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Industry Events

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Subsea Survey
November 9-11, 2010
Galveston, Texas
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Submarine Cable NewsFeed - Contents
 
New Submarine Cable Systems top
# Article Title Created Author
1 Pacnet Joins Pacific Fibre to Build Trans-Pacific Subsea Cable

Pacnet and Pacific Fibre Limited have announced plans to jointly build the Pacific Fibre cable, a city-to-city, low-latency subsea fiber optic cable that will boost connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

28 Jul 2010 John Manock
2 Saudi Carrier May Build Cable System

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency recently announced that a South Korean consortium has won a one-billion dollar deal from Saudi Arabia’s Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) to lay fiber optic cables in Saudi Arabia.  The project is to set up a national network in Saudi Arabia and also to connect the country with Sudan, Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates by undersea cable by December 2013, the agency said.

27 Jul 2010 John Manock
3 New South Pacific Project Envisioned

Efforts continue to link the small islands of the South Pacific to the global submarine fiber optic network to promote economic development and provide vital broadband services in the region.

26 Jul 2010 John Manock
4 African Submarine Cable Project Proposed

Although there has been an explosion of submarine fiber optic cable investment in Africa, resulting in five major new cable systems entering service in the past year, new projects continue to be proposed.

25 Jul 2010 John Manock
5 Another African Cable System Completed

Africa has seen a period of unparalleled deployment of its international submarine cable infrastructure in the past year.  Since August 2009, five large scale submarine fiber optic cable projects have been completed.  Considering that the development of these projects began just as the submarine cable industry was beginning to emerge from its worst ever drought period (2002-2004), African cable building went a long way to bring the industry out of the drought and into a boom period.

21 Jul 2010 John Manock
6 WIOCC Announces Activation of EASSy

Seven months after commencing cable installation and following a comprehensive program of testing, West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has announced the opening of a 1.4 Terabit per second, 10,000 km fiber-optic submarine cable system along the east coast of Africa – from South Africa to Sudan, and with onward connection to global markets.

19 Jul 2010 John Manock
7 More African Cables Entering Service this Month

There has been an explosion in submarine fiber optic cable systems serving Africa in the past year, beginning with SEACOM in August 2009 and shortly followed by TEAMS – the first such cables to serve Sub-Saharan East Africa.  The cable boom is continuing, with Main One entering service at the beginning of this month and two new cables that may come online this week.

14 Jul 2010 John Manock
8 NEPAD Celebrates Uhurunet Announcement

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) has released a statement celebrating the announcement that Uhurunet, NEPAD’s plan for a new submarine cable system to serve Africa, would move ahead.

13 Jul 2010 John Manock
9 S-GSCS to Be Launched this Week

The Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System (S-GSCS) will be formally launched this week at the July 11-15 meeting of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Organizations, which is being held in Curacao.

12 Jul 2010 John Manock
10 Another African Cable Gets Ready for RFS

Within the past year, an explosion in submarine fiber optic cables serving Sub-Saharan Africa has occurred.  Three new cable systems have entered service, serving the subcontinent that previously was dependent on satellites and a single cable.  Now another new system is poised to come online.

11 Jul 2010 John Manock
11 Liberian Executive Appointed to ACE Management Committee

The Chairperson of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), Angelique Weeks, has been appointed as Vice Chairperson of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) Consortium Management Committee.

07 Jul 2010 John Manock
12 Main One, TE Subcom Celebrate Cable Launch

Main One has announced that its 1,920 Gbps, 7,000 kilometer long, submarine fiber optic cable system linking West Africa to Europe has been completed and commissioned. With landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana and branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Ivory Coast, the cable will deliver unprecedented broadband capacity to West Africa, more than ten times what is currently available in the region. With its cable system now in operation, Main One is poised to champion a broadband communications revolution in Africa, the company said in a statement. This will positively impact businesses, governments and individuals by providing higher bandwidth and exceptional speeds at a lower cost. The ramifications of Main One’s cable will be felt in all sectors: from education, through to health and entertainment, helping to driving economic growth and creating job opportunities all over Africa.

06 Jul 2010 John Manock
13 New Cable Projects in Indian Ocean, Pacific Reported

Two possible new submarine fiber optic cable projects have been reported, although few details are available as yet, as new players and countries previously thought to be too remote to justify cable builds look to take advantage of opportunities in the market.

05 Jul 2010 John Manock
14 Main One Cable Enters Service

Main One has announced that it’s 1,92 Gbps, 7,000 kilometer long, submarine fiber optic cable system linking West Africa to Europe has been completed and commissioned. With landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana and branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, the cable will deliver unprecedented broadband capacity to West Africa, more than ten times what is currently available.

01 Jul 2010 John Manock
15 Investors Join Pacific Fibre Project

A group of seasoned investors have thrown their weight behind trans-pacific data cable company Pacific Fibre.  They join a strong founding team including Sam Morgan, Sir Stephen Tindall and Rod Drury.

29 Jun 2010 John Manock
16 More on BMG Cable

As we reported last week, Israeli industrialist Oded (Dedi) Borovich has announced plans to build a submarine cable between Israel and Cyprus.  More details on the project are now being reported.

22 Jun 2010 John Manock
17 Globacom Wins Telecom License in Senegal

Nigerian carrier Globacom has been awarded a license to operate in Senegal.  The latest license was issued by the Government of Senegal and signed by the country's Ministers of Finance and Telecommunications.

20 Jun 2010 John Manock
18 Bangladesh Still Moving Towards Second Cable

The government of Bangladesh is continuing to move along with the process for licensing a second submarine fiber optic cable system.

17 Jun 2010 John Manock
19 EASSy on Track for July Launch

The first two testing phases for the East African Submarine System (EASSy) have been completed in advance of its expected commercial launch next month.

15 Jun 2010 John Manock
20 Main One RFS Set for July 1

Main One will enter service at the beginning, according to an official at the company that is building a submarine fiber optic cable connecting West Africa with Europe.

13 Jun 2010 John Manock
21 Israeli Company Plans Submarine Cable

An Israeli has announced plans to build an international submarine fiber optic cable to break the monopoly on international cable capacity in Israel currently held by MedNautilus.

10 Jun 2010 John Manock
22 Alcatel-Lucent Comments on ACE Award

Following up on yesterday’s announcement that a construction and maintenance agreement has been signed for a new West African submarine fiber optic cable system, Alcatel-Lucent announced that it has signed a turnkey contract valued at over US$500 million with Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), the newly formed consortium planning to build the cable linking Cape Town in South Africa to Penmarch in France. This new submarine network system, with built-in 40 Gbps capability, will span over 17,000 km and will deliver super fast broadband communications to and from the African continent and Europe.

09 Jun 2010 John Manock
23 ACE Consortium Signs Landmark Agreement

The Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) for the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine fiber optic cable project was signed on Saturday June 5th, 2010. An official ceremony was held at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with the presence of government Ministers and high-ranking official representatives of several African countries, NPCA (formerly NEPAD), ECOWAS and the World Bank.

08 Jun 2010 John Manock
24 Globacom Puts Out Call for Talent

Ahead of the launch of commercial services of its Glo 1 Submarine Cable, Nigeria’s Globacom Limited has invited applications from bright, ambitious and suitably qualified candidates to fill an array of vacancies, including those of Chief Technical Officer, Planning and Provisioning Engineers, Sales and Legal Officers.

06 Jun 2010 John Manock
25 Marine Survey for ALBA-1 Underway

According to the Cuban News Agency, the marine survey for the ALBA-1 submarine fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela has begun.

06 Jun 2010 John Manock
26 Fujitsu and NSW Complete Indonesian Submarine Network

Fujitsu Limited has announced that, in collaboration with Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH (NSW) of Germany, it has successfully completed a US$100 million submarine fiber optic cable network for PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk. (Telkom Indonesia) covering the Indonesian islands Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java, Bali and Lombok and giving the residents of these islands their first direct access to high-bandwidth Internet, e-commerce, video, data, and voice services.

31 May 2010 John Manock
27 Huawei Marine, Global Marine Systems Complete SGSCS

Huawei Marine Networks, along with partner Global Marine Systems, has successfully completed construction of the Suriname Guyana Submarine Cable System. The 1,127-kilometer SGSCS system will be the first of its kind in this region and is expected to ultimately have the potential to increase current telecom bandwidth more than 3,000 times what is currently available in these areas.

31 May 2010 John Manock
28 GBI and Pacnet Announce Network Extension Partnership

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, and Pacnet, Asia’s leading independent telecommunications service provider, are pleased to announce a partnership which will extend both companies’ international connectivity and provide new and cost-effective solutions for customers.

27 May 2010 John Manock
29 TE to Connect Jordan to Submarine Cable

Telecom Egypt has announced that it will connect Jordan to its TE North (TEN) submarine cable.  The move is part of the company’s plans to expand its service offerings in the country.

26 May 2010 John Manock
30 GBI Partners with Sify for Indian Landing Station

Indian Internet company Sify Technologies Limited has signed an agreement with Gulf Bridge International (GBI) of Qatar to land the GBI’s submarine cable system in Mumbai, India.  GBI is the Middle-East''s first privately-owned submarine cable operator.

25 May 2010 John Manock
31 Unifi Communications Announces Submarine Cable Project

UNIFI Communications, a US-based international carrier, and Interoute Communications, the owner/operator of Europe’s most advanced fiber network, have announced the signing of an agreement whereby Interoute will provide the landing solution in Italy for Albania’s first competitive undersea fiber optic cable, to be constructed as the first phase of UNIFI’s Balkans-Italy Network (BIN) project, which is expected to begin providing service in Albania by the first quarter of 2011.

24 May 2010 John Manock
32 Cable & Wireless to Boost Links Between Caribbean Networks

Cable & Wireless Communications has outlined plan to build a new major submarine cable in the Caribbean, more than doubling its carrier capacity in the region. The "East-West" cable will link Jamaica and the Cayman Islands in the west of the Caribbean, to the British Virgin Islands (Tortola) in the east. It will also land in the Dominican Republic, one of the key markets in the region.

24 May 2010 John Manock
33 Contract Awarded for Somaliland Cable

A new submarine fiber optic cable will be built to connect Somaliland to Djibouti.  A local Somaliland company, Somaliland Cable (SomCable) Ltd, has announced that it would deploy the submarine cable. It said in a statement, that the project will begin in two phases -- it would lay the submarine cable from Djibouti port to Berbera, Somaliland, by sea, while a second fiber optic cable would be routed overland for redundancy.  The new submarine will be connected to the East African Submarine System (EASSy) in Djibouti.

23 May 2010 John Manock
34 AFC-financed Main One Submarine Cable Lands in Ghana

Following up on yesterday’s announcement of the completion of the main lay program for the Main One West African submarine fiber optic cable system, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the lead investor in the Main One Cable Company marked the final splice of the cable.

20 May 2010 John Manock
35 Marine Installation Completed on Main One Cable System

Main One Cable Company and its system supplier, Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications (SubCom), have announced the on schedule completion of the main lay program by the C.S. Tyco Resolute. Installation of terminal equipment is complete in Seixal, Portugal, and underway at the system’s landing sites in Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana. The system is expected to be ready for service in June 2010.

19 May 2010 John Manock
36 Testing Underway on WIOCC’s EASSy Cable System

West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has clarified the schedule for testing and commissioning of the East African Submarine System (EASSy), the region’s newest submarine fiber optic cable.

18 May 2010 John Manock
37 Construction of TE North Completed

Telecom Egypt has announced that construction of its TE North submarine fiber optic cable system was completed in April and that the cable would be ready for service next month.

17 May 2010 John Manock
38 IFC Supports Seychelles Submarine Cable Project

Seychelles’ efforts to bring in a submarine cable that would allow the island to connect to the global fiber optic network has attracted the support of the world’s largest multilateral source of finance for private sector projects in developing countries.

17 May 2010 John Manock
39 Verizon Business Plans for Activation of Europe India Gateway Cable

Verizon Business is enhancing its European network infrastructure to help meet data-growth demands of its enterprise customers and prepare for the activation of the Europe India Gateway submarine cable network system later this year.

13 May 2010 John Manock
40 Alcatel-Lucent Signs Canary Island Contract

Alcatel-Lucent and CanaLink, a consortium equally owned by IT3 and IslaLink, have announced at the SubOptic tradeshow in Yokohama, Japan, that they have signed a multi-million Euro contract to deploy a new submarine cable spanning 2,000 km from Cadiz in Spain to Tenerife, Gran Canaria and La Palma in the Canary Islands.

12 May 2010 John Manock
41 GBI, Omantel Sign Landing Station Agreement

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, has announced that Omantel, Oman’s leading telecommunications provider and experienced landing site operator, will provide a landing station for GBI’s cable in Oman.

10 May 2010 John Manock
42 Company Applies to Build Cable from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard

GPCS Fiber Communications, Inc. is seeking a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct work in waters of the United States in conjunction with placing a submarine fiber optic cable from the Cape Cod mainland to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

09 May 2010 John Manock
43 DISA Looks at Hawaiian Cable System

The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is seeking information that will assist the Agency in assessing cost and feasibility of construction and operation of an undersea cable system linking the Hawaiian Islands for U.S. government use.

05 May 2010 John Manock
44 Qtel and GBI Sign Agreement for International Gateway

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, and Qtel, one of the region’s leading telecommunications companies, on May 2 concluded an agreement that will see Qtel provide a landing station for GBI’s cable in Qatar.

04 May 2010 John Manock
45 Two New Proposals for Stimulus Funding

Two new submarine fiber optic cable systems have been proposed for Round 2 of the Broadband Initiatives Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service.  The program provides government stimulus money for infrastructure projects that would help deliver broadband services to rural areas of the United States.

03 May 2010 John Manock
46 WIOCC Sees More Sales Inquiries as EASSy Nears RFS

West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) reports that it has noted an increase in sales inquiries for capacity on the East African Submarine System (EASSy) as it moves closer to carrying live traffic.

28 Apr 2010 John Manock
47 WIOCC Sees More Sales Inquiries as EASSy Nears RFS

West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) reports that it has noted an increase in sales inquiries for capacity on the East African Submarine System (EASSy) as it moves closer to carrying live traffic.

28 Apr 2010 John Manock
48 GBI Signs Deal with Iranian Carrier

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the newly established submarine cable operator in the region, and Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of Iran (TIC) have agreed to land GBI's submarine telecom cable in Iran and have signed the Landing Party Agreement.

27 Apr 2010 John Manock
49 Carriers Join Forces to Create African Ring

African Submarine cable operators Main One and SEACOM, along with South Africa’s eFive Telecoms, have announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch a project to develop a pan-African fiber ring solution.

26 Apr 2010 John Manock
50 Lebanon to Invite Bid for Terrestrial Network to Link to I-ME-WE

The government of Lebanon is planning to invite international firms to bid for a contract to create a $100 million terrestrial fiber-optic network aimed at unlocking the country's high-speed Internet potential, according to the country’s telecommunications minister.

25 Apr 2010 John Manock
51 EASSy Construction Complete

The West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has announced that construction of its East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) has been completed; marking the achievement of yet another major milestone towards the launch of what will be the largest cable system serving sub-Saharan African and connecting it to the world.

22 Apr 2010 John Manock
52 Submarine Cables Aid Subscriber Growth in Kenya

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has reported that the four mobile phone operators in Kenya had a combined subscription base of 19.4 million in December 2009, representing a penetration rate of close to 50 percent, as the landing of new submarine cable brings growth to the country.

22 Apr 2010 John Manock
53 Submarine Cables Are Part of UUNET Kenya’s 2010 Strategy

At a recent event for the local media, UUNET Kenya executives outlined their plans for 2010.  The three East African submarine fiber optic cable systems figure prominently in the company’s plans.

21 Apr 2010 John Manock
54 EASSy Moving Towards June RFS

The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) landed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, recently, bringing the construction phase of the project even closer to completion.

19 Apr 2010 John Manock
55 The Crown Prince Launches AAG in Brunei

His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, has launched the new Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable in Brunei.  The inauguration of the Brunei segment signified the readiness to carry commercial traffic to and from the country.

18 Apr 2010 John Manock
56 OPT Gets FCC Waiver for Honotua

The Office des Postes et Telecommunications de Polynesie francaise (OPT), the telecom operator for French Polynesia, has been granted a waiver on certain requirements for its license application for the Honotua submarine cable system.

14 Apr 2010 John Manock
57 EASSy Lands in Tanzania

The final landing for the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) was completed last week at Msasani Beach in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  Testing began this week and it is expected that EASSy will be ready for service by the summer.

12 Apr 2010 John Manock
58 Japanese Bank to Insure Indonesian Cable Financing

Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) has decided to provide Buyer's Credit Insurance (credit period of two years or more) concerning the export of a submarine fiber optic cable system installed for Kalimantan Island in Indonesia. The cable system has been exported to PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk (Telkom), the largest telecommunication carrier in Indonesia.

10 Apr 2010 John Manock
59 Mauritania Connected to Submarine Cable

The Mauritanian Information Agency (AMI) has reported that Mauritania was connected on April 7 to a submarine fiber optic between Europe and Africa.

10 Apr 2010 John Manock
60 FSM Telecom Upgrades Network to Support New Cable

The landing of a new submarine fiber optic cable in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has led the local carrier, FSM Telecom Corporation (FSMTC), to select Occam Networks®, Inc., for a major high speed network upgrade enabling wireline broadband service.

08 Apr 2010 John Manock
61 Ethiopia to Activate Circuits on SEACOM

Today (April 8), the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) will be increasing its international Internet capacity by 445 percent, as a result of its recently announced deal with East African submarine cable operator SEACOM.

07 Apr 2010 John Manock
62 Installation of EASSy Nearly Completed

Over 9,870 kilometers of submarine fiber optic cable for the East African Submarine System (EASSy) have been installed as the cable moves closer to complete.  EASSy has been landed in Mombasa, Kenya, and Moroni, the Comores.  Work has begun this week on the final landing of the system.

06 Apr 2010 John Manock
63 Pacnet’s EAC Pacific Ready for Service

Pacnet has announced that EAC Pacific, its newest subsea cable linking Japan and the United States, is now ready for service following months of intensive testing.

05 Apr 2010 John Manock
64 Indonesian Cable Project Underway

Indonesian carrier PT Telkom has reported that construction of a major domestic submarine fiber optic cable system is underway.

05 Apr 2010 John Manock
65 China-Taiwan Cables Make Regulatory Progress

Developers of one of two planned cables between the China Mainland and Taiwan have applied for Taiwanese regulatory approval to build the cable.

04 Apr 2010 John Manock
66 Tata Updates Status of Cable Projects

In a recent presentation at the APRICOT 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Tata Communications updated the status of its upcoming submarine cable projects.  The following is a brief summary of where the projects stand.

04 Apr 2010 John Manock
67 Unity Cable System Completed

Unity, a consortium of six international companies, together with its suppliers NEC Corporation and TE SubCom (formerly Tyco Telecommunications), has announced that the Trans-Pacific Unity submarine cable system has successfully completed comprehensive end-to-end testing and is now ready for service.

01 Apr 2010 John Manock
68 Bangladesh Reports on Plans for Second Submarine Cable

Plans are progressing for Bangladesh’s second submarine international fiber optic cable system.  At a press conference in Dhaka, a government representative reported that the new cable would run from Khulna, Bangladesh to Chennai, India.

31 Mar 2010 John Manock
69 TE SubCom Completes HANTRU1 Extensions for FSMTC, MINTA

The Federated States of Micronesia Telecommunications Corporation (FSMTC) and the Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (MINTA), along with TE SubCom, an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, have announced they have completed construction of FSMTC and MINTA Extensions to the HANTRU1 Cable System, which connects Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Guam in the western equatorial Pacific. The extensions will provide the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands with high bandwidth connectivity to the rest of the world via state-of-the-art undersea fiber optic links.  Previously connectivity to these island nations was only available using satellite transmission.

30 Mar 2010 John Manock
70 Construction of HANTRU1 Completed

Hannon Armstrong Capital, LLC, Truestone, LLC and TE SubCom, an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, has announced they have completed construction and commissioning of the HANTRU1 Cable System. The system, which connects Kwajalein in the Republic of the Marshall Islands to Guam, will provide regional and international connectivity in the previously underserved Pacific region, via undersea fiber connections.

29 Mar 2010 John Manock
71 Globacom Says Glo-1 Will Bring Big Changes to Ghana

Globacom Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., said in a recent event in Accra, Ghana, that the network his company is building in Ghana would be the best in Africa, led by its Glo-1 submarine cable.

29 Mar 2010 John Manock
72 New Zealand Companies Support Submarine Cable Initiative

Telecom operators in New Zealand are publicly coming out in support of Pacific Fibre’s recently announcement that it would begin raising money to build a submarine cable system connecting Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

28 Mar 2010 John Manock
73 EASSy More than Half Complete

As of March 14th, over 6,500 kilometers (nearly two-thirds) of the EASSy cable had been successfully deployed into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, according to the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).

24 Mar 2010 John Manock
74 Omantel Looks to Make Oman a Regional Hub

Oman is rapidly becoming a regional hub for submarine cables landing in the Persian Gulf.  Omantel, the country’s leading carrier, said in a recent statement that the recognition Oman has received from regional and global telecom players, allied to its ideal geographical location, has ensured that the Sultanate has been identified as an important landing point for major international cable systems.

23 Mar 2010 John Manock
75 TE North to Enter Service in Two Months

Telecom Egypt has announced that its submarine cable TE North will begin operations in the next two months.

22 Mar 2010 John Manock
76 Unity Cable Nears Completion

According to news website V3.co.uk, the Unity transpacific cable is nearing completion.  The cable will reportedly increase lit cable capacity by around 20 percent.

21 Mar 2010 John Manock
77 ETC Awards Capacity Agreement to SEACOM

SEACOM, the privately funded and over three quarter African owned submarine fiber optic cable system, has been awarded an agreement to supply Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) with international broadband fiber connectivity via a backhaul link through Djibouti.

18 Mar 2010 John Manock
78 Telkom Says SJC Is Next Piece of Cable Network

PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (TII), which recently joined the Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) consortium, said that SJC would be the biggest piece of its extensive international and domestic submarine fiber optic cable network.

17 Mar 2010 John Manock
79 Hong Kong Regulator Looks to Encourage New Submarine Cables

Hong Kong’s telecommunications regulator, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), is has released the preliminary findings of a study on the landing of submarine cables in Hong Kong, including the measures that the Administration should adopt in order to facilitate and promote the landing of new cables in the territory.

16 Mar 2010 John Manock
80 FSMTC Announces New Services in Anticipation of HANTRU1 Launch

With the HANTRU1 submarine fiber cable laid between Pohnpei and Guam and expected to be ready for service shortly, Federated States of Micronesia Telecommunications Company (FSMTC) has undertaken to reform its Internet rates and also introduce brand new Internet services.

15 Mar 2010 John Manock
81 Nawras Named Landing Party for Tata Gulf

Oman carrier Nawras has announced its participation in the Tata Gulf Cable as the exclusive landing party in Oman for one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks in the world. This development means that Nawras customers will be able to benefit from connectivity to more than 200 countries through the latest technology.

14 Mar 2010 John Manock
82 New Zealand Group Announces Pacific Submarine Cable

Pacific Fibre, an early stage international fiber venture founded by a group including New Zealand businessmen Stephen Tindall, Sam Morgan and Rod Drury, announced its plans to build a new submarine cable system, aiming to break the digital divide between New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world.

11 Mar 2010 John Manock
83 Batelco Signs with GBI

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, has announced that Batelco, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s leading communications provider, will provide a landing station for the new submarine cable being installed by Gulf Bridge International.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
84 OPT Looks for Ongoing Connectivity for Honotua

The Office des postes et telecommunications (OPT) of French Polynesia is taking tenders for IP access and ongoing connectivity for its new Honotua submarine cable system linking French Polynesia and Hawaii.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
85 Qtel, Tata Collaborate on Gulf Cable Project

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and TATA Communications have officially confirmed their partnership for the construction of the Tata Global Network (TGN) Gulf Project, where Qtel will enable Qatar’s role as a designated ‘landing party’ in the regional network.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
86 Submarine Cable Project Gets Stimulus Money

We have been reporting in the NewsFeed on applications made under the U.S. Government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate the development of broadband in the United States.  Five of these applications involved the building of submarine cable systems.

05 Mar 2010 John Manock
87 Honotua Lands in Hawaii

The 5,000-kilometer Honotua submarine cable system landed in Hawaii on Monday.  Testing of the cable began almost immediately and the expectation is that it will enter service this summer.

04 Mar 2010 John Manock
88 Nigerian Carrier Looks Forward to New Capacity

An executive from Nigerian telecom carrier Phase 3 Telecom said his company is looking forward to access capacity on new West African submarine cable systems.

03 Mar 2010 John Manock
89 New Cables Bring Prices Down in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea only became connected to the global fiber optic network in the past few years, but the country has already seen the benefit in terms of greatly reduced prices for Internet capacity.

02 Mar 2010 John Manock
90 New Schedule, Configuration for Seahorse-1

Triton Telecom’s Seahorse-1 submarine cable project in the Caribbean has a new schedule and configuration, according to Triton’s parent company’s CEO, who detailed their plans to BNamericas.

01 Mar 2010 John Manock
91 STC to Provide Landing Station for GBI

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, has announced that STC will provide the landing station for GBI’s cable in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

01 Mar 2010 John Manock
92 Hawaii to Celebrate Landing of Honotua

Government officials from Hawaii and French Polynesia plan to celebrate the landing of the Honotua submarine fiber optic cable in Kona, Hawaii on March 1.

28 Feb 2010 John Manock
93 Tasmania Targets New Submarine Cable by 2015

The government of Tasmania has made the building a submarine fiber optic cable between the island and the rest of Australia within three to five years a priority of its infrastructure program.

28 Feb 2010 John Manock
94 EASSy to Land in Kenya on April 1

The East African Submarine System (EASSy) is scheduled to land in Mombasa, Kenya, on April 1, after a delay caused by re-routing to avoid piracy off Somalia.  The re-routing reportedly cost the consortium building EASSy US$6 million.

25 Feb 2010 John Manock
95 Togo Telecom to Build Backhaul Network for WACS

Xtera Communications, Inc., a leading global provider of optical and IP networking solutions, has been awarded a contract by Togo Telecom to deploy a high capacity optical network across the West African country of Togo.

24 Feb 2010 John Manock
96 Tyco Telecom Picked to Build TGN Gulf Cable System

Tata Communications and its Middle East telecom operator partners announced that Tyco Telecommunications would be constructing the TGN Gulf cable system.  The announcement was made at a gala event in Dubai hosted by Tata Communications and attended by representatives of the partners as well as Tyco Telecommunications. At the event, Tata Communications unveiled its commitment to the Middle East region by earmarking around $200 million for the development of its telecom operations in the region over the next two years.

24 Feb 2010 John Manock
97 Neotel Welcomes EASSy to South Africa

Neotel, South Africa’s second national carrier, reported that it celebrated the start of the final construction phase of the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy), with a visit to supplier Alcatel-Lucent’s fully laden cable-laying ship docked in Durban harbor.

23 Feb 2010 John Manock
98 Update on Broadband USA Proposals

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more than 1,800 applications for broadband telecommunications projects were received by the government for funding consideration.  As we noted earlier, five of the applications called for the building of significant submarine cable networks.

18 Feb 2010 John Manock
99 EASSy Lands in Djibouti

As we have been reporting, the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) landed in South Africa last weekend.  The South African landing was widely reported and marked the southern end of the cable system, but construction has been progressing in the north as well.

18 Feb 2010 John Manock
100 MTN Notes EASSy’s South Africa Landing

South African mobile phone operator MTN has issued a statement following the landing of the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) in South Africa last weekend.

17 Feb 2010 John Manock
101 EIG Gibraltar Routing Not Due to Politics

The routing of the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable through Gibraltar’s waters has become the subject of controversy in Gibraltar.

16 Feb 2010 John Manock
102 GBI Signs Landing Party Agreement with du

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, announced signing of an agreement with UAE’s integrated telecom service provider, du, as part of which du will be the landing party for GBI’s new submarine cable. du will be landing this cable in its newly built Fujairah Cable Landing Station.

16 Feb 2010 John Manock
103 Honotua Installation Nearing Completion

Installation of the Honotua submarine fiber optic cable linking Hawaii with five South Pacific islands is moving closer to completion.

15 Feb 2010 John Manock
104 Jamaica Extends Deadline for Submarine Cable Licenses

Jamaica’s telecommunications regulator, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), has extended its deadline for applications for submarine cable licenses for February 26, 2010.  OUR said that the extension followed representation from prospective applicants for licenses that their preparations to submit applications have been affected by the Haiti earthquake.

15 Feb 2010 John Manock
105 Global Marine Announces Trinidad Shore Landing for SGSCS

Global Marine Systems has announced the completion of the Trinidad cable landing, the next milestone in the installation of the Suriname Guyana Submarine Cable System (SGSCS). The Trinidad link will provide direct access to high volumes of bandwidth from providers in North American and elsewhere, dramatically improving access to the Internet and related communications services. The landing occurred on 9 February 2010 at Macqueripe Bay Trinidad.

14 Feb 2010 John Manock
106 EASSy Lands in South Africa

The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) landed at Mtunzini, South Africa, on Saturday, February 13.

14 Feb 2010 John Manock
107 Construction of China-Taiwan Cable to Begin Soon

The first direct submarine cable link between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland will begin construction soon.

11 Feb 2010 John Manock
108 SJC to Support Growing Broadband Demand in Philippines

Philippines carrier Globe Telecom expects broadband demand in that country to explode.  The company predicted recently in a stock exchange filing that the number of broadband subscribers in the Philippines would nearly double in 2010, reaching four to five million.

11 Feb 2010 John Manock
109 Reliance Asking $3 Billion for Submarine Network

It is being widely reported by the Indian media that Reliance Communications is asking for US$3 billion as it attempts to sell its global submarine cable network.  The carrier has made no public comment about the sale, but Reuters and other media outlets claim to have documents and sources that indicate that the bid process is underway.

09 Feb 2010 John Manock
110 I-ME-WE to Help Broadband Grow in Lebanon

Lebanon’s international Internet backbone is expected to grow considerably with the completion of the India-Middle East-Western Europe (I-ME-WE) submarine cable system.

09 Feb 2010 John Manock
111 Seychelles Studying Submarine Cable Link

The Government of Seychelles, though the Department of Information Communications Technology, has begun studying the feasibility of a submarine cable link for the island nation.

08 Feb 2010 John Manock
112 Gulf Bridge, Vodafone Qatar Sign Agreement

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s newly established, privately owned submarine cable operator, has announced that Vodafone Qatar, Qatar’s rapidly growing new mobile operator, will provide a landing station for GBI’s cable in Qatar.

08 Feb 2010 John Manock
113 More on PT Telkom Joining SJC

As we reported last month, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk (Telkom), through its subsidiary engaged in international business, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Internasional (TII), signed an agreement during the Pacific Telecommunications Council’s annual meeting in Honolulu last month to join the Southeast Asia Japan Cable System (SJC) consortium.  The company has released additional details about its participation in the project.

07 Feb 2010 John Manock
114 Main One Nears Completion

The Main One Cable Company has announced the commencement of the final laying of its high capacity fiber optic cable from Seixal, Portugal, along the coast of West Africa to Ghana and Nigeria. The cable, which goes live in June 2010, is bringing the much-needed international capacity to a region where explosive growth in tele-density in recent years has been negated by poor global connectivity.

04 Feb 2010 John Manock
115 PIPE Delivers Solid FY10 First Half Results

PIPE Networks Limited has announced a strong profit result for the six-month period ended 31 December 2009 amounting $16.6 million from continuing operations.

03 Feb 2010 John Manock
116 Pacnet Accelerates India Expansion

Pacnet, through its joint venture Pacific Internet India Pvt. Ltd. (Pacnet India), has obtained National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licenses from the Department of Telecommunications of India, providing businesses in India broader access to Pacnet’s suite of advanced telecommunications solutions.

02 Feb 2010 John Manock
117 Global Marine Announces Suriname Shore Landing

Global Marine Systems has announced the completion of the Suriname Totness cable landing, an important milestone in the installation of the Suriname Guyana Submarine Cable System (SGSCS).

01 Feb 2010 John Manock
118 U.S. Government Details Cuba Policy

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission reported that it has received a letter dated January 12, 2010, from the U.S. Department of State detailing policy guidance on licensing the provision of telecommunications service between the United State and Cuba.  The new policy allows, among other things, U.S. companies to build submarine cable links to Cuba, which has been prohibited for decades.

31 Jan 2010 John Manock
119 Verizon Adds Capacity, Diversity with TPE Japan

Verizon Business enterprise customers can take advantage of increased network capacity and additional diversity for their IP, data and voice communications needs, with the completion of the latest Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable landing -- in Shin Maruyama, Japan.

28 Jan 2010 John Manock
120 Kordia Continues to Develop OptiKor

New Zealand telecommunications and media company Kordia said it is continuing to develop a submarine fiber optic cable linking New Zealand and Australia.  The company has named the cable project “OptiKor.”

27 Jan 2010 John Manock
121 Philippines Carrier Completes Fiber Backbone

Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines, has announced its second fiber optic backbone network (FOBN2) has been put into commission and is now fully operational.

26 Jan 2010 John Manock
122 EASSy Construction Begins

Construction of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) has begun.  The first section has been laid in Maputo Bay, Mozambique, according to West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).

25 Jan 2010 John Manock
123 Alaskan Company Now Biggest Cable Developer

An Alaskan company has become the world’s largest developer of submarine cable systems thanks to two proposed projects, ArcticLink and Northern Fiber Optic Link (NFOL).  If both are built, the more than 20,000 route-kilometers of submarine fiber optic cable that will be required to build them makes them larger than any other individual or group of related projects currently under development by at least 25%.

24 Jan 2010 John Manock
124 PT Telkom Joins SJC Consortium

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk, through its subsidiary PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (TII), has announced that it will increase international submarine cable bandwidth by joining the Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) consortium.

20 Jan 2010 John Manock
125 SingTel Joins Consortium to Build SJC Cable

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has announced that it has signed an agreement to join a consortium of telecommunications carriers to build and operate the new Southeast Asia Japan Cable system (SJC), a new international submarine cable system with the highest capacity in the world.

19 Jan 2010 John Manock
126 Millennium Cable to Land in Andamans

A submarine cable system running from India to Southeast Asia will land in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, according to a local newspaper.

18 Jan 2010 John Manock
127 Arctic Cable System Announced

The Kodiak-Kenai Cable Company (KKCC) has announced plans to finance, design, build and operate a submarine fiber optic cable connecting Asia and Europe.

17 Jan 2010 John Manock
128 PIPE Applies to Transfer PPC-1 License

Australia’s PIPE Networks has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to consent to transfer control of the cable landing license for the PPC 1 Cable System (SCL-LIC-20080213-00001, SCL-MOD-2090910-00027), held by joint licensees PPC 1 Limited and PPC 1 (US), Inc. from PIPE Networks Limited) to TPG Telecom Limited.

14 Jan 2010 John Manock
129 OSI Completes Rapid Submarine Fiber Installation in Gulf of Mexico

Responding to the increasing need for fiber optic broadband communications in the offshore oil & gas industry, Ocean Specialists Inc. (OSI) has completed a turnkey submarine cable installation for a major oil and gas operator in the Gulf of Mexico.

13 Jan 2010 John Manock
130 Singapore-Australia Cable System Announced

Nextgen Networks Pty Ltd, Matrix Networks Pte Ltd and PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa are exploring a proposal to build a new international cable system that will link Singapore to Sydney, Australia, via Perth.

12 Jan 2010 John Manock
131 Bangladesh Releases Draft Regulation on Submarine Cables

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has released document entitled Revised Draft Regulatory and Licensing Guideline for Invitation of Proposals for Issuing Licenses to Build, Operate and Maintain Submarine Cable (SC) Systems and Services in Bangladesh.

11 Jan 2010 John Manock
132 Gulf Bridge Signs Agreement with Iraq

Gulf Bridge International, the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, and Iraqi Telecom & Post Company have signed an agreement to land GBI’s new undersea telecommunications cable in Iraq. The agreement was signed in Kuwait on January 7 in the presence of Iraqi Minister of Communication, Farouq Abed al-Qader.

11 Jan 2010 John Manock
133 Global Marine Systems Lands SGSCS in Guyana

Global Marine Systems has announced the completion of the Guyana cable landing, an important milestone in the installation of the Suriname Guyana Submarine Cable System (SGSCS).

10 Jan 2010 John Manock
134 S-GSCS Landing Operation in Guyana Begins

Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) has announced that the Guyana landing of the Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System (S-GSCS) will begin shortly.  The cable will have the distinction of being the first fiber optic submarine cable that lands directly in Guyana.

07 Jan 2010 John Manock
135 Kenya Would Welcome LION

The Kenyan government would like to have the Low Indian Ocean Network (LION) submarine cable extended into its country, even though Kenya already has two operational submarine cables and will be adding a third in 2010.

04 Jan 2010 John Manock
136 NTT Com Launches TPE in Japan

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced that it has launched a new cable route linking Japan to the Trans-Pacific Express Cable Network (TPE), an optical fiber cable system that interconnects Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and now Japan.

03 Jan 2010 John Manock
137 StarHub Launches Services on Asia-America Gateway

Signaling a major milestone in Singapore’s telecommunications industry, the long-awaited Asia-America Gateway (AAG) – a 20,000km submarine cable network system that directly links Asia to the US – has launched, powering the next generation in international connectivity, collaboration and multimedia content for the country. Services over the new cable system will be commercially available in January 2010. The launch marks a turning point in StarHub’s 10-year history as the company will now manage and operate the Singapore-link of the AAG through its first cable landing station.

23 Dec 2009 John Manock
138 Major Progress in Development of Uhurunet Submarine Cable

Baharicom Development Company (BDC) recently signed an MoU with the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) Consortium to co-build a submarine cable that will stretch from France to South Africa, connecting all countries along the West coast of Africa.

22 Dec 2009 John Manock
139 Key West Cable Among Stimulus Proposals

We have been profiling several submarine cable projects that have applied for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).  In this issue, we will look at a proposed project in the Florida Keys.

22 Dec 2009 John Manock
140 Huawei Marine Wins Turnkey Contract from LPTIC

Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. has announced the successful bid for Libya’s LPTIC T-E submarine cable project, to provide end-to-end turnkey submarine system solutions.

21 Dec 2009 John Manock
141 Consortium Announces SJC Agreement

Members of the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable (SJC) consortium have released formal statements regarding last week’s agreement to move forward on the project that we reported on Monday.  The project received a tremendous amount of press attention because of the involvement of Internet search engine giant Google.

17 Dec 2009 John Manock
142 MINTA, Tyco Telecom Celebrate Cable Laying Process

The Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (MINTA) and Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, have announced the Marshall Islands-flagged Tyco Durable has returned to Majuro, RMI, and will begin to lay cable as part of a regional subsea cable project that will ultimately deliver high-bandwidth connectivity between the island nation and the rest of the world. In commemoration, the companies will host government delegates from the Republic of the Marshall Islands for an event on board the cable ship.

17 Dec 2009 John Manock
143 Puerto Rico Cable Proposed for Stimulus Funding

We have been profiling several submarine cable projects that have applied for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).  In this issue, we will look at the Puerto Rico Bridge Initiative (PRBI).

16 Dec 2009 John Manock
144 American Samoa Project Looks for Stimulus Funds

We have been profiling several submarine cable projects that have applied for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).  In this issue, we will look at the BLAST project in American Samoa.

15 Dec 2009 John Manock
145 Hannibal Brings Digital Independence to Tunisia

Tunisie Telecom has brought digital independence to Tunisia by landing the country’s first 100% African-owned subsea cable in Europe, firmly establishing itself as the leader in IT innovation in the region.  Dubbed “Hannibal,” in honor of the Carthaginian general who sailed from ancient Tunisia to conquer Italy, the new cable connects North Africa to Interoute’s pan European next-generation network, via Interoute’s landing station in Sicily.

15 Dec 2009 John Manock
146 Orange Inaugurates LION in Reunion

The submarine cable LION (Lower Indian Ocean Network) was officially inaugurated in Reunion on December 14. The submarine fiber-optic cable, which connects Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius, was lit on the island on November 16, 2009. The project was financed by a consortium made up of Orange Madagascar, Mauritius Telecom and France Telecom S.A.

14 Dec 2009 John Manock
147 C&W Completes C-BUS

Cable & Wireless (C&W) said its customers will enjoy the benefits of increased bandwidth and the services offered following the commissioning of its $10 million submarine fiber optic cable.

13 Dec 2009 John Manock
148 Agreement on SJC Cable Reached

A consortium of carriers has reached an agreement to build the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable (SJC), which will be the highest-capacity cable yet constructed.  The consortium includes India’s Bharti AIrtel, Global Telecom of the Philippines (owned by Singapore Telecom), Google, KDDI, Reliance Globalcom, and Telemedia Pacific, a Hong Kong/Indonesia company.

13 Dec 2009 John Manock
149 Aleutian Islands Network Among Stimulus Proposals

As we noted last week, several submarine fiber optic cable projects are among the many applications for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Last week we profiled one of the proposals, the Northern Fiber Optic Link (NOFL).  In this issue, we are looking at a second proposal in Alaska, the Aleutian Fiber Connection.

10 Dec 2009 John Manock
150 Huawei Marine Successfully Delivers Hannibal

Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. has announced that it has successfully delivered the Hannibal submarine cable communications system for Tunisie Telecom. Accepted by the customer, the system has become operational.

10 Dec 2009 John Manock
151 Indosat Launches New Submarine Cable, Satellite

The successful completion of two major telecommunications infrastructure projects by Indosat, part of the Qtel Group, will deliver major enhancements to the quality and reliability of communications in Indonesia and the wider region, it was announced recently.

09 Dec 2009 John Manock
152 FCC Dismisses License Application

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has dismissed an application made by FLAG Telecom Network USA Limited (FLAG USA) to build a transpacific submarine cable.

08 Dec 2009 John Manock
153 Pacnet to Land New Cable System into India

Pacnet has announced that it will be making its largest investment into growing its presence in India by building West Asia Crossing (WAC), a new submarine cable network that will provide direct connectivity between India and Asia, and address the country's growing requirements for international bandwidth.

08 Dec 2009 John Manock
154 CeltixConnect Announces Submarine Cable System

CeltixConnect has announced that it has commenced construction of a high-capacity fiber optic submarine cable that will connect Ireland to the UK. Once deployed, CeltixConnect will deliver the resilience, diversity and low latency connectivity now demanded by enterprises, carriers and mobile operators alike. CeltixConnect model will allow end users to buy or lease dedicated dark fiber on the submarine cable or alternatively lease high capacity managed services on this uniquely designed route, the company said in a statement.

07 Dec 2009 John Manock
155 Vietnam Inaugurates AAG

The Vietnam Telecoms International (VTI), a unit of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), has activated the Vietnamese portion of the Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable network.

06 Dec 2009 John Manock
156 AT&T's Undersea Cable Capacity Grows with AAG

AT&T has announced a significant expansion of its network capacity in the Asia-Pacific region through its participation in the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) consortium. The consortium, focused on building an undersea cable system connecting Southeast Asia and the United States, recently announced the completion of the 20,000 kilometer-long AAG submarine cable network’s comprehensive testing. This milestone now enables AAG to begin carrying commercial traffic.

06 Dec 2009 John Manock
157 Indonesian Carrier to Deploy Submarine Cable To Singapore, Malaysia

According to Indonesian news service VIVAnews, Indonesian carrier PT Excelcomindo Pratama (XL) plans to build a new submarine fiber optic cable across the Malacca Straits to connect Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

03 Dec 2009 John Manock
158 Submarine Cable Developers Apply for Broadband Stimulus Money

Several companies looking to build submarine cables are among the 2,200 applications received by the United States government for stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

03 Dec 2009 John Manock
159 Huawei Marine Wins Turnkey Contract for Indonesian System

Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. has announced that it signed a turnkey contract with PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. (PT Telkom) for the Mataram-Kupang Cable System (MKCS).  The system will connect five islands in eastern Indonesia and extend about 1,200 kilometers, with an initial capacity of 4 × 10 Gbps. The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2010.

03 Dec 2009 John Manock
160 EASSy To Enter Service in June 2010

The West Indian Cable Company (WIOCC), the investment vehicle for the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy), has announced that its cable system is on schedule for completion in June 2009.

02 Dec 2009 John Manock
161 Alcatel-Lucent Wins San Andres Supply Contract

Bella Vista Trading Services S.A. and Energia Integral Andina S.A. have selected Alcatel-Lucent, in consortium with IT International Telecom, Canada’s leading marine service provider, to deploy this first cable link between the Colombian Mainland and San Andres Island, which has a population of some 85,000 citizens.

02 Dec 2009 John Manock
162 ACE Submarine Cable Welcomes New Members

The ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) submarine cable system, which will stretch from France to South Africa, connecting all countries along the West coast of Africa, has added a number of new members.

02 Dec 2009 John Manock
163 Construction of Honotua Begins

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, using the cable ship Ile de Re, has begun laying the Honotua submarine cable connecting French Polynesia and Hawaii.

30 Nov 2009 John Manock
164 Government OKs VNPT’s Investment in APG

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has approved Vietnam Posts and Telecommunication’s (VNPT's) planned investment in the Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable system.

30 Nov 2009 John Manock
165 Qtel Signs Major Cable Agreement with Tata

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has issued a statement regarding its participation in the recently announced Persian Gulf submarine cable system in partnership with Tata Communications.  Under the terms of the agreement, Qtel will be the designated landing party in Qatar for the Tata Global Network (TGN) Gulf Cable System, with other regional operators playing the same role for their respective nations.

This state-of-the-art cable system will connect the Gulf Region directly to the world's major business hubs and city centers through the Global Network, improving connectivity and providing the foundations for next generation communication technology. Completion of this new system will make an important contribution to Qtel’s strategy to connect Qatar with the world.

In addition to Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates will be connected to TGN Gulf Cable in the initial Phase. Subsequently, in the second phase other countries in the Gulf will be conjoined.

The total length of the cable system within the Gulf region will stretch some 4,469 kilometers, reaching from Mumbai through to Oman and onto Kuwait. The segment will connect to Tata Communications’ global cable and backhaul network, which is one of the largest in the world.

Dr. Nasser Marafih, Chief Executive Officer, Qtel, said, “Qtel is delighted to announce this agreement with Tata Communications, which will bring a new global, and much needed, resilient submarine cable to Qatar. The enhanced capacity provided by this cabling solution will help ensure rapid growth of Broadband services across Qatar.”

Building and installing the global submarine cable will take approximately 22 months. The cable and the relationships enabled by the Gulf Cable System will provide the basis for an extended portfolio of value added services for local and global enterprise customers. When it is completed, the cable will enable at least 1.28 Tbps of additional international connectivity in the region

Through the TGN-Gulf Cable System, people in Qatar will have access to new, high-speed global routing that will encourage expansion in broadband penetration, Internet usage and enterprise applications, and can look forward to faster and more reliable bandwidth, while the more resilient and diverse cable structure will benefit generations to come.

Vinod Kumar, President and COO of Tata Communications, said, “We are delighted to be in partnership with a progressive and committed company like Qtel. This partnership is designed to create mutual benefit, which will multiply steadily as we use the foundation of the TGN Gulf cable system to develop additional network and IT services that address growing market needs.”  

Qtel and Tata Communications have worked together for many years to meet Qatar’s ever-growing requirements for international data and voice services. Under the terms of an earlier agreement signed in June of 2009, the two companies are aligning their infrastructures to provide secure, scalable and flexible connectivity solutions including Ethernet, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) and a wide variety of managed services to their global customers.

“Qtel’s ongoing investment in cabling solutions will make a significant contribution to positioning Qatar as a leading regional and international hub for data and managed services, part of the wider strategic move towards expanding the knowledge-based economy,” concluded Dr. Nasser.

29 Nov 2009 John Manock
166 Bangladesh, India to discuss Submarine Cable Project

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina plans to discuss plans for a submarine fiber optic cable to India during her visit to that county in December.  The cable is one of the key infrastructure projects on the agenda for discussion during her visit.

29 Nov 2009 John Manock
167 Taiwan-China Cable Plans Confirmed

According to the Commercial Times, a Taiwanese newspaper, officials at Taiwan Mobile, the second largest mobile operator in the country, and China Unicom, have formalized their plans to jointly construct a submarine fiber optic cable linking the two countries.

25 Nov 2009 John Manock
168 Tata, Middle Eastern Operators Launch Gulf Cable Project

Tata Communications, as part of its strategic intent to participate and assist in the rapid development of the Middle East Region, has signed strategic partnership agreements with several of the major telecommunications operators in the Middle East to construct a new cable system into the Gulf. The new cable will connect the Region directly to the world's major business hubs and city centers via Tata's Global Network (the TGN).

25 Nov 2009 John Manock
169 eircom Partners with Hibernia Atlantic to Provide

eircom has announced that it has partnered with Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic submarine transport cable provider, to provide direct fiber optic connections from the eircom data center in Clonshaugh to the United States and Canada.

23 Nov 2009 John Manock
170 More Details Released on BIMP-EAGA Initiative

Additional information has been made public on plans for a system of submarine cables linking the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).  Key players in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) from the region met in the Philippines recently for the 5th BIMP-EAGA Working Group on ICT Meeting.  One of the highlights of the meeting was an agreement by the group to explore the installation of a submarine cable that would link its members (see Submarine Cable World NewsFeed for November 16, 2009).

23 Nov 2009 John Manock
171 SEACOM Awarded “Best Pan African Initiative”

SEACOM, the privately funded and over three-quarter African owned submarine fiber optic cable system, was named "Best Pan African Initiative” at the AfricaCom Awards 2009 ceremony held in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, 11 November 2009. The award recognizes an initiative taken by an organization or a group of organizations to improve telecommunications services at a regional or continental level.

22 Nov 2009 John Manock
172 Private Thai Company First to Get Cable Landing License

True Internet Gateway (TIG) Co., Ltd. has become the sole Thai gateway provider able to offer the security of both terrestrial and submarine connectivity to Thailand after being the first private operator to be granted a license for submarine cable landing rights by the Thai National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on November 12. The license will furthermore allow TIG to establish interconnections with Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia and become the leading gateway to these nations.

19 Nov 2009 John Manock
173 Indosat, NEC Complete JAKABARE

Indonesian carrier PT Indosat has inaugurated the JAKABARE submarine cable system, linking three landing points in Indonesia with Singapore.

19 Nov 2009 John Manock
174 UUNET Kenya Opens Second London POP

UUNET Kenya has acquired a second international Point of Presence (POP) in London, joining the one it has operated since 2005 in Fuchsstadt, Germany.

18 Nov 2009 John Manock
175 SP Telemedia Limited to Acquire PIPE Networks Limited

SP Telemedia Limited (SPT) and PIPE Networks Limited have entered into a merger implementation agreement under which it is proposed that SPT acquire all of the shares outstanding of PIPE via a scheme of arrangement for A$6.30 cash per share.

18 Nov 2009 John Manock
176 NEC Announces First Integrated Ocean Observation System for Taiwan

NEC Corporation has announced a win for the first submarine-cable based integrated ocean observation system for the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan. The system will be deployed in the sea off of eastern Taiwan in order to strengthen seismic and environmental observations in the area. Construction of the system is scheduled for completion in June 2011.

17 Nov 2009 John Manock
177 Hannibal Enters Service

Hannibal, the first 100%-owned Tunisian international submarine fiber optic cable system has been inaugurated.

16 Nov 2009 John Manock
178 AAG Cable Boosts Reliability and Diversity for Telstra Customers

The opening last week of the 20,000-kilometer-long Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network marks a key milestone in Telstra’s expansion in Asia. As the largest capacity owner in the consortium which commissioned the AAG submarine cable, Telstra will be able to offer a new low latency route from South East Asia to North America, providing its customers with greater access to Asian markets, further strengthening the reliability, diversity and routing options for its market leading services, the company said in a statement.

15 Nov 2009 John Manock
179 BIMP-EAGA Looks at Additional Submarine Cable Links

Key players in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) from the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) met in the Philippines last week for the 5th BIMP-EAGA Working Group on ICT Meeting.  One of the highlights of the meeting was an agreement by the group to explore the installation of a submarine cable that would link its members.

15 Nov 2009 John Manock
180 Globacom Awarded Cote d'Ivoire Telecom License

Nigeria's second national telecommunications operator, Globacom, has taken another major step towards its vision to expand its services in Africa by obtaining an operating license in Cote d'Ivoire.  The license will allow Globacom to extend its new submarine cable system, Glo-1, to Cote d'Ivoire.

12 Nov 2009 John Manock
181 AccessKenya Connects to East African Submarine Cables

AccessKenya Group, Kenya’s first publicly listed ICT company and leading corporate Internet service provider, has announced that it has commissioned its international connectivity on both the SEACOM and TEAMS East African submarine fiber optic cables and has provided for diverse paths to the internet to ensure full international redundancy on international fiber.  This announcement comes shortly after AccessKenya was chosen by Tata Communications to host their Tier 1 PoP in Kenya.

11 Nov 2009 John Manock
182 Route for Second Bangladesh Cable Announced

Bangladesh is moving forward with plans to build a second submarine cable system.  The country, which has suffered from erratic Internet access due to its dependence on a single submarine fiber optic cable, SEA-ME-WE-4, is developing plans for an alternative cable that would connect Bangladesh with India.

10 Nov 2009 John Manock
183 AAG Goes Live

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), together with the consortium of Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network, has announced the completion of its comprehensive test requirement. The 20,000 km submarine cable network is ready to go live and start carrying commercial traffic.

10 Nov 2009 John Manock
184 GBI Signs Deal for Iraqi Submarine Cable Project

Gulf Bridge International (GBI) has signed an agreement with Iraq Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC) for the landing rights of submarine fiber optic cables in Iraq.

09 Nov 2009 John Manock
185 AAG to Enter Service on November 10

The Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable has been completed and will begin carrying commercial traffic on November 10.

05 Nov 2009 John Manock
186 LION Cable Completed in Madagascar

The first phase of the Low Indian Ocean Network (LION), a submarine cable system connecting Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion, is now operational.  According to reports from Madagascar, the cable is only awaiting government approval before beginning to carry traffic.

04 Nov 2009 John Manock
187 Pacnet’s EAC Pacific to Further Enhance Connectivity

Pacnet is on track to deliver enhanced connectivity across the Pacific with its latest cable extension linking Japan and the United States. A part of the Unity cable system, EAC Pacific is expected to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2010.

04 Nov 2009 John Manock
188 Hibernia Atlantic’s Project Kelvin on Track for Completion

Hibernia Atlantic has announced that it is on track to complete a multi-million euro cable build project, known as Project Kelvin, providing the island of Ireland with its first direct 40 Gbps network. The network is designed to provide capacity and redundancy for future business opportunities, both globally and locally.

03 Nov 2009 John Manock
189 Unity Lands in Japan

The Unity consortium has announced the landing of its transpacific fiber optic cable system in Chikura, Japan, marking an important milestone in the construction of a new system that will deliver significant increase in capacity between the United States and Japan.

02 Nov 2009 John Manock
190 Botswana Connects to SEACOM

Botswana’s Abari Communications has purchased bandwidth capacity from SEACOM, which recently completed a submarine cable network running along the east coast of the African continent.

29 Oct 2009 John Manock
191 Cuba Says It Is Not in Talks for New Submarine Cable

According to Spanish news agency EFE, the Cuban government has yet to be contacted by any U.S. companies regarding the building of a submarine cable between the two countries.

29 Oct 2009 John Manock
192 World Bank Supports Modernizing Africa’s ICT Sector

The World Bank is supporting a number of initiatives, including the East African Submarine System (EASSy), to improve Africa’s infrastructure development.  These initiatives will strengthen the capacity of public institutions such as the sectoral ministries and regulatory authorities and will promote a competition-friendly environment by liberalizing the sector and restructuring telecommunications operators.

28 Oct 2009 John Manock
193 AfDB Receives Africa Investor Award as Sponsor of the Year

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has been awarded "Sponsor of the Year" Award by Africa Investor magazine in South Africa.

28 Oct 2009 John Manock
194 EAC Notes Development of Fiber Connectivity

The East African Community (EAC) has released a statement relating to the East African Regional Fiber Backbone.

27 Oct 2009 John Manock
195 Rwanda, SEACOM Negotiating to Reduce Bandwidth Costs

The government of Rwanda is in final talks with SEACOM to bring down the prices of the international bandwidth from about US$2,700 to $50 for each Mbps per month.

27 Oct 2009 John Manock
196 MTN Joins WACS Consortium

MTN Nigeria has announced that it is joining other international carriers in an agreement that would usher in the West African Cable System (WACS).  WACS is a submarine cable system that will connect Europe, West Africa and South Africa with over 3.8 Tbps of capacity.

27 Oct 2009 John Manock
197 New Cables and Upgrades to Improve Service in the Eastern Mediterranean

Carriers in Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria are planning to upgrade several submarine cable systems, while also participating in new cable projects that will help meet growing demand in the region.

26 Oct 2009 John Manock
198 Rwandatel Connects to SEACOM

Rwandatel has officially launched the connection of its Internet services to the SEACOM East African international submarine cable network.

25 Oct 2009 John Manock
199 PT Telkom to Build Submarine Cable Network for Eastern Indonesia

PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) will begin building a fiber optic backbone this month in Eastern Territory of Indonesia by taking part in Palapa Ring configuration covering the routes of Mataram-Kupang, Manado-Sorong, and Fakfak-Makassar.

25 Oct 2009 John Manock
200 Hibernia Atlantic’s CEO Wins Award

Hibernia Atlantic has announced that its company’s CEO, Bjarni K. Thorvardarson, has been awarded a Golden Bridges Award for promoting partnerships between North America and Ireland through its new, fiber optic cable build development, entitled “Project Kelvin.”  Hibernia Atlantic is the only extensive submarine and terrestrial cable deployment that will directly connect the Island of Ireland to North America.

22 Oct 2009 John Manock
201 Malawi Invites Bids for Submarine Cable Related Infrastructure

The Malawi Privatization Commission (MPC) is inviting applications from firms wishing to bid for contracts included in the World Bank-financed $20-million regional communications infrastructure program (RCIP), which entails construction of infrastructure to link Malawi with the coastal landing stations of submarine cables expected to be in place by 2010.

22 Oct 2009 John Manock
202 Venezuela, Cuba to Start Laying Fiber Optic Cable

The Venezuelan government said that construction of the long-discussed Venezuela-Cuba submarine cable would begin shortly.  Venezuela's Science and Technology Minister, Jesse Chacon, said that Telecom Venezuela and Cuban carrier Telebit have reached an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for the supply and installation of the cable system.  In a statement, the minister said that construction of the cable would start this week.

21 Oct 2009 John Manock
203 Ghana Celebrates Glo-1 Landing

The government of Ghana has described the recent landing of Globacom's international submarine fiber optic cable along the west coast of Africa as the beginning of a new dawn in the continent's telecommunications industry.

20 Oct 2009 John Manock
204 PPC 1 Files to Modify Submarine Cable License

In a filing to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, PPC 1 Limited and PPC 1 (US), Inc. seek authority to modify the cable landing license for the PPC 1 cable system, SCL-LIC-20080213-00001, to exclude the landing station in Madang, Papua New Guinea, and the PNG Spur, which connects a branching unit on the segment connecting Sydney, Australia, with Piti, Guam, (Australia-Guam Trunk) to the Madang landing station.

20 Oct 2009 John Manock
205 Kenya ISP Is First to Connect to TEAMS

Kenya’s Jamii Telecoms Ltd has become the first company to connect to The East African Marine System (TEAMS) cable, which has been undergoing tests since it landed in the country in June.

19 Oct 2009 John Manock
206 Botswana to Connect to WACS

Botswana Telecommunication Corporation (BTC) will become a member of the West African Cable System (WACS) consortium.

18 Oct 2009 John Manock
207 Tata Extends Connectivity into Australia via PPC1 Cable System

Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications, today announced that it will start delivering capacity into Australia via the privately owned PIPE Pacific 1 (PPC-1) cable system.

15 Oct 2009 John Manock
208 EASSy Cable Laying to Begin Soon

Neotel has announced the construction of the East African Submarine Cable (EASSy), one of four submarine cables in which the first converged network operator is involved, is still on track. This follows the recent Management Committee of the EASSy cable held at Livingstone in Zambia at which Neotel is represented.

14 Oct 2009 John Manock
209 Telkom South Africa Notes Improved Capacity for Africa

Telkom South Africa is taking advantage of the many options now available for undersea cable capacity in Southern Africa.  The company noted that there are at least nine operational and planned submarine telecommunication cables that will connect various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa to the rest of the world by the end of 2011.

13 Oct 2009 John Manock
210 Company Announces Plans for US-Cuba Cable

TeleCuba Communications, Inc. has announced that it has been granted licenses by the U.S. Government, Department of the Treasury (OFAC), to install the first of its kind direct fiber optic submarine cable between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. The announcement comes in the wake of the Obama Administration's removing of many of the telecommunications restrictions mandated by the embargo.

13 Oct 2009 John Manock
211 Internode Boosts Speeds, Lower Costs Thanks to PPC-1

Internode has increased data quotas and lowers plan costs as it passes on to customers the benefits of the PIPE PPC-1 international submarine fiber optic link, which went live last week.

12 Oct 2009 John Manock
212 Main One Lands in Nigeria and Ghana

MainOne Cable Company has announced the conclusion of the shore-end laying of its West African submarine fiber optic cable in Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana.

12 Oct 2009 John Manock
213 FCC Grants License for Unity Cable

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the grant of a cable-landing license to GU Holdings Inc. et al., for the purpose of landing and operating a non-common carrier fiber-optic submarine cable system, the Unity Cable System, between the United States and Japan. The cable system will have landing stations in Chikura, Japan, and Hermosa Beach, California.

11 Oct 2009 John Manock
214 AAG Network Nears Commissioning

The Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the telecom regulator in the Philippines, have extended the provisional authority of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to operate the cable-landing station for the Asia America Gateway (AAG).

08 Oct 2009 John Manock
215 PPC-1 Marks Milestone in Australia's Communications Infrastructure

In a separate statement, PIPE International noted that PPC-1 was officially switched-on today at a special event at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park.  The successful completion of Australia’s first independent submarine cable was two years in the making and cost $200 million.

08 Oct 2009 John Manock
216 PIPE International and Tyco Telecommunications Complete PPC-1

PIPE International, a fully owned subsidiary of PIPE Networks Limited, and Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, have announced they have completed the PPC-1 cable system. The completion of the 6,900 km system linking Sydney to Guam will provide enhanced connectivity to the region and ultimately lower capacity costs by generating increased competition in the Australian undersea cable market, the companies said in a statement.

08 Oct 2009 John Manock
217 Hibernia Atlantic’s CEO to Speak on Transatlantic Opportunities

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transAtlantic submarine transport cable provider, today announces that its company’s CEO, Bjarni K. Thorvardarson, will present on transAtlantic opportunities between Northwest Ireland and North America.  The presentation will be held on Thursday, October 8 at 9:15am, during the Irish Echo ‘Gateways to Tomorrow’ Conference at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston.

07 Oct 2009 John Manock
218 Ocean Observatories Initiative Receives Award

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership have signed a Cooperative Agreement that supports the construction and initial operation of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).

06 Oct 2009 John Manock
219 Uganda University to Connect to SEACOM

Uganda Christian University (UCU) could be connected to the SEACOM undersea cable this month if negotiations bear fruit, the acting director of the Uganda Computing Services (UCS), Mr. Alex Kisakye said in September.

05 Oct 2009 John Manock
220 Millennium Telecom to Move Forward on Submarine Cable Project

Millennium Telecom Ltd. (MTL), a joint venture between India's state-run telecommunications companies -- Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) -- is planning to go ahead with its plan to build an extensive international submarine cable network in the Indian Ocean.

05 Oct 2009 John Manock
221 AfDB, Main One Cable Company Sign US$61 Million Loan

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and Main One Cable Company signed a loan agreement of US$61 million towards the development of a submarine fiber optic cable connection along the West African coast. With this investment, the Bank has further expanded its wide support for African ICT projects following investments in the East African EASSy submarine cable and two satellite systems -- Rascom and New Dawn.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
222 Submarine Cables Part of Altech’s Strategic Push

South Africa’s Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) has announced the group’s interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2009.  The carrier is a major investor in new East African submarine cable systems, which form a major part of the company’s strategy.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
223 American Samoa Planning for Second Cable

The impact of a devastating tsunami on American Samoa on September 29 has yet to be fully determined and it appears that the island’s only submarine cable is still functioning, but in days before the tsunami, American Samoa was looking ahead to its second cable.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
224 Kordia Board Gives Go Ahead to Trans-Tasman Cable

New Zealand carrier Kordia has announced that its Board of Directors is very pleased with the progress being made on Kordia’s development of a project to deploy a trans-Tasman submarine cable, and confirms that work will continue to ramp up over the next six months or so.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
225 SEACOM to Host Celebration of Cable’s Arrival in East Africa

In celebration of SEACOM’s historical arrival on the coast of East Africa, SEACOM will host the SEACOM Broadband Experience in South Africa as an exhibition that educates the broader market on the capabilities and potential delivered through true broadband.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
226 Glo-1 Lands in Ghana

Nigerian carrier Globacom has announced the landing of its West African submarine cable system, Glo-1, in Accra, Ghana.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
227 Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs Breaks 100 Petabit per Second Kilometer Barrier

Alcatel-Lucent has announced that scientists in Bell Labs, the company’s research arm, have set a new optical transmission record of more than 100 Petabits per second-kilometer (equivalent to 100 million Gigabits per second-kilometer).

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
228 UUNET Kenya Shifts from Satellite to Submarine Cable

UUNET Kenya has completed the migration of its international Internet backbone from satellite to the SEACOM submarine cable.  The move also doubles the carrier’s bandwidth.

28 Sep 2009 John Manock
229 San Andres Cable Planned for Completion in September 2010

A submarine fiber optic cable linking mainland Colombia and the island of San Andres is scheduled to be in operation in one year, according to the Colombian government.

28 Sep 2009 John Manock
230 Tata Starts Management of SEACOM

Tata Communications Transformation Services Limited (TCTS), a leading provider of business transformation, telecom BPO and consultancy services, announced that they have launched network operations center (NOC) operations, subsequent to SEACOM commissioning the 1.28 Tbps, 17,000-kilometer cable system. TCTS NOC has started managing the network administration, operations and maintenance functions of this SEACOM cable system, which connects the African continent to the rest of the world.

27 Sep 2009 John Manock
231 Altech Increases Stake in Kenya Data Networks

Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) has announced that it would increase its economic stake in Kenya Data Networks Limited (KDN) from 51% to 60.8% by investing a further USD39.5 million into the company. The capital injection will be used to roll out the KDN fiber optic network, further establishing KDN as the key provider of broadband in East Africa.

24 Sep 2009 John Manock
232 Danice Reportedly Completed

The Danice cable linking Iceland to mainland Europe has reportedly entered service.  Vodafone Iceland inaugurated the cable on September 1 by opening it for traffic for their costumers.

23 Sep 2009 John Manock
233 PPC-1 Reaches Another Milestone

PIPE Networks Limited subsidiary, PIPE International (Australia) Pty Ltd has announced that PPC-1 has successfully completed another major milestone by transmitting Internet Protocol (IP) packets end to end between Australia and the USA via Guam.

22 Sep 2009 John Manock
234 Altech and SEACOM Announce Strategic Bandwidth Alliance

Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) and SEACOM have announced a strategic alliance for the mutual acquisition of bandwidth capacity on two cable systems. The agreement sees Altech procuring two STM-16s from SEACOM, with the option to upgrade, within three years, to double this capacity, to an STM-64. SEACOM will in turn purchase six STM-64s throughout the East Africa region on the terrestrial backbone network owned by Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a subsidiary of Altech.

20 Sep 2009 John Manock
235 Singapore Company Buys Submarine Cable Unit

Singapore firm Ban Joo & Company plans to acquire two units of Telemedia Pacific Group that are building a submarine cable linking Hong Kong and Indonesia.

17 Sep 2009 John Manock
236 Chinese Supplier Gains Universal Joint Certification

China’s Zhongtian Technology Submarine Cable Co., Ltd. (ZTT), has become the first Chinese submarine cable maker to gain certification from the Universal Joint Consortium (UJC).  The company said that the certification is the next step in its efforts to develop a deep-sea submarine cable system for the international market.

16 Sep 2009 John Manock
237 Antel Uruguay Selects Alcatel-Lucent/IT Telecom Consortium

Alcatel-Lucent has signed -- in consortium with IT Telecom, Canada’s leading marine service provider with worldwide operations -- a contract with Antel Uruguay for a new submarine cable network linking Maldonado, Uruguay, to Las Toninas, Argentina.

16 Sep 2009 John Manock
238 Construction of Palapa Ring May Begin Soon

The Palapa Ring submarine cable network for Indonesia may finally be getting off the ground.  The project, which has had a long and difficult development process, may begin in mid-October, according to published reports.

15 Sep 2009 John Manock
239 PIPE Delivers Impressive FY09 Results

PIPE Networks Limited has announced a 46% increase in consolidated profit after tax for the year ended 30 June 2009 amounting $10.5 million. This result includes the combined results of subsidiaries including costs associated with construction of an undersea submarine fiber optic cable from Sydney to Guam.

13 Sep 2009 John Manock
240 SEACOM Connectivity Extends Across East Africa

SEACOM, Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL) and Rwandatel S.A. (RTL) have announced a major partnership that further extends the reach of international broadband capacity across eastern Africa. Through concurrent deals, UTL and RTL, both subsidiaries of the Libyan Africa Portfolio LAP Green Networks, have purchased a significant amount of international broadband capacity from SEACOM whilst SEACOM has in turn secured a backhaul solution for Rwanda on the two regional players’ terrestrial networks between Kampala, Uganda and Kigali, Rwanda. Under the terms of the partnership agreement, both entities will have immediate access to the SEACOM network.

13 Sep 2009 John Manock
241 Indian Carriers Want to Build Terrestrial Route through Bangladesh

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have asked the Bangladeshi government for permission to build a terrestrial fiber optic network through the country to reach India’s isolated northeastern states.

10 Sep 2009 John Manock
242 Global Sporting Events Continue to Drive Submarine Cable Deployment

On October 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee will name the winning city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics from between the four remaining candidates – Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.  The decision may not necessarily impact the submarine cable market, but it is worth keeping in mind that major sporting events such as the Olympics and FIFA World Cup have driven deployment of new submarine cable systems in the past.

10 Sep 2009 John Manock
243 UUNet Kenya Invests in Network, Prepares for Submarine Cables

UUNet Kenya has invested US$10 million to upgrade its core network, routing, transmission and security infrastructure as well as training, research and development aimed at delivering these solutions to its customers in a smooth and cost effective manner.

09 Sep 2009 John Manock
244 Glo-1 Lands in Nigeria

Globacom, the second national carrier in Nigeria, has landed its Glo-1 submarine cable in Lagos.  The landing marks the first time a private, international submarine cable has been landed in the country and when it enters commercial service in about six weeks it will greatly increase Nigerian customers’ options for Internet access.

09 Sep 2009 John Manock
245 Seychelles Looks to Connect to Submarine Cable

The government of Seychelles is investigating various options to bring submarine cable connectivity to the island.

07 Sep 2009 John Manock
246 CSnet Forms Alliance to Produce Offshore Communication Backbone

CSnet International, Inc. announced the formation of a strategic partnership to develop its modular, expandable Offshore Communication Backbone (OCB) concept.

02 Sep 2009 John Manock
247 TTCL Connects to SEACOM

Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) is now connected to the SEACOM international submarine fiber-optic cable system and is able to provide its customers with some of the fastest communication services in the country. TTCL chief executive officer Said A Said told local press recently that the company’s Internet traffic has been switched entirely to the cable effective 28 July 2009 – less than a week after the system was officially launched.

01 Sep 2009 John Manock
248 Tata Communications, Neotel Launch Services on SEACOM

Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications, and Neotel, South Africa’s first converged communication national operator, have announced that they have launched service on the SEACOM cable system, the first undersea submarine cable system that will connect the African continent to Europe, Asia and India.

01 Sep 2009 John Manock
249 Gateway Communications Goes Live on SEACOM

Two years after committing to the SEACOM project, Gateway Communications is live on the submarine fiber optic cable connecting Africa to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Gateway Communications was the first company to invest in SEACOM, which is bringing 1.28 Tbps of capacity to the continent.

31 Aug 2009 John Manock
250 Altech's KDN Acquires Stake in TEAMS

Allied Technologies Limited (Altech), through its subsidiary Kenya Data Networks Limited (KDN), has announced the acquisition of an 8.5% stake in The East Africa Marine System Limited (TEAMS) cable for an amount of USD 11 million. The investment will give KDN a 10% voting right and an effective 8.5% equity stake in TEAMS. Altech will fund its portion of the purchase price from cash reserves.

31 Aug 2009 John Manock
251 FSM Meetings Discuss Submarine Cable

A delegation from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) Department of Transportation, Communication, and Infrastructure (TC&I), headed by Secretary Francis I. Itimai, has completed its visit to the States of Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae, where it conducted a series of meetings with the state leaderships, as well as members of the private sectors and non-government organizations in the community, on a wide range of priority issues facing the Department.

27 Aug 2009 John Manock
252 PPC-1 Successfully Transmits “First Light”

PIPE Networks Limited subsidiary, PIPE International (Australia) Pty Ltd, announced a major milestone in the development of its PPC-1 submarine cable linking Sydney with Guam.

27 Aug 2009 John Manock
253 Tanzania Celebrates SEACOM, Builds Up Infrastructure

With SEACOM, the first international submarine fiber optic cable to land on Sub-Saharan Africa’s East Coast now in service, Tanzania is looking to build out its terrestrial infrastructure.

25 Aug 2009 John Manock
254 Kenyan Carrier Involved in TEAMS Testing

Safaricom, one of Kenya’s biggest telecom carriers, has been conducting live testing on the TEAMS (The East African Marine System) cable prior to the cable entering full commercial service.

24 Aug 2009 John Manock
255 Internode Launches New Service Using Basslink

Australian Internet service provider Internode has launched its NakedExtreme services in Tasmania, creating the opportunity to fill in many metropolitan broadband blackspots.

24 Aug 2009 John Manock
256 TEAMS Pricing Discussed

The cost for Internet service using The East African Marine System (TEAMS) has yet to be decided on by most operators as the cable system is preparing to enter service.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
257 Tata Communications and Tyco Telecommunications Complete TGN Intra-Asia

Tata Communications, a leading provider of the new world of communications, together with its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, have announced that they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of the TGN-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) Cable System. Arriving at the conclusion of a comprehensive test program, which verified compliance with all transmission requirements, the companies have completed the final step in achieving regional and global connectivity in Southeast Asia for the TGN.

19 Aug 2009 John Manock
258 Neotel Says SEACOM Is Light at the End of the Bandwidth Tunnel

South African carrier Neotel says that the recent activation of the SEACOM East African submarine cable system has changed the dynamics of bandwidth in South Africa, calling it the “light at the end of the formerly narrow bandwidth tunnel.” 

The carrier noted that for years, South African businesses and consumers have faced the constraints of a lack of true broadband or bandwidth, as well as very high telecommunication costs. This has impacted on a number of industries reliant on cost-effective communications to be globally competitive. However, this has changed with the landing of SEACOM.

13 Aug 2009 John Manock
259 KDN Slashes Internet Prices Thanks to SEACOM

Kenya Data Networks has announced that it is slashing down its Internet prices by 90% after the successful launch of the SEACOM submarine fiber optic cable along the East Coast of Africa.

“Video streaming is now much faster and efficient you can actually see a video in real time as opposed to previously waiting for it to buffer for a while before one could view it,” said Mr. Bhavesh Mistry, KDN’s Chief Technical Officer. “Downloading movies and watching live web TV is now much easier and convenient.”

12 Aug 2009 John Manock
260 Hibernia Atlantic Expands Sales Force

Hibernia Atlantic has announced that it has increased its sales force, hiring new team members throughout Amsterdam, London and Paris. The expansion of Hibernia’s sales force also includes the appointment of industry veteran Fergus Innes as Vice President of Sales, Europe.

Mr. Innes’ primary focus at Hibernia Atlantic will be to lead a team focused on driving Hibernia Atlantic’s cable transport services into the business, government and wholesale sectors throughout all of Europe.

10 Aug 2009 John Manock
261 Consumer Group Calls for Fourth Tasmanian Cable

Digital Tasmania, a consumer action group created to give a voice to the views and needs of Tasmanian consumers in the digital age, is calling for the building of a fourth submarine fiber optic cable to link Tasmania with the rest of Australia. 

Three cables – Bass Strait-1, Bass Strait-2 and Basslink – currently serve Tasmania.  Testra owns both Bass Strait cables, while Basslink Telecom owns the latter, which was activated just last month and broke Telstra’s monopoly on fiber connectivity to the rest of Australia.

07 Aug 2009 John Manock
262 ASH Submarine Cable Launch

The government of Samoa has released a report on the launching of the American Samoa-Hawaii (ASH) submarine cable. 

May 28, 2009, marked an important milestone for all the people of Samoa, to witness

05 Aug 2009 John Manock
263 Vietnam to Bring Internet and Mobile Services to Islands

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved Decision No.1041/QD-TTg aiming to ensure Internet and mobile phone access for most of the country's islands.

Accordingly, the government will build fixed telephone facilities, public Internet access venues and satellite access stations on the islands. Under the new plan, most of the country's inhabited islands will have access to information and communications services by 2015.

30 Jul 2009 John Manock
264 Greenland Connect Touted as “Green” Submarine Cable

Tele Greenland A/S has noted that its new submarine cable system, Greenland Connect, is one of the first such cables to be powered exclusively by “green” energy.

30 Jul 2009 John Manock
265 Cyprus Continues to Develop as a Hub in the Eastern Mediterranean
Since antiquity, Cyprus has been a major regional trading hub and it is continuing that tradition in telecommunications, with no less than three new submarine cables under development that will help move traffic between the eastern and western Mediterranean.
27 Jul 2009 Administrator
266 Basslink Activation Leads to NBN Rollout in Tasmania
The Australian and Tasmanian Governments has announced the start of the first stage of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Tasmania with the release of an open competitive tender for fiber optic cable by Aurora Energy.
22 Jul 2009 Administrator
267 AccessKenya Upgrades Core Network in Preparation of SEACOM and TEAMS Capacity
AccessKenya Group has upgraded its internet core network by ten times from 1,000 Mbps to 10,000 Mbps at a cost of Kshs. 60 million as it gears to handle the huge bandwidth capacity upon the arrival of the SEACOM and Teams submarine cables.
21 Jul 2009 Administrator
268 India’s BSNL to Pick Vendor for Landing Station

According to published reports from India, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will shortly be selecting the vendor for setting up a submarine cable landing station in West Bengal.
21 Jul 2009 Administrator
269 India’s BSNL to Pick Vendor for Landing Station
According to published reports from India, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will shortly be selecting the vendor for setting up a submarine cable landing station in West Bengal.
21 Jul 2009 Administrator
270 eLandia and American Samoa Inaugurate Submarine Cable

eLandia, a leading technology enabler of emerging markets, has announced that it is joining Governor Togiola Tulafono and the people of American Samoa to inaugurate the undersea fiber-optic cable that now connects American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa to Hawaii and the rest of the world.

21 Jul 2009 Administrator
271 EASSy Granted Landing Station Permits

Nine countries in eastern and southern Africa have granted landing station permits to the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) project that will provide broadband services to operators sometime next year.

 

06 Jul 2009 Administrator
272 Hawk lands in Cyprus
Cypriot carrier PrimeTel, in cooperation with Reliance Globalcom, has completed the landing of the Hawk submarine fiber optic cable system, on Yeroskipou beach in Cyprus.
01 Jul 2009 Administrator
International Carriers top
# Article Title Created Author
1 NTT Announces Inter-Data Center Connectivity Service

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has introduced an Inter-Data Center Connectivity Service that forms one of the pillars of NTT Com’s new strategy for expanding world-class ICT solutions and quality of service in Asia. The service will utilize a large-capacity backbone for high-speed, seamless rack-to-rack connectivity between core data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. Applications for the Inter-Data Center Connectivity Service will be accepted from September.

26 Jul 2010 John Manock
2 NTT Com to Strengthen Asian Expansion

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced that it will open premium data centers in Vietnam and Singapore and also launch a new service that enables enterprise customers to quickly establish seamless connectivity between core data centers under a major new strategy to expand business in the fast-growing Asian region.

22 Jul 2010 John Manock
3 Calix Helps Drive Broadband Services in the Caribbean

Calix, Inc. has announced that service providers across the Caribbean have been rapidly deploying the Calix Unified Access portfolio to address advanced broadband services demand.

20 Jul 2010 John Manock
4 KDDI Opens New Chinese Data Center

On July 29, KDDI will launch TELEHOUSE SHANGHAI and provide services in Shanghai, China. This will be KDDI's second TELEHOUSE brand enterprise in China following the Beijing opening. This move will mean that TELEHOUSE brand data centers have branched into 9 regions and 12 cities and cover 18 sites worldwide (approximately 113,000 square meters).

18 Jul 2010 John Manock
5 East African Carrier Launches MPLS in Uganda, Tanzania

In a move that gives developing African nations access to better data networks, Internet Solutions, a division of Dimension Data, has announced the expansion of its MPLS network footprint into Uganda and Tanzania.

14 Jul 2010 John Manock
6 Indian Carriers in Bandwidth Deal

Demand for international Internet bandwidth continues to soar throughout the world.  A recent announcement out of India illustrates this trend, as an Indian carrier announced that it would purchase more than 25 Gbps of new submarine cable capacity.

12 Jul 2010 John Manock
7 Internode Adds to International Network

With more than 15.5 gigabits per second of international data capacity linking Australia to the Internet globally, Australian Internet service provider Internode now maintains overseas points of presence in San Jose, Los Angeles and Ashburn in the United States, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Auckland, as well as the new POP in London. The recent network expansion has also established a direct link between Singapore and the new London POP, as well as new links from London to Internode POPs in the United States.

08 Jul 2010 John Manock
8 NTT Com to Enter Cambodian Market with Branch Office

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced that its subsidiary NTT Communications (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has begun operating a branch office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia effective immediately. Headed by the concurrent president of NTT Communications (Thailand), Tsuyoshi Kawashima, the Phnom Penh Branch will provide multinational companies in Cambodia with ICT solutions from NTT Com.

08 Jul 2010 John Manock
9 Telecom Italia Sparkle Adds IP POP in Catania

Telecom Italia Sparkle, the international wholesale arm of Telecom Italia, is pleased to announce that its top-tier Internet backbone Seabone latest Point of Presence is now available in Catania, Sicily. First to connect to this new IP facility is CYTA, Cyprus’ leading carrier.

07 Jul 2010 John Manock
10 Level 3 Upgrades Ultra-Low-Latency Network from London to Frankfurt

Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced it has upgraded its ultra-low-latency fiber-optic network connection from London to Frankfurt. The upgrade significantly improves latency on this route as well as the Frankfurt-to-New York and Frankfurt-to-Chicago routes, enabling higher-speed transaction rates with very low transmission delays for financial exchanges and other trading venues.

06 Jul 2010 John Manock
11 Submarine Cables Key to Telkom SA’s Strategic Direction

While announcing its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, Telkom South Africa spelled out its new strategic direction and noted many areas in which international submarine fiber optic cables were key to the company’s future development.

30 Jun 2010 John Manock
12 Telekom Malaysia Launches Global Ethernet Services

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has strengthened its leadership position in the industry with the launch of its Global Ethernet services (GES).

29 Jun 2010 John Manock
13 Etisalat Signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with KT

Etisalat has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Korea Telecom (KT), a prominent South Korean integrated telecommunication service provider, to jointly develop innovative new age telecommunications solutions and collaborative services for customers. The partnership agreement was signed by Mr. Essa Al Haddad, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Etisalat and Mr. Hansuk Kim, Head of Global Business Unit, Korea Telecom.

27 Jun 2010 John Manock
14 PCCW Global, Dialog Telekom Sign Interconnection Agreement

A PCCW Global subsidiary, HKT Global (Singapore) Pte.Ltd., and Dialog Telekom, a major telecommunications service provider in Sri Lanka, have signed an Inter-Carrier-Interconnection (ICI) agreement to interconnect the companies' Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. PCCW Global is a subsidiary of Hong Kong's premier telecommunications provider, PCCW Limited.

23 Jun 2010 John Manock
15 QF Builds Ethernet Bridge with World’s Leading Research Institutions

Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science and Community Development, the pioneer in the nation’s drive to become an advanced knowledge-based society, has formally unveiled an advanced Ethernet project that will connect Qatar to a world of new educational opportunities.

22 Jun 2010 John Manock
16 Reliance Globalcom to Expand Infrastructure to Equinix Tokyo

Reliance Globalcom and Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, have announced that Reliance Globalcom will extend its existing points-of-presence in Japan to include Equinix’s Toyko-2 (TY2) International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center. The expansion will enable Reliance Globalcom to improve the cost efficiency and capacity of IPv6-enabled global connectivity services to the 230 countries covered by its network footprint. It will also enable all of Equinix’s Tokyo customers to directly access Reliance Globalcom’s advanced VPLS network.

21 Jun 2010 John Manock
17 PrimeTel Becomes First Cypriot Carrier on DE-CIX

PrimeTel has become a member of the largest Internet Exchange in the world -- the German Internet Exchange (DE-CIX). PrimeTel is the first Cypriot company present on DE-CIX.

20 Jun 2010 John Manock
18 Cook Islands Signs Bandwidth Agreement

O3b Networks Ltd (O3b) has signed a long term agreement with Telecom Cook Islands for the provision of 155 megabits of bandwidth for Internet Connectivity to web users on the islands. The bandwidth will be supplied over O3b’s Medium Earth Orbit satellite constellation that is currently under construction.

16 Jun 2010 John Manock
19 Tata, CEC Withdraw Equity Joint Venture Application for China

Tata Communications (Hong Kong) Ltd, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Tata Communications Ltd and the shareholders of China Entercom Communications Ltd (CEC) have jointly withdrawn their Equity Joint Venture application with the Chinese Government. Both organizations have mutually agreed to terminate the various agreements memorializing Tata Communications’ equity investment in CEC.

15 Jun 2010 John Manock
20 Interoute to Give Enterprises the Freedom to Change Their Minds

Interoute, owner operator of Europe s largest next generation network, is overturning decades of convention by enabling organizations to buy ICT infrastructure as a service.  With the launch of its Unified Connectivity offering, Interoute is changing the way enterprises buy network services and providing businesses with the flexibility to move, add and change their connectivity services at any time without penalty.

13 Jun 2010 John Manock
21 PCCW Global, PTCL Sign Agreement

PCCW Global Limited, a subsidiary of Hong Kong's premier telecommunications provider, PCCW Limited, and Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), Pakistan's leading national carrier, have signed a MPLS Inter-Carrier Interconnection (ICI) agreement to strengthen each other's network coverage and service availability.

10 Jun 2010 John Manock
22 BT Launches Virtual Data Center in Brazil

BT has announced the launch of its Virtual Data Center (VDC) service in Brazil.  BT VDC aims at helping large business and public sector organizations succeed in the current economy and prepare for the future. It provides a dynamic and virtualized infrastructure platform that enables them to consume their IT and networking infrastructure as a service and forms the base for future cloud services. BT VDC offers servers, storage, networks and security that is orchestrated and automatically provisioned through its online portal. Customers can change the infrastructure easily in real-time throughout the duration of the contract through the portal. Customers can also rely on BT professional services to consult on most adequate configuration for the intended application.

10 Jun 2010 John Manock
23 Thai Carrier Expands Gateways, Drops Submarine Cable Plan

Thai international carrier JasTel Network has announced plans to expand its international Internet gateways into other countries in the region.

07 Jun 2010 John Manock
24 C&W Extend Its Global Ethernet Portfolio

Cable & Wireless (C&W) Worldwide has announced the rollout of two new Ethernet services to add to its suite of global networking services for businesses and carrier customers.

03 Jun 2010 John Manock
25 IIJ to Acquire Domestic Networking Operations in Japan from AT&T

AT&T and Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ) have announced an agreement for IIJ to acquire AT&T Japan’s operations focused on domestic Japanese outsourcing services, including approximately 1,600 domestic Japanese business customers and approximately 250 AT&T employees who support these customers.  AT&T, through its existing local entities, will continue to serve the global needs of multinational corporations (MNCs) with operations in Japan.

02 Jun 2010 John Manock
26 Hibernia Media Announces Deal with Irish Broadcaster

Hibernia Media, formerly known as MediaXstream Inc., and a subsidiary of Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, have announced that RTÉ, an Irish public service broadcaster, has selected Hibernia Media for high performance, fiber network capacity for international contribution links for its television news services and programs. Hibernia Media's diverse network footprint provides reliability and high capacity to RTÉ's news coverage and program making.

31 May 2010 John Manock
27 C&W Signs New Deals in South Asia

Cable & Wireless (C&W) Worldwide continues to strengthen its presence in the South Asian market with a host of new customer wins in the region. The company has today announced that it has secured major contracts with Sri Lanka Telecom in Sri Lanka and with Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) and Transworld Associates (TWA) in Pakistan. The company has also forayed into Bangladesh by winning a contract with one of the largest telecom operators in the country.

27 May 2010 John Manock
28 Verizon Adds Optical Wave Service Enhancements

Verizon Global Wholesale is infusing its Optical Wave Service with various enhancements so carrier customers can diversify their services, offer new high-speed data links and leverage the value of highly reliable ring topologies.

26 May 2010 John Manock
29 NORDUnet Selects Tinet’s IPV6 Transit Services

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group, and NORDUnet, a joint collaboration by the five Nordic National Research and Education Networks, have announced NORDUnet's selection of Tinet's IP-Flow IP Transit service in Copenhagen, Denmark, for high speed IP Transit service.

26 May 2010 John Manock
30 C&W Expands in Asia Pacific

Cable & Wireless (C&W) Worldwide has announced a strategic extension of its world-class network in Asia Pacific with the commissioning of its own backhaul network in Hong Kong. The network is already carrying live traffic for multinational customers.

23 May 2010 John Manock
31 AT&T Announces New Strategic Services and Solutions

Companies of all sizes are accelerating their use of IP networks, cloud and mobility services to help them rethink and transform the way they govern and conduct their business, Ron Spears, AT&T Business Solutions (ABS) President and CEO said on Tuesday, addressing more than 70 global industry analysts during a two-day conference hosted at AT&T’s world-renowned Network Operations Center in Bedminster, New Jersey.

19 May 2010 John Manock
32 Qtel’s Credit Facility oversubscribed by 157 Percent

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) Q.S.C. has announced the successful closing of the General Syndication of its new US$2 billion dual tranche revolving credit facility. In the General Syndication Phase 17 additional banks joined with commitments of US$1.11 billion. The total subscribed amount of US$3.86 billion substantially exceeded the original target of US$1.5 billion.

19 May 2010 John Manock
33 BT Invests Across Asia Pacific to Seize Growth Opportunities

BT has announced it would further increase its capabilities across Asia Pacific, to capture the dynamic business opportunities available in the fast-growing region.

17 May 2010 John Manock
34 NTT Europe Opens New Warsaw PoP

NTT Europe, an ICT solutions partner and wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications (NTT Com), has announced the opening of a new PoP in Warsaw to provide extended reach of the Global IP Network into Eastern Europe. The new PoP is located in the LIM building and has begun serving customers this month.

11 May 2010 John Manock
35 Tata Partners with Infinity Africa in Tanzania

Tata Communications has partnered with Infinity Africa, a licensed Data Services Provider in Tanzania, expanding the reach of Tata Communications’ IP network further into East Africa.  This follows the company’s establishment of a point of presence (Pop) in Kenya six months ago, further reinforcing its commitment to emerging markets.

09 May 2010 John Manock
36 PTCL NOC Ensures a Fault Resilient and Highly Available Network

As part of its on going infrastructure development, a Network Operations Center established by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) facilitates a highly available, adaptable and fault resilient network, that can meet the market demand and ensures customer satisfaction, the company has announced.

06 May 2010 John Manock
37 Orange Tunisia Launches Operations in Tunisia

Orange and Investec, a Tunisian subsidiary of the Mabrouk group, have announced the launch of Orange Tunisia in the presence of Didier Lombard, Chairman of France Telecom, and Marwan Mabrouk, Chairman and CEO of Investec. The new operator, which will officially open its doors to customers on May 5, will offer customers mobile, fixed and internet services, becoming the first genuine convergent telecommunications operator in the country, the company said in a statement.

04 May 2010 John Manock
38 Chunghwa to Set Up Subsidiary in Vietnam

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has announced the establishment of a wholly owned subsidiary in Vietnam via an investment of US$5.1 million. Operations are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2010.

03 May 2010 John Manock
39 Rostelecom Completes 10,000-Kilometer Fiber Link

OJSC Rostelecom and JSC FGC UES have completed construction and launch for the commercial operation of the fiber-optic communication link linking Chelyabinsk and Khabarovsk., Russia.

02 May 2010 John Manock
40 Tinet Expands Its Global Network into Boston

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group and the only global carrier exclusively committed to the IP and Ethernet wholesale market, has announced at Markley Group’s Data Center & Telecom Networking Event, that it has selected Markley Group’s flagship data center facility at One Summer Street in Boston, Massachusetts as its latest network expansion location, further demonstrating Tinet’s commitment to its North American and global clients’ ever-increasing demands for IP and Ethernet services.

29 Apr 2010 John Manock
41 Megatrade Offers Hibernia Atlantic’s (GFN) to Its Members

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, and Megatrade Communications Services, a telecommunications share group for the Canadian securities industry, have announced that Hibernia’s low latency Global Financial Network (GFN) is now available to all Megatrade members. With this new offering, Megatrade clients now have access to secure and diverse low latency connectivity solutions throughout Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

29 Apr 2010 John Manock
42 Tata Communications Extends Its Reach to Russia

Tata Communications has announced a further expansion of its network into Russia via a local Moscow point of presence. As the brand sets its sights on the growing demand for telecom services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), its local presence in this geography further reinforces its focus on emerging markets.

27 Apr 2010 John Manock
43 HEC, PTCL Ink Largest Internet Connectivity Contract in Pakistan

The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) have entered into a landmark agreement in Islamabad for the provisioning of 10 Gigabit Premium Internet Bandwidth Connectivity. This is the largest Internet Backbone Connectivity ever acquired by any organization in Pakistan.

21 Apr 2010 John Manock
44 PCCW Global Opens New Point-of-Presence Malaysia

PCCW Global, a subsidiary of Hong Kong's premier telecommunications provider, PCCW Limited, has announced the opening of a new Point-of-Presence (PoP) at Telekom Malaysia Berhad's (TM) data center in Kuala Lumpur.

20 Apr 2010 John Manock
45 Tata Communications Extends Video Connect Reach

Tata Communications and Hibernia Media, a leading service provider for video transport and managed video services, has announced that they have partnered to provide a global solution for delivery of media services.

20 Apr 2010 John Manock
46 Verizon Leverages Network to Deliver Traffic for Content Owners, Aggregators

Internet and video content owners and content aggregators are increasingly looking to Verizon's expansive global network to leverage their success, pumping massive amounts of data across the network. Their content is now flowing at up to half a terabyte of data per second directly onto the Verizon network, speeding delivery and improving quality for end users.

15 Apr 2010 John Manock
47 Thai Carrier Changes Name, Looks to Expand Markets

True Internet Gateway has been renamed True International Gateway in a drive to strengthen its presence in regional markets, where it hopes to offer broadband services soon.

13 Apr 2010 John Manock
48 NTT Com to Establish New Global IP-VPN POPs

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced plans to establish points of presence (POP) for its Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN services in Penang, Malaysia; Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; and Zurich, Switzerland to provide multinational companies with access to high-quality, cost-effective global managed network services in these key Asian, U.S. and European regional markets.

08 Apr 2010 John Manock
49 AT&T Plans $1 Billion Investment in 2010

AT&T plans to invest approximately $1 billion in 2010 to scale its delivery of applications, mobility and cloud services for global companies, to expand small business services within the United States and to continue extending its network globally.  The plan includes the acquisition of more than 600 Gbps of new capacity on submarine cables worldwide.

06 Apr 2010 John Manock
50 NTT Com Asia Launches Global Virtualization Service in Hong Kong

NTT Com Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), has announced the launch of Global Virtualization Service in Hong Kong. Leveraging on the global infrastructure of the parent company and its partnership with VMware, the new and expanded capabilities of its virtualization service will provide customers with a one-stop solution to managing and monitoring their global operations efficiently.

05 Apr 2010 John Manock
51 Interoute Extends Its Reach to Istanbul

Interoute, owner of Europe’s largest next generation network, has announced that it has extended its pan-European fiber optic network into Istanbul, connecting Turkey to the heart of the EU. Despite the large numbers of European companies operating in Turkey, only a small number of providers cross the border into the EU, making options extremely limited for carriers and businesses. With Interoute’s fiber investment in Turkey, the provider becomes the only European operator to be able to provide high capacity connectivity direct from 26 European countries into Turkey’s dynamic business center.

31 Mar 2010 John Manock
52 ArmenTel Joins European Internet Backbone

ArmenTel has become the first telecommunication operator of Armenia to join the European Internet backbone via the Caucasus Cable System, ArmenTel press-service reports.  The new capacity will increase the total bandwidth of the company's network approximately by one-fourth.

30 Mar 2010 John Manock
53 DT, Telefonica Target Growth Areas

International telecom giants Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Telefonica de Espana have separately announced restructuring plans to take advantage of new opportunities in growing markets.

29 Mar 2010 John Manock
54 Niue Adds Satellite Capacity

Niue, a small South Pacific island covering only 260 square kilometers, has increased its Internet bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 4 Mbps.  Internet Users Society Niue, which provides Internet access to the island’s 1,400 people for free, will use the capacity to provide faster services, as well as extend its WiFi coverage to smaller villages.  The society also plans to acquire another 2 Mbps of capacity from an alternative satellite provider to serve as backup.

28 Mar 2010 John Manock
55 Zimbabwe Carrier in Deal to Reach Submarine Cables

Internet access provider PowerTel Communications (Private) Limited has become the first company in landlocked Zimbabwe to connect to the global submarine cable network via a terrestrial fiber optic connection through Botswana.  PowerTel signed a two-year contract with Botswana Telecommunications Company (BTC) in a US$5 million deal in January.

25 Mar 2010 John Manock
56 East African Backhaul System Nears Completion

A consortium of nine carriers from five countries is hoping to complete a fiber optic network connecting landlocked countries to East African submarine cables by the summer.

23 Mar 2010 John Manock
57 Bhutan Telecom Completes Link to London

Bhutan Telecom (BTL) has announced that it is the first company from that country ever to provide international access using optical fiber cable. The commissioning of this international fiber link extending from Phuentsholing to a PoP at Telehouse East in London via Mumbai is considered a landmark achievement compared to the company’s first international telecommunication link through a satellite system in the early 1990s.

21 Mar 2010 John Manock
58 Pacnet Delivers Enhanced IPv6 Services

Pacnet, Asia’s leading independent telecommunications service provider, has announced the expansion of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) services to major cities across the region, improving network performance and enabling businesses to simplify network management while avoiding the impending exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.

10 Mar 2010 John Manock
59 Tata Communications Achieves Record Growth

Tata Communications has reported impressive growth in the last fiscal year and plans continued investment momentum for the upcoming year.

05 Mar 2010 John Manock
60 NTT Com Links IP-VPN Services with TTK in Russia

NTT Communications (NTT Com), a global ICT solutions provider, and Company TTK (also known as TransTelekom), the operator of Russia’s largest fiber-optic network, have announced the interconnection of NTT Com’s Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN and TTK’s IP-VPN services in Russia, as well as the availability of Arcstar Global IP-VPN service nationwide.

04 Mar 2010 John Manock
61 Etisalat, Global Crossing Announce Deal

Etisalat, a leading carrier in the Middle East, has announced an agreement with Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, to provide seamless connectivity alternatives to customers who want to expand their connectivity to the United States, Canada and Latin America from the United Arab Emirates.

02 Mar 2010 John Manock
62 Russian Carrier to Upgrade Europe-Asia Fiber Link

Russian carrier TransTelekom (TTK) has commenced a large-scale project to double the capacity of its backbone DWDM network, the EurasiaHighway, which crosses the entire breadth of the Russian Federation, by mid-2010. Ultimately, this network upgrade will allow TTK to increase its overall protected capacity to up to 1.6 Tbps and its total unreserved capacity to 3.2 Tbps.

25 Feb 2010 John Manock
63 Hibernia Atlantic's GFN Added to GeoReach

Switch and Data, a leading provider of network-neutral data center and Internet exchange services, has announced that Hibernia Atlantic’s Global Financial Network (GFN), a next generation multi-gigabit, high-speed exchange connectivity platform, has become part of Switch and Data’s GeoReach Program in North Bergen, New Jersey. Hibernia’s GFN provides a fiber network which is dedicated to global capital markets across all asset classes in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

22 Feb 2010 John Manock
64 Interoute Extends Pan-European Fiber Network to Ireland

Interoute, owner operator of Europe’s largest next generation network, has announced that it has extended its pan-European network into Ireland to meet demand from multinational enterprises looking for connectivity in the region.  The new Dublin point of presence (PoP), which is live and fully operational, provides businesses with resilient, high quality voice and data services and a fast and reliable bridge to the rest of Europe.

18 Feb 2010 John Manock
65 NTT America Anticipates Continued Capacity Demand

NTT America, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and a global IP network services provider, expects that demand for Internet capacity worldwide will continue to grow due to broadband availability.

17 Feb 2010 John Manock
66 Eurovision Picks TTK for Vancouver Olympics

Russian carrier TransTelekom (TTK) has announced it has been awarded a contract by Eurovision to help transmit the HDTV signal for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver from central Europe into and throughout the Russian Federation. Tens of millions of viewers are expected to tune in across Russia to top TV stations Channel 1 and Channel Russia, and TTK will be responsible for delivering an uninterrupted, HD-quality and frequently live signal from the Eurovision’s points of presence (PoPs) in Frankfurt and Helsinki to Moscow. The project will involve provisioning of new STM-1 and STM-4 capacity leased lines between these locations.

11 Feb 2010 John Manock
67 NTT Com Increases Japan-U.S. Backbone to 300 Gbps

NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced today that it has significantly increased the data transmission speed of its Global IP Network between the United States and Japan to an industry-leading 300 Gbps, further enhancing the company’s leadership in Tier-1 transpacific IP connectivity.

09 Feb 2010 John Manock
68 TIS Hi-tech, Pacnet Form Data Center Alliance

Tianjin TIS Hi-tech Information System Service Co., Ltd., an affiliate of TIS Inc., a subsidiary of IT Holdings Corporation, has announced the signing of a business alliance with Pacnet Business Solutions (China), a business unit of the leading regional telecommunications service provider, Pacnet, to jointly develop a new data center facility in Tianjin, China.

04 Feb 2010 John Manock
69 Tata Launches Its Largest Indian Data Center

Tata Communications has unveiled its largest data center in the country. Spread across nearly 55,000 net square feet, the data center would offer services including co-location, managed hosting and storage and a suite of complementary services including managed security services and CDN services. The Pune IDC will reside on Tata Communications’ Tier-1 IP backbone enabling it to provide high capacity Internet, MPLS and global Ethernet services.

02 Feb 2010 John Manock
70 Vodacom South Africa Cuts Bandwidth Rates by 50%

Vodacom Business has announced that its customers will pay up to 50% less for their international Internet connectivity (local internet access portion included), making it amongst the lowest prices for fully restored Internet access services in South Africa.  The cost reduction comes about thanks to the proliferation of new submarine cable systems serving South Africa.

01 Feb 2010 John Manock
71 Gateway Continues to Invest in Africa

Gateway Communications will continue to invest in infrastructure in East Africa, while at the same time moving closer to complete its vision of a national MPLS network for Nigeria.

31 Jan 2010 John Manock
72 TTK Doubles Capacity of Moscow POP

Russian telecommunications company TransTeleKom (TTK) has concluded the next upgrade of its IP-MPLS-backbone Points of Presence (PoPs) in Moscow. The two T1600 routers by Juniper Networks were installed at mutually reserved PoPs, with each unit supporting 80 10 Gbps ports, resulting in a doubling of capacity at each PoP.

26 Jan 2010 John Manock
73 Vietnam Telecom Industry Grows Dramatically

In the last five years, Vietnam’s telephone and Internet density have grown 428% and 1,777%, respectively, according to the country’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

25 Jan 2010 John Manock
74 Pacnet Awarded License in Malaysia

Pacnet has announced that it has obtained a Network Service Provider (NSP) license from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), paving the way for businesses and carriers in Malaysia to access high bandwidth international network connectivity solutions backed by Pacnet’s extensive subsea cable network.

25 Jan 2010 John Manock
75 Bharti Airtel, Limelight Announce Strategic Partnership

Bharti Airtel has announced a strategic partnership with Limelight Networks® for Content Delivery Network (CDN) services in the Indian market place. The partnership will help Limelight Networks® to expand its access in one of the fastest growing CDN markets and enable its customers, access to Bharti Airtel’s state-of-the-art IP network in India. With this agreement, Bharti Airtel will now be able to offer Indian content producers, industry-leading solutions for the delivery of rich media and enterprise applications, as well as direct access to consumers accessing the Internet, over 900 last mile networks that are directly connected to Limelight Networks’ global platform.

24 Jan 2010 John Manock
76 NTT Com Further Expands Footprint in China

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced its further expansion in China with the opening of a new branch office in Wuhan, Hubei Province in February and the launch of a new point of presence (POP) for its Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN managed network services in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. The Wuhan office is a milestone for NTT Com as the first branch office of a global telecommunications company in the city.

24 Jan 2010 John Manock
77 Hibernia Atlantic Adds Interxion to Its GFN

Hibernia Atlantic’s Global Financial Network (GFN), a next generation multi-gigabit, high-speed connectivity platform, has added Interxion's London Proximity Data Center to its GFN multi-market footprint.

21 Jan 2010 John Manock
78 Interoute, Gibtelecom Bring New Telecom Choice to Gibraltar

Gibtelecom, the leading telecommunications provider in Gibraltar, and Interoute, owner operator of a state of the art European next generation network, have deployed an alternative telecommunications route to Gibraltar, offering high capacity connectivity between the Rock and the rest of Europe.

21 Jan 2010 John Manock
79 China Telecom Selects Tinet for International Ethernet Service

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group and the only global carrier exclusively committed to the IP and Ethernet wholesale market, and China Telecom (Europe) Ltd., the subsidiary of China Telecommunications Corporation, China’s principal telecom operator and comprehensive information provider and owner of the world's largest fixed-line communication network, have announced that China Telecom’s partnership with Tinet for International Ethernet Private Line service.

19 Jan 2010 John Manock
80 SingTel, KVH to Launch Ultra Low Latency Network

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and KVH, market leaders in low latency services in Singapore and Japan, respectively, have announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly develop and operate an ultra low latency and fully redundant network service between Singapore and Japan for the financial trading community.

14 Jan 2010 John Manock
81 Bharti Airtel Announces Strategic Organizational Changes

Bharti Airtel Limited has announced strategic organizational changes with the objective to enhance its focus on expanding operations to international markets beyond India and South Asia and further consolidate its leadership position in India.

13 Jan 2010 John Manock
82 C&W Strengthens Business Presence in China

Cable & Wireless (C&W) is building its infrastructure services and strengthening its partnership agreements in China, to continue the company’s significant growth in the region.

12 Jan 2010 John Manock
83 KDDI Launches Telehouse JV in Vietnam

KDDI Corporation, FPT Information System (FIS), the largest system integrator (SI) in Vietnam, and ITX, which is expanding its telecommunications service business, have established the joint venture Telehouse Vietnam, reached an agreement to develop the data center business, and concluded a contract among share holders.

07 Jan 2010 John Manock
84 Qtel, Tata Introduce Advanced Services in Qatar

Qtel and Tata Communications have jointly announced the launch of enterprise network services, enabling a range of dedicated Ethernet services to be offered to customers seeking connectivity in Qatar and globally. The partnership enables Qtel to extend its reach by offering Layer-2 Global Ethernet services into and out of Qatar, while Tata Communications can now extend its global network coverage across the region.

06 Jan 2010 John Manock
85 Verizon Network Investment Tops $17 Billion in 2009

Verizon has invested more than $17 billion this year in its wireless and wireline networks in the U.S. and internationally.  The Verizon global IP network serves more than 2,700 cities in 159 countries, and its wireless network reaches approximately 289 million Americans.

04 Jan 2010 John Manock
86 Pacnet Delivers Pioneering Intelligent Private Line Service

Pacnet has launched Pacnet SmartTransport, Asia’s first international private line service with flexible protection options to address the growing demand for uninterrupted network connectivity.

23 Dec 2009 John Manock
87 Global Crossing Completes Data Center Expansion in Santiago

Global Crossing has announced the completion of its Data Center expansion in Santiago.  The company has substantially improved the power generation capacity at these facilities located in the district of Huechuraba.

20 Dec 2009 John Manock
88 NTT Com Expands in India, New Zealand, US

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced plans to establish a point of presence (POP) for its Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN managed network service in Chennai, India and also to interconnect the service with an IP-VPN service operated by Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) in New Zealand.

20 Dec 2009 John Manock
89 Telecom Italia Sparkle Extends Its IP Backbone

Telecom Italia Sparkle extends the reach of SEABONE, its global 1.5 Tbps IP backbone, into the heart of the Balkans through the opening of its latest points of presence in Bucharest, Romania and Istanbul, Turkey.

17 Dec 2009 John Manock
90 Verizon Deploys Commercial 100G Optical System

On December 14, Verizon became the first telecommunications carrier to successfully deploy a commercial 100G (gigabits per second) ultra-long-haul optical system for live traffic. This system was deployed on the company's European optical core network between Paris and Frankfurt. The accomplishment marks the first time for deployment of ultra-long-haul 100G using a single channel on a production network.

16 Dec 2009 John Manock
91 Telstra International Expands Connectivity in Asia

Telstra International, a leading global provider of managed network solutions, today unveiled a series of initiatives to deepen its connectivity in key Asian growth markets in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. As well, the company announced that it has reinforced its dual-PoP strategy to provide enhanced diversity to its network coverage. Together, the expanded connectivity and diverse network coverage address the growing need to support customers with an advanced business continuity capability.

15 Dec 2009 John Manock
92 PIPE International Chooses Equinix Sydney Data Center

Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, today announced that PIPE International (Australia), a wholly-owned subsidiary of PIPE Networks has selected Equinix as a key interconnect provider for its new PIPE Pacific Cable (PPC-1) undersea cable. Through Equinix Sydney-1 (SY1) International Business Exchange(TM) (IBX(R)) data center located in its Sydney campus, Equinix will provide PIPE with convenient, secure and cost-effective access to the aggregation of Australia's leading carriers operating within the center.

09 Dec 2009 John Manock
93 KDDI Announces Launch of Data Center in South Africa

Telehouse Europe, KDDI Group's European local subsidiary, has opened its new data center Telehouse Cape Town in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa. This is the first data center opened by a Japanese telecommunications carrier in Africa.

08 Dec 2009 John Manock
94 Gateway Communications Awarded NFP License in Kenya

Gateway Communications has been awarded three new licenses, including the Network Facilities Provider (NFP) Tier 2 License by the Communications Commission of Kenya. The new licenses further Gateway’s drive to build a pan-African connectivity network that covers every major African city, based on satellite, submarine cable and terrestrial (fiber) infrastructure.

01 Dec 2009 John Manock
95 Telkom South Africa Opens New Data Center

Telkom South Africa has launched its latest state-of-the-art green data center, called Bellville 2, in Cape Town under a new brand offering called Cybernest.

30 Nov 2009 John Manock
96 KDN Adds Redundancy to Its Domestic Network

Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has begun a 700-kilometer terrestrial fiber optic cable project from Thika to Mombasa.  The new network will provide redundancy for KDN’s existing Mombasa-Nairobi link.  Construction on the new cable will be completed in the spring of 2010.

23 Nov 2009 John Manock
97 Telstra International Expands Global Data Center Footprint in UK

Telstra International has announced further expansion of its global data center network. The new multi-million pound facility in Woking, UK, will provide an additional 10,000 square feet of hosting space for Telstra International’s customers worldwide. It is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2009.

17 Nov 2009 John Manock
98 Submarine Cables Help Bottom Line of Kenyan Carrier

AccessKenya Group, Kenya’s first publicly listed ICT company and Kenya’s leading data services provider, has announced that it has achieved its year end customer target numbers nearly two months ahead of schedule, with 3,000 customers now signed up to its residential broadband service and over 3,100 customers now contracted for its leading corporate broadband service, Broadband Max.

16 Nov 2009 John Manock
99 Telkom South Africa Prepares for 2010 World Cup

This year's FIFA Confederations Cup, played last June in South Africa, saw 100% broadcast efficiencies being enabled by the backbone ICT infrastructure that was provisioned by Telkom South Africa.  The event was a key test of the carrier’s readiness for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, also to be held in South Africa.

12 Nov 2009 John Manock
100 Hibernia Atlantic Extends GFN

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic submarine transport cable provider, and Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, has announced the expansion of its Global Financial Network (GFN) into the Equinix New York-2 (NY2) and New York-4 (NY4) International Business Exchange (IBX®) data centers in Secaucus, New Jersey. This expansion further drives Hibernia Atlantic’s redundancy within the New York metro area and reinforces the company’s commitment to provide reliable connectivity to its financial customers, bypassing major congestion points located within major metro city centers. This link into Equinix Financial eXchange, a neutral electronic marketplace of active market participants located in the NY2 and NY4 centers, is also a much-desired route for financial exchange traffic, moving from Chicago to Secaucus (bypassing Manhattan when and if necessary) and across the Atlantic Ocean to Slough, UK (bypassing London when and if necessary as well).

11 Nov 2009 John Manock
101 Nicaragua’s Enitel Connects to Arbinet’s Wholesale Carrier Services

Arbinet Corporation has announced that leading mobile provider and Nicaraguan PTT, Enitel (Empresa Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones), will use Arbinet’s new wholesale Carrier Service interface for termination and origination of international calls. Enitel will benefit from Arbinet’s scale, global reach and sophisticated routing capabilities to deliver high quality, lower cost international calling to its customers in Nicaragua. Arbinet gains reliable, high quality termination capacity in Nicaragua for its retail and wholesale customers.

10 Nov 2009 John Manock
102 Interoute Upgrades European Network

Interoute, owner operator of one of Europe’s largest next generation voice and data network, and Juniper Networks Inc, the leader in high performance networking, have announced that an extra 9.5 Terabits of capacity has been added to Interoute’s pan European IP network. The upgrade is in response to increased Internet traffic from ISPs, content providers and enterprise customers, which led to Interoute experiencing IP traffic doubling every 12 months.

09 Nov 2009 John Manock
103 TM Joins Global Crossing to Extend Its Reach

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia’s leading integrated information and communications group, recently signed a partnership agreement with Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, to join Global Crossing’s Global Partner Program (GPP).

09 Nov 2009 John Manock
104 AT&T Completes Acquisition of Centennial Communications

AT&T announced that it has completed its acquisition of Centennial Communications Corp. The acquisition enhances AT&T’s network coverage across the Midwest and Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

08 Nov 2009 John Manock
105 CAT Selects Tinet for Global High-Availability IP Transit

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group and the only global carrier exclusively committed to the IP and Ethernet wholesale market, and CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (CAT), the Thai state-owned telecommunications company, have announce CAT’s selection of Tinet’s IP-Flow IP Transit service in key cities in Europe. The additional ports in these European markets provide CAT additional global reach for communications to and from Thailand.

05 Nov 2009 John Manock
106 AT&T Global Network Extended to Kuwait

AT&T has announced that it has extended the AT&T network through a new node in Kuwait City.  The new node will provide AT&T’s global customers with improved connectivity in the Middle East and allow local Kuwaiti companies better access to global markets via AT&T’s worldwide network.

04 Nov 2009 John Manock
107 NTT Com to Launch Global Virtual Hosting

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced Biz Hosting Global, a virtual hosting service with globally unified virtualization features, which will be launched through premium data centers in the United States, Europe and Hong Kong from January 2010 and in Singapore at a later date.

03 Nov 2009 John Manock
108 Interoute Expands Its Presence in Russia

Interoute has announced that it has expanded its network to Moscow in response to a surge in demand from enterprises looking for connectivity in the region.  The new Point of Presence (PoP) in Moscow is providing businesses and service providers alike with fast, cost effective access to the rest of Europe and resilient, high quality voice and data services to support their operations.  Interoute’s network expansion provides Russia with part of the infrastructure investment it is seeking as it strives to diversify its economy away from oil, its largest and most volatile export.

02 Nov 2009 John Manock
109 Bharti Airtel Launches Global Ethernet Services

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of Ethernet services in more than 25 global cities across Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. As a promotional offer, Bharti Airtel is offering 'One Capacity One Price' to US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong to both the Enterprise and Wholesale customers. The launch of the Global Ethernet Service Portfolio by Bharti Airtel is part of its strategy to become a truly global service provider with wide range of product offerings.

01 Nov 2009 John Manock
110 BT to Expand Footprint for UK's Fastest Broadband

In another example of the growing demand for Internet bandwidth, BT has revealed plans to more than double the availability of its fastest fiber broadband service. The company said it now plans to deliver speeds of up to 100 Mbps – the fastest in the UK – to around 2.5 million UK homes and businesses using fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology. This has the capacity to deliver far greater speeds in the future – of up to 1Gbps – should there be commercial demand.

29 Oct 2009 John Manock
111 Rostelecom Touts TEA

Rostelecom, Russian national telecommunications operator, a member of Svyazinvest group of companies, touted its Asia-Europe network at the recent ITU TELECOM World 2009.

28 Oct 2009 John Manock
112 Carrier Proposes Nigeria-to-Tunisia Terrestrial Fiber Cable Route

Brymedia West Africa Limited, one of the bidders for Nigerian national carrier Nitel, has proposed building a terrestrial fiber optic cable across Nigeria, across Niger and Algeria, to Tunisia as an alternative to submarine cables.

26 Oct 2009 John Manock
113 Etisalat Partners with China Telecom to Enhance Global IP VPN Network

Etisalat has announced a further expansion of its global IP VPN initiative by signing a partnership agreement with China Telecom to enhance connectivity options for customers from UAE and China.

26 Oct 2009 John Manock
114 Verizon Moves Toward Single, Higher Capacity, More Intelligent Global Network

Verizon is transforming its global network into a single, higher-capacity platform that combines optical transport with advanced packet-switching technology.

25 Oct 2009 John Manock
115 NTT America Supports Growth of Internet in Central America

NTT America, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and a Tier-1 global IP network services provider, has announced company executives spoke and moderated panels at the recent Capacity Central America 2009 conference in Panama.

22 Oct 2009 John Manock
116 Verizon Business Circles Globe With Optical Mesh Network; Begins Extension to Middle East

Undersea meshing creates additional paths to seamlessly reroute traffic in the event of multiple undersea cable breaks or network disruptions.  Verizon Business was the first service provider to offer seven-way diversity for services traversing cable systems in the Atlantic and Pacific.  The meshing is made possible by installing communications equipment in network facility buildings linked to the submarine cables.

21 Oct 2009 John Manock
117 World Bank Supports Central Africa Backbone Program

The Executive Board of Directors of the World Bank Group has announced its endorsement of the $215 million, ten-year Central African Backbone Program (CAB Program). This program will support the countries of the Central African region in developing their high-speed telecommunications backbone infrastructure to increase the availability of high-speed Internet and reduce end-user prices. The CAB Program will also help countries harmonize the laws and regulations that govern the ICT sector to increase private sector investment and improve competition.

18 Oct 2009 John Manock
118 Level 3, Internet2 Deliver Transatlantic Link to Large Hadron Collider

Level 3 Communications, Inc. and Internet2 have announced an expanded relationship to provide transatlantic and U.S. network connectivity for United States. LHCNet. The network will transport data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a massive particle accelerator spanning the French-Swiss border, to more than 1,700 scientists at 94 institutions across the United States.

14 Oct 2009 John Manock
119 TELEHOUSE America Launches Global Data Center and Managed Services

TELEHOUSE America, the United States’ leading provider of dedicated data centers, international Internet exchanges and managed IT services, has announced today the global availability of TELEHOUSE-branded data centers in 17 cities throughout Asia, North America and Europe.  Companies requiring global data center solutions, connectivity and managed services can now contact global TELEHOUSE team for facility space and power in any of the TELEHOUSE-branded facilities located in France, The United Kingdom, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.  This announcement comes on the heels of TELEHOUSE America’s announcement launching its ubiquitous IP Transit services and the availability of its Global Interlink US-Europe Ethernet connectivity solutions between its major data centers in the United States and Europe.

11 Oct 2009 John Manock
120 TeliaSonera International Carrier Offers 40 Gbps Wavelength

TeliaSonera International Carrier is now offering 40 Gbps Wavelength on its existing DWDM network in Europe.

06 Oct 2009 John Manock
121 Telecom Italia Sparkle, CDNetworks Announce Strategic Partnership

Telecom Italia Sparkle, a leading global telecommunications service provider and CDNetworks, a top tier, full-service global content delivery network, have announced a strategic partnership that enables Telecom Italia Sparkle to provide content delivery services to customers across Europe. The strategic partnership expands Telecom Italia Sparkle’s service portfolio with the addition of CDNetworks’ full suite of advanced content delivery solutions for media delivery, content acceleration, and software and other file downloads.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
122 Qtel’s Credit Facility Oversubscribed by 100 Percent

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has announced the signing of a syndicated revolving credit facility, following the closing of the general syndication phase of the US$1.5 billion facility that was closed in March 2009.  The general syndication, which was launched at US$1.5 billion, was to provide existing and new lenders to Qtel an opportunity to join the facility. The Facility was oversubscribed by more than 100 percent and the final facility size was increased to US$ 2 billion.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
123 NTT Com to Launch Subsidiary in Philippines

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has announced it will establish NTT Communications Philippines Corporation (NTT Com Philippines) as a wholly owned subsidiary in Manila to provide system integration, security solutions and other ICT services from October 1.

04 Oct 2009 John Manock
124 Telefonica Expands Network Reach

Telefonica has opened new operational units in 15 European countries to further enhance the integrated telecommunications services it offers Multinational Corporations across the region. As well as strengthening its international network capabilities, Telefonica also unveiled a new suite of solutions for corporate customers, including the new Telefonica Multinational Solutions web portal, now live at: www.multinationalsolutions.telefonica.com.

27 Sep 2009 John Manock
125 Myanmar-Thailand Terrestrial Fiber Network Completed

The Myanmar Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and the Telecommunication Organization of Thailand (TOT) have completed the building of a terrestrial fiber optic network between the two countries.

27 Sep 2009 John Manock
126 KDDI to Establish Local Subsidiary in Shanghai

KDDI will establish a local subsidiary in Shanghai. KDDI Shanghai will begin operations on October 15, 2009.

24 Sep 2009 John Manock
127 Tata Communications Extends WAN Ethernet Service to China

Tata Communications has announced that it has extended its Ethernet service portfolio into China, with immediate availability. Tata Communications will provide market-leading Ethernet services to global enterprises and carriers wanting to connect China with major global business centers worldwide, and builds on its existing MPLS and IPLC capabilities in the country.

Through an alliance and proven network interoperability with Beijing-based value-added telecoms services and integrated IT solutions provider China Enterprise Communications (CEC), Tata Communications now offers the reliability, security, flexibility, and manageability of its Dedicated Ethernet and Priority Ethernet line of services into the Chinese market. Many companies today use Tata Communications’ MEF certified Ethernet services to simplify their network and reduce their costs. Now the superior Ethernet capabilities of Tata Communications are also available to China, adding to the existing footprint of over 200 cities across 31 on-net countries.

The service will provide global point to point, point to multipoint, and multipoint Ethernet coverage to China’s largest business centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with the option of either PoP-to-PoP or end-to-end service guarantees.

James Walker, Tata Communications’ Vice President for Global VPN Services, sees the service’s launch as a milestone.

"With the extension of coverage into China, Tata Communications is no longer just the leader in global Ethernet services– we ace the competition in Asia Pacific too. China is the world’s fastest growing trading nation and combined with our deep coverage in India, Tata Communications is providing Ethernet coverage into two of the most dynamic economies in the world and onwards to all major business locations in 31 countries. We are pleased that our suite of advanced connectivity solutions will play a pivotal role in the continued growth of China and India," said Walker.

Ms. Sun Yinghong, China Enterprise Communication’s Chief Operating Officer of CEC, said, "This partnership allows us to build on our extensive network reach to link even more Chinese MNCs to the world through superior Ethernet services. Innovative solutions go further with meaningful alliances, and we have greatly benefited from our collaboration with Tata Communications."

Tata Communications’ Ethernet service portfolio has points of presence in the US, Canada, 13 European countries, Russia, Qatar, UAE, South Africa, and now 12 countries in Asia Pacific, with new locations being added regularly.

23 Sep 2009 John Manock
128 Afghan Fiber Network Provides Access to International Cables

Afghan Telecom (AT), Afghanistan’s first long distance domestic private leased circuit and international private leased circuit provider through optical fiber cable, has announced a significant agreement with Roshan to sell the transmission capacity of its national fiber optic backbone ring network. The network, constructed by AT, will complement Roshan’s existing infrastructure, enabling Roshan to ensure the redundancy of its network and provide additional capacity for its growing number of subscribers.

23 Sep 2009 John Manock
129 Nigeria’s Phase3 Signs Deal with Benin

Nigerian carrier Phase3 Telecom, has signed an agreement with the Republic of Benin to extend its fiber optic cable network across West Africa.

16 Sep 2009 John Manock
130 Neotel Gearing for Growth

Neotel has officially moved its head office in Gauteng. The Neotel Midrand Campus is situated at Old Pretoria Road, Midrand.

15 Sep 2009 John Manock
131 Telefonica, China Unicom Announced Strategic Alliance

Telefonica and China Unicom have entered into a strategic alliance agreement pursuant to which the parties agreed that they would cooperate in various business areas such as the joint acquisition of infrastructure and equipment for customers, the joint development of wireless service platforms, the joint provision of services to multinational enterprises, roaming, R&D, the sharing of best practices and technical, operational and management expertise, the joint development of a set of strategic initiatives within the framework of network and technology development, as well as establish an exchange program for their managers.

15 Sep 2009 John Manock
132 NTT America Announces Second Data Center in Silicon Valley

In response to rapidly growing customer demand for premium data center facilities and services, NTT America, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, today announced the addition of a second data center in the Silicon Valley Area of California. This addition expands NTT America’s premium data center space in Silicon Valley by 15,000 square feet.

15 Sep 2009 John Manock
133 Telstra Opens UK Data Center

Telstra International, a leading global provider of managed networked solutions, has announced further expansion of its global data center network. The new multi-million pound facility in Woking, United Kingdom, will provide an additional 10,000 square feet of hosting space for Telstra International's customers worldwide. It is due to open in Q4 2009.

15 Sep 2009 John Manock
134 Carriers Upgrade Azerbaijan Internet Bandwidth Capacity

Russian carrier TransTelekom (TTK) has announced the completion of a project with Delta Telecom, one of the biggest Internet providers in Azerbaijan, which saw it upgrade the company’s IP bandwidth access to the global Internet to 2.5 Gbps.

10 Sep 2009 John Manock
135 Office Squared Teams Up with Pacnet

Pacnet has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Office Squared, a subsidiary of Servcorp, a world leader in the serviced office industry, to provide Internet-based solutions to tenants at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park.

09 Sep 2009 John Manock
136 Global Crossing Announces Proposed Private Offering

Global Crossing Limited has announced that it intends to offer $650 million of its senior secured notes due 2015 in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A and Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The purpose of the offering is to refinance Global Crossing's existing term loan facility, to fund the purchase of senior notes issued by GC Impsat Holdings I Plc and to raise capital for general corporate purposes.

08 Sep 2009 John Manock
137 TDM Selects Alcatel-Lucent to Extend Backbone

Alcatel-Lucent has announced that it has further strengthened its working relationship with Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique (TDM), the Mozambican state-owned telecommunications company, by signing a 21 million Euro contract to deploy the third phase of Mozambique's national transmission network.

08 Sep 2009 John Manock
138 Telstra's Network Nerve Center on Display after 10 Years

A decade after the Global Operations Center first opened its doors, Telstra's networks continue to receive around-the-clock attention thanks to a vision and commitment to technology leadership that are still the industry benchmarks today.

07 Sep 2009 John Manock
139 Telecom Italia Sparkle Adds MIX to Its Reach of Internet Exchanges

Telecom Italia Sparkle, a leading provider of international telecommunication services, and MIX (Milano Internet Exchange), the largest Italian Internet Exchange Point, announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement.

03 Sep 2009 John Manock
140 Verizon Business Expands Cloud Computing Capabilities in Europe

Verizon Business has extended availability of its comprehensive on-demand, "cloud-based" Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution to the company's Amsterdam data center.  The announcement reinforces the company's strategy of expanding cloud-computing deployment resources around the globe to meet the stringent security, performance regulatory requirements of business customers.

02 Sep 2009 John Manock
141 Telstra International Launches Enhanced Suite of Ethernet Services

Telstra International, a global provider of managed network services, has expanded its range of Ethernet Wide Area Network (WAN) services to provide customers with a complete range of Ethernet connectivity options across Asia, Europe and the US. The offering, available throughout 12 countries, will enable multinational companies to expand their international reach and establish scalable connections with regional offices around the world.

01 Sep 2009 John Manock
142 First Direct India-China Terrestrial Cable Completed

Reliance Communications and China Telecom have announced the opening of the first direct terrestrial cable link between the Chinese and Indian domestic markets.

31 Aug 2009 John Manock
143 Nigeria Promote “Fibre Without Borders” Concept

Telecom engineer and current Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria’s telecom regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, has advocated the concept of "Fibre Without Borders” (FWB) as panacea for achieving possible African telecom revolution in terms of seamless telecommunications connectivity, quick, and affordable broadband access to the citizenry.

25 Aug 2009 John Manock
144 Southern Africa Looks to Connect Landlocked Countries with Fiber

The Southern African Telecommunications Association (SATA) is carrying out a feasibility study to get landlocked countries in the region connected to the East Africa submarine cable.

24 Aug 2009 John Manock
145 Paypal Problem Shows Economic Impact of Outages

It was not related to a submarine cable cut, but a recent outage suffered by Paypal global network demonstrates the financial impact of the loss of Internet access in today’s economy.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
146 Chinese BPO Firm Picks Pacnet

Pacnet has announced that CDP Group, a leading human resource (HR) one-stop solution provider in China, has selected Pacnet to provide business-grade Internet connectivity to support its HR outsourcing services.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
147 Bharti Airtel Unveils New Global Wholesale Service Portfolio

Bharti Airtel has unveiled its Global Wholesale Service Portfolio with a network that will reach 50 countries across the continents of Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Bhart Airtel’s portfolio will enable the global carrier community access to Bharti Airtel’s services to and from any part of the globe. This expanded connectivity has come on the back of investments of over USD 500 million made on building cable capacity, network infrastructure and international Points of Presence.

20 Aug 2009 John Manock
148 Neotel Spreads Its Wings to Southern Africa Region

Neotel, in partnership with fellow South African carrier Infraco, is expanding connectivity into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

19 Aug 2009 John Manock
149 Tinet Further Expands Its Operations in the US

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group, and the only global carrier exclusively committed to the IP and Ethernet wholesale market, has announced further expansion of its operations in North America.

In the last quarter, the company added 25 long haul backbone circuits across the U.S. and opened three additional network Points of Presence (PoPs) in Newark, New Jersey, Dallas, Texas and Denver, Colorado.

16 Aug 2009 John Manock
150 TTK Strategy Targets Internet

TTK recently announced the preliminary results of its “Development Strategy for 2008-2015.” TTK’s Board of Directors adopted the Strategy in February 2008.

TTK Development Strategy suggested the development of retail broadband Internet access in Russian regions, provision of local and Long Distance Calls telephony and other retail telecommunication services. By 2015, TTK aims to control 17% of Russian regional fixed telecommunications retail market. Plans are to service more than 2 million households.

12 Aug 2009 John Manock
151 Russian Carrier TTK Secures Loan from UniCredit Bank

Russian telecom carrier TransTelekom (TTK) announced it has concluded an agreement with UniCredit Bank CJSC (the Russian branch of UniCredit Group) that approves the provision of a bi-currency loan of US$83 million. Under the terms of the agreement, which is made up of two separate amounts of US$35.5 million and 1.545 billion Russian rubles, TTK has three years to pay back the loan.

TTK is the operator of Russia’s one of the largest fiber-optic networks, including a submarine cable linking the Russian Far East to Japan.

12 Aug 2009 John Manock
152 Russia’s MTS, Telecom Italia Sparkle Establish Direct Connection

Telecom Italia Sparkle, a leading global telecommunication service provider, and Mobile Tele Systems (MTS), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, have established a direct connection to be used for international voice traffic.

10 Aug 2009 John Manock
153 Company Financial Reports

Companies are releasing their latest quarterly for the period ending June 30.  The following are some of the results for companies involved in the submarine cable industry.

05 Aug 2009 John Manock
154 VNPT opens Internet Data Center in Thanh Hoa

VNPT Thanh Hoa, in cooperation with the Vietnam Data Communications Company (VDC), a unit of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), has officially opened an Internet data center in Thanh Hoa province.

03 Aug 2009 John Manock
155 TM, CPCNet Boost International Connectivity between Malaysia and China

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) recently signed a business partnership agreement with CPCNet Hong Kong Limited (CPCNet), a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC 1616 Holding Limited to provide CPCNet with managed ICT services including Multi Protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN), Metro-E and Managed Customer Premise Equipment (CPE).

03 Aug 2009 John Manock
156 Telstra, Nortel Announce “World-First” Trials

Telstra and Nortel have successfully completed world-first trials of next generation 100 Gbps and 40 Gbps transmission over the longest distances ever attempted.

A continuous 2,038-kilometer fiber optic link between Adelaide and Sydney was used for the 100 Gbps trial, while the 40 Gbps trial took place over 3,370 kilometers on a looped-back section of the Sydney to Adelaide route. Both trials used Nortel optical technology on existing Telstra fiber.

03 Aug 2009 John Manock
157 Akamai Announces First Quarter 2009 State of The Internet Report

Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, has announced the release of the first quarter 2009 edition of its quarterly State of the Internet report available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet.  Leveraging information gathered from its network and published reports, Akamai's quarterly report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as origin of attack traffic, network and Web site outages and Internet connectivity levels across the globe.

30 Jul 2009 John Manock
158 Global Crossing Extends European Strategy with New Amsterdam Data Center
Global Crossing has announced the opening of its Amsterdam data center. The newly constructed data center, which already houses clients such as Dimension Data, provides virtual hosting solutions as well as hosted managed services.
27 Jul 2009 Administrator
159 Hibernia Atlantic Picks Fort George for Telehouse
Hibernia Atlantic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Ventures Corporation, has announced that it has proposed to build the Project Kelvin telehouse in Fort George, Londonderry.
27 Jul 2009 Administrator
160 East African Venture Offers Seamless Connectivity
Kenya Data Networks and her sister company in Uganda, Infocom, can now boast of seamless connectivity between Mombasa, Kenya, and Kampala, Uganda.
21 Jul 2009 Administrator
161 AT&T and TDC Build Alliance in Nordics

AT&T and Denmark’s TDC have announced an agreement to jointly develop and deploy global service bundles and networking solutions for multinational companies, either headquartered or doing business in the Nordics, a region considered to be among the most technologically advanced and competitive in the world.

01 Jul 2009 Administrator
Marine Services top
# Article Title Created Author
1 Hawaiian Cable Suffers Fault

A fault on a submarine fiber optic cable in Hawaii caused loss of Internet, phone and cable television services on some islands for up to 12 hours.  Although service has been restored using other cables, it could be five weeks until the cable is repaired and the cause of the fault is determined.

29 Jul 2010 John Manock
2 Global Marine Systems Launches Predator Inspection Class ROV

Global Marine Systems is launching ‘Predator,’ a new Inspection class ROV, at HydroVision International (27th-30th July 2010), in Charlotte, North Carolina.

27 Jul 2010 John Manock
3 OMM Secures BorWin1 Contract from transpower

German grid operator transpower stromübertragungs gmbh has awarded subsea cable specialist Offshore Marine Management (OMM) the contract to install the HVAC cables connecting the Bard Offshore 1 and BorWin alpha platforms for the BorWin1 project.

26 Jul 2010 John Manock
4 SEACOM Repairs Completed

SEACOM has announced that all repairs to its East African submarine fiber optic cable have been successfully completed.

25 Jul 2010 John Manock
5 Guard Vessel in Operation on Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm

A guard vessel is now in operation on the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm to ensure the safety of marine traffic around the foundation installation sites and along the export cable corridor.

19 Jul 2010 John Manock
6 SEACOM Repair Update

During the course of last week, SEACOM, owner of the East Africa submarine cable system that suffered a failure on July 3 reportedly due to a faulty repeater, has continued to work closely with its partners to roll-out the repair work program and restoration alternatives necessary to maintain adequate connectivity during this process.

18 Jul 2010 John Manock
7 Impact of SEACOM Fault Being Felt in East Africa

As the SEACOM fault enters its second week, the impact on Internet services in East Africa is becoming to become apparent.  Various reports coming out of countries impacted by the outage indicate that those carriers and Internet service providers (ISP) that had invested in backup capacity have come through the outage fairly well.

13 Jul 2010 John Manock
8 OMM Commissions Unique O&M Vessel

Subsea service specialist, Offshore Marine Management (OMM) has instructed independent marine design consultancy BMT Nigel Gee to design a unique operation and maintenance vessel for the next phase of offshore wind farm development.

12 Jul 2010 John Manock
9 SEACOM Fault Update

SEACOM's technical team has identified the exact location of the fault that occurred on July 5 and the company reports that the repair process has been fully mobilized. The faulty section of the cable is at one of the deepest points along its route, some 4,700m deep. This may require for robotics to be deployed to locate and retrieve the cable for repairs to be undertaken on board the specialized repair ship before replacing the cable back on the ocean floor.

11 Jul 2010 John Manock
10 SEACOM Down, Company Secures New Restoration Options

At 09:19 GMT, 5 July 2010, SEACOM experienced a submarine failure resulting in service downtime between Mumbai and Mombasa. Current investigations indicate that a repeater has failed on segment 9 of the SEACOM cable, which is offshore to the north of Mombasa. This unexpected failure affects traffic towards both India and Europe. Traffic within Africa is not affected.

07 Jul 2010 John Manock
11 Blue, Caley Announce Installation System for Offshore Applications

Blue Offshore and Caley Ocean Systems have announced the commencement of the design of an innovative cable installation system for delivery by the spring of 2011. The system features a unique flexible modular basket carousel, which enables the carousel to have variable carrying capacities to suit the project requirements. The flexibility and modularity of the system will reduce costs and risks to customers through shorter mobilization and demobilization periods, flexible cable loading schedules and allows for increased choice in cable installation methodologies.

01 Jul 2010 John Manock
12 Global Marine Systems Expands Power Cable Installation Capability

Global Marine Systems (GMS) has announced the availability of its new 7,000 ton turntable, specifically designed to handle the longer distances and greater weights required by the latest round of offshore wind farm projects. The purpose-built turntable has been mobilized on the AMT Explorer and is the latest example of how the 160 year old company continues to ramp up its investment in and commitment to the European offshore energy market.

28 Jun 2010 John Manock
13 NorGer Uses Offshore Marine for Cable Consultancy Role

NorGer KS, the company behind the first planned Norway-Germany interconnector, is working in partnership with UK-based subsea cable specialists, Offshore Marine Management (OMM) as its offshore cable consultancy, having appointed them late last year. NorGer KS is owned equally by the Norwegian energy utilities Agder Energi AS and Lyse Produksjon AS and the Swiss company Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Laufenburg (AG) and was established to plan, construct and operate a 600 kilometer high voltage DC connection between Norway and Germany.

28 Jun 2010 John Manock
14 New Business Development Manager for Offshore Marine

John Van Kuyk, a business development manager with more than 25 years experience in the offshore oil and gas industry, has been brought in as the new Business Development Manager with subsea cable specialists, Offshore Marine Management.

21 Jun 2010 John Manock
15 Global Marine Systems Receives Award for Safety

Global Marine Systems, the largest independent provider of submarine cable installation, maintenance and related engineering services worldwide, has been awarded a gold award for the seventh consecutive year by The Royal Society of Prevention for Accidents (RoSPA). The Gold Award reflects Global Marine’s commitment to delivering strong occupational health and safety management systems across its business in line with guidance given by both the HSE’s ‘Successful Health and Safety Management’ and the BSI’s ‘Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.’

09 Jun 2010 John Manock
16 OMM Supplies Guard Vessels for Major European Projects

Subsea cable specialists, Offshore Marine Management (OMM), has supplied guard vessels for some of Europe’s largest subsea cable projects and sees the business as a natural fit with its portfolio of cabling and personnel activities.

01 Jun 2010 John Manock
17 Alcatel-Lucent Wins Maintenance Contract for Main One

Alcatel-Lucent and Main One Cable Company Limited, owner of a new cable on the West Coast of Africa, have signed a maintenance contract for the Phase 1 of the Main One cable system, an open access submarine cable network aiming to contribute to enhance African and international connectivity.

27 May 2010 John Manock
18 OMM Awarded Contracts for Barrow and Burbo Bank

BOWind has awarded the survey inspection and remedial works contract for the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm export cable to subsea cable specialists Offshore Marine Management (OMM). OMM has also been awarded the cable survey contract for Burbo Bank by developer DONG Energy.

24 May 2010 John Manock
19 WIND Begins Recovery of SAT-1

WIND, formerly Jan Wind Shipping, has announced that it has recovered the first 800 kilometers of the decommissioned SAT-1 submarine cable.  After a trial trip in December, one of WIND’s ships, the M.V. Lida, returned to Cape Town earlier this month with the recovered submarine cable.

20 May 2010 John Manock
20 SEA-ME-WE-3 Fault Under Repair

The consortium that owns and operates the SEA-ME-WE-3 submarine fiber optic cable system is working to repair a fault in the Indian Ocean.

13 May 2010 John Manock
21 Gateway Stays Connected During Recent Outage

Gateway Communications, the leading supplier of African telecommunications services, announced that it was the only carrier using the SEACOM submarine fiber optic cable to remain operational in many East and Southern African countries during the repair of the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable in the Mediterranean.

06 May 2010 John Manock
22 SEA-ME-WE-4 Repairs Completed

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has reported that repairs to the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable system have been completed and that Internet traffic across the region is being restored to normal levels.

02 May 2010 John Manock
23 TM Reports on SEA-ME-WE-4 Repairs

Telekom Malaysia (TM), a member of the SEA-ME-WE-4 consortium, has reported that it is experiencing some disruptions due to the fault on the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine fiber optic cable.

29 Apr 2010 John Manock
24 SEA-ME-WE-4 Outage Impacts SEACOM

East African submarine cable operator SEACOM reported that it experienced an interruption in its service on 14 April 2010 which lasted around seven minutes as a result of a fault on the Mediterranean section of the SEA-ME-WE44 submarine cable system, which SEACOM currently utilizes to connect to London.

27 Apr 2010 John Manock
25 IEEE Calls for Global Backup Network

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is calling for a backup system to protect the global submarine fiber optic cable network to reduce the risk of catastrophic outages.

25 Apr 2010 John Manock
26 SEA-ME-WE-4 Disruption Hits Qatar

The IEEE report described above comes at a time when a fault on SEA-ME-WE-4 is disruption traffic in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions.

25 Apr 2010 John Manock
27 SEA-ME-WE-4 Likely to Be Fixed by April 27

Etisalat has released a statement on the status of repairs to international submarine fiber optic cable SEA-ME-WE-4, which is out of service after suffering a fault between Palermo, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt.

21 Apr 2010 John Manock
28 SEA-ME-WE-4 Suffers Fault in Mediterranean

The SEAMEWE-4 consortium has announced that their submarine cable system has suffered a fault near Italy on 14th April 2010. The fault requires to be repaired urgently. The Consortium has planned to carry out the repair operation of the faulty segment on priority and the cable repair ship has been mobilized for this purpose.

18 Apr 2010 John Manock
29 C/S Nexans Skagerrak Ready to Put to Sea After Upgrade

Nexans has further extended the subsea cable laying capabilities of the cable ship Nexans Skagerrak, already one of the world’s most advanced cable ships, following the successful completion of a major conversion and upgrading project. It will put to sea shortly from the Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Limited dockyard in Birkenhead, England where the 8 million euro, two-month, fast track contract was carried out.

25 Mar 2010 John Manock
30 New Service Launched to Protect Cables

Infoterra has launched AssetMonitor™, a new submarine asset protection service aimed at helping to protect valuable underwater assets – such as electricity and telecom cables and oil and gas pipelines – from accidental damage by anchors and fishing activity. The company is also pleased to announce that Guernsey and Jersey Electricity’s Channel Islands Electricity Grid (CIEG) has become the first organization to deploy AssetMonitor, and will use it to protect the two 90,000 Volt submarine cables that supply power and fiber optic communications from France to Jersey and on to Guernsey.

18 Mar 2010 John Manock
31 Tyco Telecom Renamed TE SubCom

Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, has announced that it is now operating under a new corporate name: Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications (TE SubCom). TE SubCom will continue to deliver the same reliable, high-quality, undersea communications solutions, maintaining a leading position in the industry just as it has done for more than five decades.

15 Mar 2010 John Manock
32 Several Cables Damaged by Taiwan Earthquake

A major earthquake in Taiwan on March 4 damaged several submarine cable systems and disrupted Internet services on the island.  Unlike previous disruptions caused by earthquakes in Taiwan, however, services were restored quickly.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
33 Four Cables Damaged by Taiwan Earthquake

A major earthquake in Taiwan on March 4 damaged several submarine cable systems and disrupted Internet services on the island.  Unlike previous disruptions caused by earthquakes in Taiwan, however, services were restored quickly.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
34 SAT-3 Repaired

Vodafone Ghana, in collaboration with members of the SAT-3 submarine cable consortium, has successfully repaired a shunt fault on its cable that led to the loss of Internet service countrywide for about two weeks.

Millicent Yawa Atsu, Manager, Technology, Vodafone Ghana, described the situation to journalists recently in Accra during a tour of the network operation center of the SAT 3/WASC/SAFE at Vodafone’s Accra High Street branch.

The cable ship Chamarel, based in South Africa, undertook the repair.

The shunt fault forced Vodafone Ghana to re-route its traffic on other branches of SAT-3 landing in Cote d’Ivoire South Africa and from there to Europe, thus causing the delays that users in Ghana have been experiencing. 

“Were it not for the cable that connected Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa, Ghana would have been completely been in an Internet black out,” Mrs. Atsu said.

Voice traffic was restored using satellite backup.

“Vodafone Ghana was able to provide its voice services courtesy of its Kuntunse Earth Station, which readily provided a competent backup,” Mrs. Atsu indicated.

16 Feb 2010 John Manock
35 Telkom South Africa Reports SAT-3 Outage

West African submarine cable SAT-3 has suffered a failure off the coast of Nigeria that is impacting customers of Telkom South Africa.

03 Feb 2010 John Manock
36 EGS Expands to the Americas Region

In response to customer demand, the EGS Survey Group, worldwide leaders in the field of marine survey, are pleased to announce their expansion into the Americas region with the establishment of EGS Americas, Inc.

17 Jan 2010 John Manock
37 OSI Expands to Serve the Asia Pacific Region

Ocean Specialists, Inc. (OSI) and Pierre Tremblay of Aletheia Subsea Consulting Pte Ltd are pleased to announce the creation of the OSI Asia Pacific regional headquarters to be located in Singapore.

17 Jan 2010 John Manock
38 Apollo Joins Alcatel Private Maintenance Agreement

Apollo SCS-Ltd has announced its entry and participation in the Alcatel Private Maintenance Agreement. This Agreement ensures that in the event of any subsea damage the Apollo Submarine Cable System will be repaired by one of the World's leading Cable Fleets. The Agreement guarantees the availability of ships dedicated to the repair of cables in the unfortunate event of a cable failure.

14 Jan 2010 John Manock
39 International Effort to Protect Cables in Straits of Malacca

The Indonesian Directorate General of Sea Transportation, the Marine Department of Malaysia and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore are working together to protect submarine fiber optic cables in the Strait of Malacca and off Singapore following a series of incidents.  The three government agencies are reminding mariners of the rules for anchoring in the region and have reported their concerns to the International Maritime Organization.

12 Jan 2010 John Manock
40 Australia to Review Submarine Cable Regulation

Australia’s telecommunications regulator, Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) plans to review its regulations on the protection of submarine cables in Australian waters.

10 Jan 2010 John Manock
41 Jerry Neely Joins Ocean Specialists, Inc.

Ocean Specialists, Inc. (OSI) has announced the addition of Jerry Neely as Senior Project Manager.  In his new role, Jerry is the Project Manager and the primary technical consultant for the development and fabrication of a deep water Ocean Observing System featuring a fiber optic seabed backbone and several powered instrumentation nodes.

14 Dec 2009 John Manock
42 OMO Completes Philippines Project

Optic Marine Offshore International Limited (OMO) has successfully completed a shore-end submarine cable laying and burial project, spanning approximately 7 kilometers in the Philippines.  The submarine fiber optic network that is designed to carry international and domestic voice and data traffic to most of major cities in Philippines was completed ahead of schedule.

07 Dec 2009 John Manock
43 Tyco Telecommunications Deploys New Shore-End Plow

Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer and leader in undersea communications technology, has announced it successfully deployed a new, top-of-the-line shore-end plow in a recent cable landing operation. The plow, which enables continuity of burial from beach to deep water, provides enhanced efficiency and shallow water burial capability without the need for manual diver jet burial.

01 Dec 2009 John Manock
44 Perry Wright joins Ocean Specialists, Inc.

Ocean Specialists, Inc. (OSI) has announced the addition of Perry Wright as Director of Integrated Subsea Systems.  In his new role, Perry will expand OSI’s capability to support oil and gas and telecom customers in the development of undersea fiber optic networks worldwide. Perry will focus on further developing the challenging areas of in-field fiber connection system design and planning, including the development of subsea field networks.

03 Nov 2009 John Manock
45 E-Marine Secures Another Submarine Cable Maintenance Contract

E-Marine, the Persian Gulf region’s leader in submarine cable deployment, maintenance and repair, has announced it has been selected to maintain the 5,000-km submarine cable system between the UAE and Kenya. This cable route is providing Kenya and bordering countries access to international voice and data connectivity. This will also bring affordable high-speed Internet access to the East African Countries, which is critically important for the future development of national economies on the continent.

02 Nov 2009 John Manock
46 Cable Repairs in Malaysian Waters

The Malaysian government reports that a number of cable repair and maintenance operations will be taking place this month in Malaysian waters.

15 Oct 2009 John Manock
47 American Samoa Cable Survives Tsunami

We noted last week unofficial reports that the American Samoa Hawaii (ASH) cable remained operational throughout the devastating tsunami that hit the islands of Samoa and American Samoa.  This has now been confirmed by ASH-Cable, the company that operates the system.

06 Oct 2009 John Manock
48 Repairs to Typhoon Morakot Damage to Be Completed Soon

The submarine cables that were damaged by Typhoon Marakot in August are expected to be fully repaired this month, according to an executive of China Telecom. Access to websites based in the United States and some Asian countries stopped or slowed in the middle of August for many Chinese Internet users, after the typhoon hit Taiwan on August 9, causing undersea landslides which knocked out numerous cables.

05 Oct 2009 John Manock
49 Tyco Telecommunications Launches New Corporate Website

Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today is pleased to announce the launch of its new corporate website at www.tycotelecom.com.  The new site provides an interactive and enlightening view of the capabilities, solutions and processes that have enabled the company to deliver the most reliable, highest-quality undersea fiber optic systems around the world. Comprehensive and visually appealing, www.tycotelecom.com serves as a resource for both seasoned industry veterans and newcomers seeking information for potential new projects.

24 Sep 2009 John Manock
50 Tender for Marine Survey Released

Scottish and Southern Energy plc has released a tender for a full marine survey and design works for a submarine power cable connecting the Shetland Islands to mainland Scotland.

22 Sep 2009 John Manock
51 Cable Cut Reportedly Impacts Colt Telecom

There have been numerous reports from blogs and customer forums that European carrier Colt Telecom has suffered a major disruption of services due to a submarine cable cut in the English Channel.

10 Sep 2009 John Manock
52 OMM Awarded Guard Vessel Contract

Marine solutions company Offshore Marine Management (OMM) is undertaking guard vessel provision, coordination and project management services under its awarded contract for the BorWin1 power cable by Transpower Offshore (formerly E.ON Netz Offshore GmbH) from Germany.

07 Sep 2009 John Manock
53 Details of Australian Submarine Cable Relocation

The Port of Melbourne, Australia has recently concluded a channel deepening project that included the relocation of two of Telstra’s submarine fiber optic communications cables.

27 Aug 2009 John Manock
54 Chunghwa Says Services Back to Normal

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) said that since Taiwan's multiple undersea cable outages occurring from August 9 to 13 as a result of a typhoon, all international voice communications have resumed to normal levels after CHT's adopting urgent backup measures as well as coordinating with its overseas telecom partners to divert traffic.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
55 Earthquakes Cause More Outages in the Pacific

A series of earthquakes in the ocean between Japan and Taiwan may be responsible for more cable outages.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
56 African Cable System Repaired

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is reporting that West African submarine cable system SAT-3 has been repaired.

21 Aug 2009 John Manock
57 One User Says Planning Pays Off in Mitigating Cable Outages

While carriers struggle to restore full services on submarine cables in Southeast Asia, some large end users are hardly affected by the disruption. 

Open Access Marketing (OAM), a global business process outsourcing company, said that thanks to its preparation, its services, which are entirely dependent on Internet access, were not affected.

17 Aug 2009 John Manock
58 Other Typhoon Related Problems Off Taiwan

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom reported last week that the China-US Cable Network (CUCN) suffered an outage on August 13 (see TSA Submarine Cable NewsFeed for August 14). 

Chunghwa is now reporting that segments of many regional submarine cable systems suffered outages during the period of August 9-12.  The cable systems identified by Chunghwa include: SEA-ME-WE-3, APCN, APCN-2, EAC/C2C, and FNAL/RNAL.

17 Aug 2009 John Manock
59 EAC Outage Detailed

In a report from Pacnet’s help desk, the company has detailed the damage done to its EAC submarine cable system.  Typhoon Morakot, which hit Southeast Asia recently, is believed to be the cause of the damage.

The Pacnet report states the following:

17 Aug 2009 John Manock
60 Cable Outages Causing Further Disruptions in Southeast Asia

A series of submarine cable outages have occurred across Southeast Asia.  As we reported yesterday, APCN-2 has suffered two faults, but this was only one of several problems. 

 

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is now reporting that the China-US Cable Network (CUCN) experienced an outage at 1:35 AM (local time) on August 13. A company statement said that this followed the multiple cable breakdowns on August 12 offshore the southeastern part of Taiwan.

14 Aug 2009 John Manock
61 APCN-2 Cut by Typhoon

Typhoon Morakot, which hit Southeast Asia over the weekend, is apparently responsible for a fault on APCN-2 that is reportedly impacting the quality of Internet services in the region. 

According to Telekom Malaysia (TM), APCN-2 has suffered a fault on segment 7, between Shantou, China, and Tanshui, Taiwan.  TM said it has traced the outage to the typhoon.

13 Aug 2009 John Manock
62 OMM Completes Global Marine Systems Ltd Contract
Offshore Marine Management (OMM), a marine solutions company, has completed the Pre-Lay Grapnel Run contract for the BorWin1 cable for Global Marine Systems Ltd.
21 Jul 2009 Administrator
Submarine Power Cables top
# Article Title Created Author
1 Wave Hub and Cable Prepared for Subsea Installation

The latest stage of South West RDA’s (Regional Development Agency) pioneering Wave Hub project is underway as the hub and its 25km cable are loaded onto a cable laying ship ready for deployment offshore in the next few weeks.

27 Jul 2010 John Manock
2 Nexans Wins Contract for Statnett’s Oslofjord II

Nexans has been awarded a 104 million Euro contract by Statnett, Norway’s national main grid owner and operator, to design, manufacture and install the new Oslofjord II submarine high-voltage power link thus replacing the existing cables installed over 30 years ago which have reached the end of their service-life. The new Nexans cables, which transmission capacity will reach 3,000 MVA, will ensure a high level of continuity and reliability for a power link that plays a vital role both in Norway’s transmission grid and in facilitating the transmission of power between Norway and Sweden.

22 Jul 2010 John Manock
3 Electricity Bridge across the Strait of Messina Approved

Italian electricity grid operator Terna has authorized construction of the last segment of the “Sorgente-Rizziconi” line between the Regions of Sicily and Calabria.

20 Jul 2010 John Manock
4 ABB Wins Order for Offshore Wind Power Connection

ABB has won an order worth around $700 million, from the German transmission grid operator, transpower, to supply an 800-megawatt (MW) power link that will connect more offshore wind farms in the DolWin1cluster, located in the North Sea to the mainland German grid.

19 Jul 2010 John Manock
5 Prysmian Secures Contract from Transpower for Offshore Wind Farm

Prysmian, a leading worldwide player in the energy and telecommunications cables industry, has been awarded a project worth in excess of € 150 million by the German transmission system operator Transpower, a subsidiary of the Dutch grid operator TenneT, for the grid connection project HelWin1 linking two offshore wind farms in the North Sea to mainland Germany.

18 Jul 2010 John Manock
6 Transpower Releases Tender for Power Cable

Transpower Offshore GmbH has released a tender for the supply and deployment of a submarine power cable.  The tender closes on August 12.

15 Jul 2010 John Manock
7 EU Subsidy for Power Cable Finalized

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has approved a subsidy of 100 million euros for the EstLink 2 transmission link. EstLink 2, a joint project by Fingrid and Elering, the electricity transmission system operators in Finland and Estonia, calls for the construction of a new submarine cable between the two countries. The capacity of the new link costing a total of approximately 320 million euros is 650 megawatts, and it is due to be commissioned in early 2014.

13 Jul 2010 John Manock
8 TenneT/transpower Plans to Build Submarine Cables to Norway

TenneT/transpower. A Dutch/German power company, is starting the next phase of its interconnection plans by building two new interconnections to Norway. This was announced recently by Mel Kroon, CEO of TenneT, at the visit of her majesty queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to Norway. The new high voltage subsea cables will enlarge the import of sustainable energy from Norway and strengthen the sustainable ambitions of the European Commission.

11 Jul 2010 John Manock
9 Prysmian Joins Transgreen Mediterranean Supergrid

Prysmian has signed an industrial partnership agreement with 11 other leading European groups in the power generation and transmission technologies and industries. The initiative, supported by the French Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Town and Country Planning, Jean-Luis Borloo and of the French Republic President’s Special Advisor, Henri Guaino, aims at studying the feasibility and the realization of the trans-Mediterranean super-grid, called Transgreen, that would carry renewable energy from Northern Africa to Europe.

06 Jul 2010 John Manock
10 Nexans to Supply Submarine Array Cables for UK Wind Farm

Nexans has been awarded a major contract by Lincs Wind Farm Limited to supply the medium voltage submarine array cables and associated accessories for the 270 MW Lincs offshore wind farm to be constructed off the east coast of England. The order further extends Nexans’ involvement in the Lincs wind farm project, as it follows the contract awarded by Centrica in November 2009 to supply the HV submarine power export cables.

30 Jun 2010 John Manock
11 Cable Laying for U.K. Wind Farm to Begin

The introductory preparations for pulling ashore the high-voltage connecting the Walney 1 offshore wind farm with the onshore high-voltage grid has been in progress during the past couple of weeks off South Lakeland Caravan Park, in the United Kingdom, according to Dong Energy, the company developing the wind farm.

27 Jun 2010 John Manock
12 Wind Farm Cabling Contract Awarded

A consortium of Siemens Energy and Prysmian Powerlink has received an order for submarine cables worth more than EUR500 million from the German transmission grid company Transpower. The BorWin2 offshore consortium will connect two North Sea offshore wind farms to the grid on behalf of Transpower, a subsidiary of the Dutch grid operator TenneT.

17 Jun 2010 John Manock
13 Draka Picked to Supply Cables for Wave Energy Tests

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has selected Draka Offshore as its submarine power cable provider. The contract requires Draka to deliver approximately 11,000mt of 20kV subsea power cable for use in EMEC's tidal and wave energy test sites in Orkney.

15 Jun 2010 John Manock
14 AECOM to Prepare EIS for Hawaii Interisland Cable

The State of Hawaii has announced AECOM will prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed submarine interisland cable connecting the islands of Lanai, Molokai, Oahu and Maui. 

14 Jun 2010 John Manock
15 Nexans Completes Subsea Cable Link to Pemba Island

Nexans has successfully completed a new 75 km subsea power link between Pemba Island, the second largest island in the Zanzibar archipelago, and the national power grid on mainland Tanzania.

03 Jun 2010 John Manock
16 Power Cable Laid to Xiamen Island

In late May, a submarine power cable was installed in Xiaman, a city in southeastern China, setting two records for such cables in China.

02 Jun 2010 John Manock
17 Fingrid to Build EstLink 2

Fingrid, the electricity transmission system operator in Finland, has made a capital investment decision concerning the second direct current transmission link, EstLink 2, between Estonia and Finland. The capacity of the planned transmission link is 650 megawatts and the costs of the project total approx. 320 million euros. The submarine cable will be built in co-operation with the Estonian transmission system operator Elering. The execution of the project still requires that the recently opened electricity market in Estonia starts off favorably and that the project receives an investment subsidy of 100 million euros from the European Union.

25 May 2010 John Manock
18 Public Power Picks Nexans for Power Cable Link

Greek electric power utility Public Power Corporation S.A. has announced that on Friday, May 14, 2010, it signed a contract with Nexans Norway AS for the construction of a submarine power cable connecting Polypotamos and Nea Makri, Greece.

23 May 2010 John Manock
19 Draka Offshore Awarded Walney 2 Wind Farm Contract

Draka Offshore has announced that it has been awarded the array-cabling contract for the Walney 2 project from Dong Energy in Denmark. The announcement follows the recent completion of the company's expansion to its subsea production facility.

18 May 2010 John Manock
20 Tender Prepared for Malta-Italy Power Cable

Enemalta, the electric power utility for Malta, is preparing a tender for the installation of a submarine power cable between Malta and Italy.

13 May 2010 John Manock
21 Bakun Cable Plans Shelved

The Malaysian government has shelved plans for what would have been the largest submarine power cable system in history, a submarine power connection for the giant Bakun Dam hydroelectric project.

11 May 2010 John Manock
22 Taipower Plans Link to Penghu

Taiwan Power (Taipower) plans to build a submarine power cable link connecting Taiwan with the Penghu Islands, an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers. 

05 May 2010 John Manock
23 Installation of Cork Harbour Cables Completed

The laying of the Aghada-Raffeen 220kV submarine cable crossing between Aghada and Cuskinny on Great Island, Cork, Ireland, was successfully completed between February 6th and 13th.

14 Apr 2010 John Manock
24 Indonesia Plans Power Cable to Serve Thousand Islands

The government of Jakarta, Indonesia, plans to conduct bidding for a 40-kilometer submarine power cable installation to the Thousand Islands, a group of islands that is a political subdivision of Jakarta.  The bidding is planned for later this month.

13 Apr 2010 John Manock
25 Statnett Submits License Application for NORD.LINK

Statnett has submitted a license application to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) for permission to build a new DC interconnector, called NORD.LINK, between Norway and Germany.

07 Apr 2010 John Manock
26 Canada-NY Underwater Power Cable Proposed

As we have noted previously in the NewsFeed and Radar Screen Report, the market for submarine power cables is booming.  The “green” energy movement is bringing with it the need to transmit electricity from clean energy generating sources to the metropolitan areas that need it.  Submarine power cables are already widely used with offshore wind farms and for international power grid interconnection, but now innovative developers are looking at all kinds of waterways as potential routes for new cables.

17 Mar 2010 John Manock
27 Tender Released for Danish Cable Project

Danish electricity utility Energinet has released a tender for submarine power cable for a project in Laesoe, Denmark.

08 Mar 2010 John Manock
28 Tanzania Takes Bids for Cable Project

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) reports that it has received a number of bids from international suppliers to build a submarine power cable from the Tanzanian mainland to Unguja Island.  MCC closed the bidding process last week for the 132 Kv submarine cable.  The cable will run from Ras Kiromoni, near Dar es Salaam, to Ras Fumba in Ugunja.

05 Mar 2010 John Manock
29 EIB to Provide BritNed Funding

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide EUR 300 million for the construction of the BritNed Interconnector, a new electricity transmission cable between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The BritNed cable is a 50:50 joint venture, between National Grid and TenneT, who operate the grids. It will have a capacity of 1,000 MW and make a significant contribution to the security and diversity of electricity supplies in both the UK and the Netherlands. The interconnector will also boost competition by improving connections with European markets.

04 Mar 2010 John Manock
30 BC-Washington Power Cable Granted Permits

Sea Breeze Power Corp. has reported on recent progress with development of the Juan de Fuca submarine power cable.

24 Feb 2010 John Manock
31 Indonesia to Build Java-Sumatra Power Cable

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has announced plans to finance the construction of a 700-kilometer submarine electric transmission cable between Java and Sumatra.

21 Feb 2010 John Manock
32 European Cable Projects Moving Forward

A feasibility study for a submarine power cable to interconnect Romania and Turkey will be completed in May 2010, according to the head of the Department for corporate strategy for Romanian power company Transelectrica, Razvan Purdila, told a press conference recently.

15 Feb 2010 John Manock
33 Vietnam Phu Quoc Island Survey Begins

Power Company Number 2, a unit of Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), officially started the surveying work for a 110 KV submarine power cable network project from Ha Tien Town to Phu Quoc Island on January 8.

31 Jan 2010 John Manock
34 Norwegian Power Cable Tender Released

Norwegian power utility Lofotkraft AS has released a tender for the supply of submarine power cable.  The tender calls for 9.5 kilometers of 24Kv submarine cable.  The deadline for bidders is March 9, 2010.

28 Jan 2010 John Manock
35 ETI to Develop Wet-Mate Connector

Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has announced a project that could considerably reduce the cost of cabling from offshore wave and tidal farms to the shore.

11 Jan 2010 John Manock
36 Tender for Skaggerak-4 Released

Norwegian power utility Statnett has released a tender for a submarine power cable linking Norway and Denmark.

10 Jan 2010 John Manock
37 Tender Released for Power Cable Project

Power utilities in the United Kingdom and Belgium have released a tender for a marine survey for a submarine power cable between the United Kingdom and Belgium.

05 Jan 2010 John Manock
38 Prysmian Awarded Contract Sicily-Italian Mainland Power Cable

Prysmian Cables & Systems has been awarded by Terna Spa Rete Elettrica Nazionale a major contract to develop the new extra high voltage submarine power link between Sicily and the Italian mainland, an interconnection of strategic importance for the development of the entire national power grid.

03 Jan 2010 John Manock
39 Tenders Issued for Power Projects

Four tenders have been launched recently related to submarine power cable projects in Europe.

23 Dec 2009 John Manock
40 Report Says that Hawaii Power Cable Is Feasible

A report commissioned by the state of Hawaii has concluded that a submarine power cable to distribute energy between the Hawaiian Islands is feasible and has proposed four potential routes.

21 Dec 2009 John Manock
41 Tenders Released for Baltic Projects

Two tenders have been released for works related to the Estlink-2 and Nordbalt submarine power cables in the Baltic Sea.

10 Dec 2009 John Manock
42 European Submarine Power Cable Market Growing

The submarine power cable market in Europe is growing thanks to efforts by the European Commission to improve the flow of electricity throughout the continent by cross-border connections.  A decision by the Commission in September 2006 laid down a series of guidelines for trans-European energy networks (TEN-E Guidelines).  Under these guidelines, a number of projects that are of cross-border nature or that have significant impact on cross-border transmission capacity were declared to be of European interest.

09 Dec 2009 John Manock
43 Finland, Sweden Plan Fenno-Skan-2

Fingrid Oyj and Svenska Kraftnät, the transmission system operators in Finland and Sweden, respectively, will construct a new submarine cable connection called Fenno-Skan-2, an extension to the existing Fenno-Skan, between the two countries. The high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link with a transmission capacity of 800 megawatts (MW) will be completes in 2011. Capital expenditure in this project will total approximately 300 million euros.

01 Dec 2009 John Manock
44 LS Cable Completes First Submarine Cable Factory in Korea

LS Cable held the ceremony for the completion of the first-in-Korea submarine cable factory in Donghae City, Gangwon Province, on the 19th of November.

29 Nov 2009 John Manock
45 Trans Bay Cable Installation Begins

The cable ship Giulio Verne has begun laying the 53-mile long Trans Bay Cable (TBC) under San Francisco Bay. TBC is an energy transmission infrastructure project designed to provide additional energy to the City of San Francisco. It will transfer already existing energy from an electric transmission system substation in Pittsburg, California, to San Francisco. This energy transmission project will transport approximately 400 megawatts of hydropower, geothermal, and wind power.

25 Nov 2009 John Manock
46 Finland, Estonia to Build EstLink-2

The Finnish and Estonian transmission system operators, Fingrid Oyj and Elering OÜ, have decided to carry out the studies, obtain permits and define specifications for EstLink 2 HVDC electricity transmission interconnection between Finland and Estonia.

22 Nov 2009 John Manock
47 New York Approves Submarine Cable from New Jersey to Brooklyn

The New York State Public Service Commission has approved the New York portion of a 6.6 mile, 345 kV AC, submarine electric transmission line that will extend under the Hudson River to connect a planned, 512-MW power plant in Bayonne, New Jersey to an existing substation owned by Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. in Brooklyn, New York. The project is scheduled to commence operations at the end of 2011.

19 Nov 2009 John Manock
48 National Grid, Statoil to Explore UK-Norway Power Connection

NGIL, a National Grid subsidiary, and Statnett have signed a contract to explore the prospects of a power connection between Norway and Great Britain, possibly together with an offshore grid in the North Sea.

18 Nov 2009 John Manock
49 Bakun Cable Contract Tender Planned

A tender for the supply of the longest submarine power cable yet proposed will be released within the next three months.  The planned cable will transmit electricity from Bakun hydroelectric dam in Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia.

16 Nov 2009 John Manock
50 Nordbalt Tender Released

The electricity grid operators of Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia have released a supply tender for the Nordbalt submarine power cable.  The 350-kilometer cable will run from Sweden to Lithuania and completion is planned for 2016.

Sweden’s Svenska Kraftnat (SvK), Lithuania’s Lietuvos Energija and Latvia’s Latvenergo signed a memorandum of understanding in July of this year to proceed with the cable project.  They also decided that SvK will both have the lead as well as the ultimate responsibility in the performance of this procurement procedure while Lietuvos Energija and Latvenergo will participate as observers.

According to SvK, the tender covers the following services:
· Procurement of the submarine cable, practical items,
· Type testing,
· Cable manufacturing
· On shore and offshore trenches,
· Laying and jointing of the cable,
· Installation of the cable terminations,
· Final documentation,
· Writing reports, doing surveys etc.
· Other possible work related to the cable project

More information about the tender can be obtained from Svenska Kraftnat, BOX 1200, Attn: Marcus Jacobson, S-172 24 Sundbyberg. Tel.  +46 35182242. E-mail: marcus.jacobson@svk.se. Fax  +46 35182241.

15 Nov 2009 John Manock
51 Nexans Wins 35 million Euro Submarine Power Cable Project

Nexans has been awarded a 35 million Euro turnkey contract by EDF to construct a new submarine power cable for the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The cable link will take a subsea route along the coast to connect the power production area located at Le Port in the West of the island to the capital city of Saint-Denis which requires much of the energy. By choosing this subsea cable route, the construction of 20 km of aerial power lines across a natural environment made of rugged, steep and mountainous terrain was avoided.

12 Nov 2009 John Manock
52 Malaysia-Indonesia Power Cable Project Moving Forward

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and PT PLN (Persero) have signed an agreement for a submarine power cable to interconnect the electricity grids in Malaysia and Indonesia.

11 Nov 2009 John Manock
53 Montenegro Planning a Power Link to Italy

The electrical transmission grid operator in Montenegro is in the final stages of preparation for the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Italian system operator TERNA to build a submarine power cable between the two countries.

05 Nov 2009 John Manock
54 European Power Cable Tenders Released

According to the European Union website, at least three tenders have been released for submarine power cables in two Western European countries, as the continent continues to develop its electricity infrastructure and offshore wind farms.

07 Oct 2009 John Manock
55 EIB Loan to Help Fund Irish Submarine Power Cable and Wind Farms

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to lend up to EUR 500 million to help Ireland secure and green its electricity supplies and support Europe’s economic recovery. Two loan contracts to that effect were signed recently in Dublin by EIB Vice President Plutarchos Sakellaris and the chief executives of EirGrid Plc and Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in the presence of Irish Energy Minister Eamon Ryan.

07 Oct 2009 John Manock
56 Tenders for Power Cable Projects

Two tenders related to submarine power cables have been released, according to the European Union tenders website.

21 Sep 2009 John Manock
57 Scottish Power Cable Plan Moves Forward

The formal business case for a subsea electricity cable to link Western Isles renewable energy farms to the National Grid have been submitted to power regulator of the United Kingdom, Ofgem.

21 Sep 2009 John Manock
58 India-Sri Lanka Power Cable Pact Expected Soon

India and Sri Lanka will soon sign a memorandum of understanding to study the feasibility of laying a submarine cable, which will be the first of its kind in Asia when completed, to connect their power networks.

06 Jul 2009 Administrator
Existing Submarine Cable Systems top
# Article Title Created Author
1 AT&T to Increase Capacity with Major Upgrade of APCN2

AT&T has announced the planned expansion of its network capacity for the Asia Pacific region through the upgrade of the APCN2, of which AT&T is part of the ownership group. The fourfold rise in capacity in the state-of-the-art dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) cable will increase the original design capacity from the existing 10Gb/s DWDM to 40Gb/s expansion. This represents one of the world’s large-scale upgrade of a major undersea cable network.

28 Jul 2010 John Manock
2 C&W Awarded Contract from TWA

Cable & Wireless (C&W) Worldwide has announced that it has won a new contract with Trans World Associates (Pvt.) Ltd. (TWA) to provide data network solutions to connect its customers across Europe and the United States of America. The company will provide bandwidth connectivity services to TWA's growing customer base in Pakistan.

22 Jul 2010 John Manock
3 Level 3 Connects New Transatlantic Route at Equinix London

Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, and Level 3 Communications, Inc., a leading international provider of fiber-based communications services, today announced the opening of a new access node in Equinix’s International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) London 4/London5 (LD4/5) data center campus located on the outskirts of London. The access node will link the Equinix LD4/5 IBX campus directly with three of Level 3’s transatlantic routes to New York, improving diversity and lowering the latency on the route between the UK and North America.

14 Jul 2010 John Manock
4 Pan African Carrier Upgrades Core Network

As high-capacity submarine fiber optic cables come into service on both the east and west coasts of Africa, carriers are upgrading their networks to offer new services and take advantage of the vast amount of capacity the new cables offer.

05 Jul 2010 John Manock
5 Pacnet Delivers Next-Generation Internet via Cisco Gear

Pacnet, Asia’s leading independent telecommunications service provider, has completed the deployment of a highly scalable Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) based on the Cisco® Carrier Routing System (CRS) platform.

29 Jun 2010 John Manock
6 Activ Financial Selects Hibernia Atlantic

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, has announced that ACTIV Financial, a leading global provider of fully managed low-latency market data solutions, has selected Hibernia Atlantic's Global Financial Network (GFN) for Ethernet between Frankfurt and Chicago. ACTIV chose Hibernia's GFN, a next generation, high speed connectivity platform because of its rapid delivery coupled with secure route diversity, commercial flexibility and unmatched provisioning time to install.

24 Jun 2010 John Manock
7 Deutsche Börse Picks Hibernia for Frankfurt-Chicago Route

Hibernia Atlantic has announced that Deutsche Börse Systems, the IT subsidiary of Deutsche Börse AG, has selected Hibernia’s secure Global Financial Network (GFN) for high performance, protected connectivity between Frankfurt and Chicago. Deutsche Börse Systems chose Hibernia's GFN because of its full route diversity throughout the entire transatlantic, long-haul network, as well as down to the local metro loop level. The new high capacity route will serve Deutsche Börse Group’s large financial client base. The route also avoids highly congested network areas, such as around the New York and London waterways, thereby offering security through physical diversity.

22 Jun 2010 John Manock
8 Level 3 Invests Deepens European Presence

Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced it has invested in making Level 3’s connection to the city of Manchester resilient, meaning the city’s Internet connectivity is now independent of the Level 3 London hub. Level 3 serves approximately 45 markets in Europe and can seamlessly deliver transport as well as Internet Protocol (IP) services from Manchester through to Western Europe and markets across North America.

21 Jun 2010 John Manock
9 Submarine Cables Drive Iceland’s Data Center Initiative

Over the past few years, Iceland has become well connected by international submarine fiber optic cables – the FARICE cable to Scotland, the DANICE cable to Denmark and Greenland Connect to Greenland.  The multiple submarine cable connections allow Iceland to position itself as a “green” data center location, using its abundant renewable energy.

16 Jun 2010 John Manock
10 Gateway Wins Award for African MPLS Services on SEACOM

Gateway Communications, the leading supplier of telecommunications services across Africa, claimed the prestigious award for “Wholesale Service Innovation” in partnership with SEACOM in an awards ceremony held on the 8 June in London.

14 Jun 2010 John Manock
11 Tender Released for SEA-ME-WE-4 Lease Bandwidth

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd. (BSCCL), which has exclusive rights to capacity on the only international submarine fiber optic cable landing in the country, intends to lease out bandwidth on the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable system.

13 Jun 2010 John Manock
12 SEACOM Preparing for Final Network Configuration

In preparation for the SEACOM landing in Egypt that will mark the final configuration of the East African submarine cable system, the branching unit that is located in the international waters of the Arabian Sea, has been reconfigured.

09 Jun 2010 John Manock
13 Irish Company Extends Network Utilizing Project Kelvin

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, has announced that North West Electronics (NWE), an innovative Internet Service Provider serving the North of Ireland, will expand its wireless network with Hibernia Atlantic's fiber connectivity for Project Kelvin. As an early adopter in utilizing this high capacity cable, NWE Electronics can now offer wide-scale wireless Internet connectivity across Ireland to meet the growing demands of business customers and end-users.

06 Jun 2010 John Manock
14 Level 3, GlobeNet to Provide IP Services Bundled with Submarine Capacity

Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced that the company has established a multi-service relationship with GlobeNet, an international provider of submarine cable transmission capacity, to enable Level 3 and GlobeNet to offer transport and high-speed Internet services to satisfy the growth in communications demand in South America.

03 Jun 2010 John Manock
15 Global Crossing Upgrade AC-1 to Meet Continuing Customer Demand

Global Crossing has announced it is adding capacity on both its North American terrestrial network and its Atlantic Crossing 1® (AC-1®) subsea network.

01 Jun 2010 John Manock
16 Company Plans Dark Fiber Links to U.S. Cable Stations

US wholesale carrier Allied Fiber has finalized agreements with financial partners and right-of-way owners to build a new nationwide, network-neutral, high-count dark fiber cable system integrated with colocation facilities and wireless tower sites. Construction of the first 1,300 route-mile phase linking New York, Chicago and Ashburn, Virginia, is already underway and will cost approximately US$140 million. The completed dark fiber network will span 11,548 route miles ringing the entire U.S., to be built in six phases, linking subsea cable landing points, major data centers, colocation interconnection facilities, rural networks and wireless towers. Allied has secured several agreements with railroad companies including Norfolk Southern Railway and other major right-of-way owners.

25 May 2010 John Manock
17 Xtera Communications Awarded AC-1 Upgrade Contract

Xtera Communications, Inc. has announced a new contract with Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, to upgrade a legacy system fiber pair on Network Segment C (linking Brookhaven, New York and Whitesands, United Kingdom) of Global Crossing’s Atlantic Crossing (AC-1) network to meet growing customer demand for broadband services.

12 May 2010 John Manock
18 Baltcom IP Joins Internet Exchange DECIX

Baltcom IP has joined Internet exchange DECIX in Frankfurt that is among biggest and fastest growing points in Europe.  Thanks to direct peering possibilities, Baltcom said that its customers would enjoy improved services on many European routes.

10 May 2010 John Manock
19 Rwandatel Looks to Connect to TEAMS

In an effort to establish an alternative route for its international Internet traffic, Rwandatel is negotiating to buy capacity from The East African Marine System (TEAMS).

09 May 2010 John Manock
20 ASH Cable Owners Apply to Transfer Control of System

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has received an application for consent to the transfer of control of the interest in the American Samoa-Hawaii Cable, held by American Samoa Hawaii Cable, LLC (ASHC), AST Telecom d/b/a Blue Sky Communications (Blue Sky) and Pac-Rim Redeployment, LLC (PRR) from Stanford International Bank, Ltd. (SIBL) to Pete R. Pizarro.

06 May 2010 John Manock
21 UUNET Kenya Completes Full International Network Redundancy

UUNET Kenya customers can now enjoy 100% uptime after the company recently completed the installation of the 2nd International Backbone and the setting up of a Point of Presence (POP) in the United States. Previously, customers were re-routed to the U.S. through the firm’s London POP. This new development gives UUNET Kenya faster access the U.S.; both in terms of download speeds and access times.

03 May 2010 John Manock
22 Tyco to Settle Class Action Suit

A $79 million settlement has been reached in a long-running class action suit that accuses Tyco International Ltd. of misleading investors in its undersea cable subsidiary, TyCom Ltd.

02 May 2010 John Manock
23 Georgia-Russia Submarine Cable to Be Upgraded

Rostelecom and other participants of an international telecommunications consortium have signed a contract with Alcatel-Lucent to modernize and expand the Georgia-Russia submarine fiber-optic cable system.

22 Apr 2010 John Manock
24 Internode Extends Private IP Service to New Zealand

Internode has extended the coverage of its Internode Business Connect (IBC) private Internet Protocol networks across the Tasman Sea for clients with offices in New Zealand.  IBC Private IP networks now reach New Zealand.

12 Apr 2010 John Manock
25 MediaXstream Is Rebranded as Hibernia Media

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, MediaXstream, will now be branded as Hibernia Media. Hibernia Media is a leading provider of high quality transport and managed network services for the media production and broadcast industries. Hibernia Media is currently operational in 30 major markets in the U.S. and Europe, serving the increasingly growing demand for High Definition video networking and production services by TV and film production, sports, news, mobile content and IPTV. Hibernia Atlantic acquired the company in December 2009, further enhancing the combined entity’s network reach, performance and product offering, adding significant marketplace opportunities, technological innovation and customer value to media customers, financial houses and wholesale carrier providers.

08 Apr 2010 John Manock
26 PLDT Expands DFON, Increasing Capacity and Enhancing Resiliency

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has announced completion of another phase of its Digital Fiber Optic Network (DFON) expansion program. PLDT recently activated an additional 320 Gbps across six submarine and terrestrial network loops nationwide to serve the rising demand for bandwidth as more customers increase their usage of broadband Internet and multi-media services. This increased the operating capacity of PLDT's DFON to more than 1,000 Gbps at a total cost of P600 million.

30 Mar 2010 John Manock
27 SEACOM Enables Global Broadcasting of World Cup

SEACOM has announced that it has joined forces with Tata Communications to provide the critical international capacity to the broadcasters of the 2010 FIFA World Cup which kicks-off in South Africa on 11 June 2010.

24 Mar 2010 John Manock
28 Level 3 to Deliver US Network Services for Telkom Indonesia

Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced that the company will deliver high-speed network services for PT. Telkom Indonesia International (TII), a wholly owned subsidiary of PT. Telkom Indonesia. Under the terms of the agreement, TII will use Level 3's landing station connectivity at the Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable system. Level 3's services provide a diverse and scalable extension of TII's network to data and Internet traffic in the United States.

23 Mar 2010 John Manock
29 Court Approves TPG’s Acquisition of PIPE

TPG Telecom Limited and PIPE Networks Limited have announced that the Supreme Court of Queensland has issued orders approving the Scheme of Arrangement between PIPE Networks and its shareholders involving TPG Telecom acquiring all of the shares in PIPE Networks that it does not already own for $6.30 cash per share. The Court orders follow the overwhelming support of PIPE Networks shareholders who voted in favor of the scheme at the Scheme Meeting held on 12 March 2010.

21 Mar 2010 John Manock
30 Tinet Selects Hibernia Atlantic for Additional 10G Wavelengths

Hibernia Atlantic, the only diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, has announced that it has been selected by Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group and the only global carrier exclusively committed to the IP and Ethernet wholesale market, to deliver multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths of capacity to and from Toronto, New York, Dublin, London, Frankfurt and other major metro areas on Hibernia’s private network.

16 Mar 2010 John Manock
31 Internode Increases Capacity on Southern Cross

Australian Internet service provider Internode has signed a contract for a capacity expansion with long-standing partner, the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN).

16 Mar 2010 John Manock
32 Global Crossing Upgrades Submarine Cable Capacity

Global Crossing has announced that it is significantly expanding capacity on its Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC®), South American Crossing (SAC®) and Pan American Crossing (PAC®) undersea fiber-optic cable systems to meet rapidly growing demand for Internet Protocol (IP) and Ethernet transport among its enterprise, carrier and service provider customers.  These overbuilds will enhance connectivity between Latin America, North America and Europe and will be rolled out over the next six months, with some segments ready for service as early as May 2010.

10 Mar 2010 John Manock
33 Alcatel-Lucent, GlobeNet Complete Cable Upgrade

Alcatel-Lucent and GlobeNet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oi, completed the upgrade of GlobeNet’s 22,000-kilometer submarine cable system linking the United States with Latin America. This project, the second upgrade in approximately 18 months, enables GlobeNet to deliver more than 110 Gbps of capacity, the equivalent of 13.75 million voice calls at one time.