Jakarta Metro Backbone

It seems that everybody in Jakarta want to have his own metro :-) Currently many companies have built their metro infrastructure to support their business, particularly in big cities such as the Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Bandung etc. These include :

• well known telcos (TELKOM/TSEL, ISAT, XL, other?)
• successfull ISPs (BizNET,CBN, other?)
• VSAT network operators (CSM, Lintasarta, other ?); and
• backbone operators (ICON+,PowerTel,Napinfo,Moratel, other ?)

Recently, PT. iForte Solusi Infotek announced, that they have finished the construction of their fiber optic network which is using (and installed simultaneously with the development of) the TransJakarta busway infrastructure (map see below). They currently offer connection/access services called M-Wifo which are basically WiFi (802.11n compatible) access and fiber bridging. To my guess, it might be a RoF (Radio over Fiber) system.

Other related public information about iForte:

• the fiber optic backbone spans/follows 10 TransJakarta corridors
• CAPEX : USD 10 mn.
• Length : approx. 250 km
• RFS : June 2008
• Services : fiber optic connections, WiFi mesh 802.11n connections
• Projection : +/- 2,000 cust. (connection point) each year
• VIPs: Peter Djatmiko, Andrie Tjioe
  

Map of TransJakarta Busway, Courtesy of Maximilian Doerrbecker (Chumwa), taken from Wikipedia

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.