare branches to Pontianak around 70 km (?) from Bangka, they seem just like a twin.

What is actually Jakabare ? Local readers might refer to the comment given by Meneer Tutut (REACH ?). For non-indonesian speakers, you might try google :-) or just look at a short summary below.

• Jakabare is a new Indosat's submarine cable system (currently under construction) connecting JAwa, KAlimantan, BAtam and singapoRE. See the red path on the picture above. Note that as MCS, Jakabare also branchs to Batam before terminates in Changi Singapore.
• Contractor: NEC Corp.
  
• Capacity: initial 160 Gbps, design 1.28 Tbps; 10 Gbps channels, 64 Lambdas (FP??)
  
• Length: 1,330 km
• RFS: June 2009
• Landing Points: Tanjung Pakis (Karawang, Jawa), Sungai Kakap (Pontianak, Kalimantan), Tanjung Bemban (Batam), and Changi (Singapore)
  

Currently Unknown/Unpublished Domestic Cable Systems

Some (probably) new domestic cable systems are still "undercover". Well it's true at least for me and the large community served by Google :-)

Which cables ?

• Dumai - Batam (Excelcomindo?)
• JATISEMARAK (Indosat?)
• Sangatta - Toli (Telkom?)
• Jember - Denpasar (JDCS? - Telkom?)
• JAKA2LADEMA (Telkom?)

Please drop me a line if you know some public information about them, or maybe about some other cables (Moratel 2009, Biznet 2009, Asiakomnet ??)

MCS

I have heard that NAP Info is going to install a new submarine cable connecting Jakarta to Singapore. But it was a surprise for me that it will be ready on Q2/2008. So fast ?

Actually they began the process since early 2007, where they selected Tyco Telecommunications to construct the system. Tyco completed the marine route survey in 08/2007 and then started the marine work. The MCS (Matrix Cable System) will be jointly operated by Matrix Networks Pte Ltd (SG) and PT. NAP Info Lintas Nusa (ID). Matrix Networks holds a Facility-Based Operator (FBO) license issued by the InfoComm Development Authority (IDA), operates a cable landing station in North Changi and owns a 20 km fiber optic backhaul to four major data exchanges. NAP Info is a network access provider established in 2000 which currently owns more than 100 km terrestrial optical cable within Jakarta, connecting more than 120 buildings.

Some details for the MCS:

• Length : 1055 km Changi-JKT
• Cable : 4 FP (64/10)
• Capacity : initially 60 Gbps lit (JKT-SG), 2.5 Tbps potential
• CAPEX : -
• Branching : 1 active to Batam, 2 planned (to Perth-AUS and to other Asian countries)
• Landing Points : JTC's North Changi Industrial State (CS), North ChangiMain Cable Corridor (Beach-Manhole), Pantai Mutiara Jakarta

Matrix Networks and NAP Info offer MCS customers direct connectivity in meet-me rooms in Global Switch, Equinix, Chai Chi and Geotele data centers. Several time ago, they have begun offering a limited number of IRU contracts to major tier 1 telecommunication customers.

*Update 01/09 - Wikipedia.org*

Matrix Cable System is jointly owned and operated by PT NAPInfo Lintas Nusa (www.nap.net.id) and Matrix Networks PTE LTD (www.matrixnetworks.sg).

Matrix Cable System is initially built with 4 fibre pairs between Singapore and Jakarta, and 4 fibre pairs between Singapore and Batam with a total distance of 1055 Km.

Total bandwidth capacity of MCS Cable System is 5.12 Tbit/s, made up of 8 pairs of optical fibres, each pair providing 640 Gbit/s by Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing of 10 Gbit/s wavelengths. The 1,000 km-long undersea fully buried cable system is built in a self-healing ring configuration. The cable system, will be operational starting mid 2008.

MCS also own and operate onward connectivity from its landing stations and terrestrial network to various major POP in both Singapore and Jakarta. In Singapore, MCS sells capacity via its POP in Global Switch and Equinix. In Jakarta, MCS connects to Cyber Building and NAPInfo's own Data Center in Kuningan Plaza.

Matrix Cable system start commercial services on 08-08-08.

The Hengchun Earthquake : A Flashback to the Networking Disaster

On one side, it is no doubt that network reliability is important. But on the other side, "important" is something that can be understood differently. Thus, network reliability might be implemented variously according to some tradeoffs. What portion given to reliability aspects depends on the owners' strategy and policy. Let's consider an example.

A powerful earthquake of 7.1 magnitude happened on 26th December 2006, shaking the seabed off southern Taiwan. 9 submarine cables in the strait of Luzon between Taiwan and the Philippines were broken, disrupting communications to/from several asian countries to the rest of the world via those regional/trans-pacific cables. As of 2007, at least 16 submarine cables are laid on the seabed of the Luzon strait; why do so many systems have paths through this region ? is there no other possibility to connect SE Asia to the US ? Hmm.

What were the impacts of this earthquake? Yes, sure :-D the Internet in Asia stopped ! According to ANC:

• Taiwan, Hong Kong, China (total daily GDP = USD 7.56 bn) went offline ... as did most of South (East) Asia
• Google, Yahoo, MSN (total daily revenue = USD 53.4 mn) became unreachable from much of Asia (of significant traffic originators!)

• Estimated total bandwidth impacted 600+ Gbps
• Estimated total Internet capacity impacted 500+ Gbps

The role of telecommunication and the Internet is nowadays almost not replaceable. Such a disastrous event would affect day-to-day (business) activities such as financial markets (incl. banking, commerce, airline bookings etc.) and general communications (e.g. voice, email, web etc.). In the above case, even with the rerouting through undamaged cables, delays were experienced in the following weeks. It took 11 ships 49 days to restore everything back to normal. This was due to the number of faults, the availability of cable repair vessels, adverse sea conditions, the occurance of faults in water depths down to 4000m and the burial of some cables under a layer of mud.

The following cable systems were affected by the Hengchun earthquake (totally 21 faults were recorded in 9 cables):

• C2C : 2 major breaks (S2/5)
• APCN : 2 major breaks (sB5/B17)
• APCN2 : 2 major breaks (s3/7)
• SMW3 : 3 major breaks
• EAC : 1 minor break
• ...