Optical & Fixed Networks

According to Bloomberg and recent Indian news reports, the country is looking at proposals to reduce the license fee for fixed-line broadband services to households.

TurkNet is upgrading its core network with 400Gbps optical transport solutions from Ekinops.

A useful reminder that fibre is still a strong player – even in mobile-dominated markets – comes from Oman and Myanmar, where expansion of fibre-to-the-home services is under way.

Asia Direct Cable (ADC) Consortium has selected NEC to build a high-performance submarine cable connecting China (Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong Province), Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Main One, a broadband infrastructure company working across West Africa, has been asked by Burkina Faso, backed by the World Bank, to provide bulk connectivity services to a consortium of operators for the next three years.

The Asia-Africa-Europe-1 Consortium (AAE-1), one of the largest consortium cable systems in the world today, has recently completed a significant upgrade on its intercontinental cable system.

Press outlets in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have reported that PNG DataCo, a telecommunications carrier established by the PNG government, along with its partners, has landed the Kumul submarine cable in Kokopo, the capital of East New Britain.

China Telecom Global (CTG) has selected Angola Cables as its preferred carrier to bolster its long-haul links between Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Emergent Telecommunications has selected du and Batelco’s joint venture Arc as the lead consultant for the Orient Express submarine cable system.

Vodafone Cook Islands and Avaroa Cable have announced that they are working together to prepare for the Manatua Cable going live later this year.

Recent announcements from Italian service provider and global operator Sparkle include a Pacific cable enhancement and a new point of presence in Morocco.

Service provider IENTC Telecomunicaciones has selected Telia Carrier’s IP Transit backbone services to provide low latency, high capacity services to its consumer and enterprise customers.

The US endpoint of the AMX-1 subsea cable between the US and Brazil is to be hosted by JaxNAP.

Work on the Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) cable is under way. Huawei Marine Networks (HMN), a provider of a submarine-network solutions this week announced the start of work on the SHARE cable, which will extend from West Africa far into the Atlantic Ocean.

OPT New Caledonia (OPT-NC), the main provider of telecommunications in the French overseas territory located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, has selected Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to construct and install the Gondwana-2 subsea cable linking New Caledonia to Fiji.

Oman’s regulator has unveiled an initiative aimed at connecting over 500 remote communities and villages in the Sultanate.

While many development plans are at a standstill around the world, some telecommunications initiatives are still being unveiled. Hungary, for example, has invited proposals for the funding of its latest superfast internet rollout initiative.

Recent media reports indicate that Google has plans for a submarine cable connecting India and Italy via Israel. The cable will reach Israel in 2022.

After yesterday’s reports of continued cable repair delays near Vietnam, some better news comes from Malaysia, where Telekom Malaysia has quickly restored international capacity lost due to a submarine cable fault.

When we reported early last week on the latest issue facing the Asia America Gateway (AAG) undersea cable – and internet users in Vietnam – it wasn’t clear how long repairs would take. We now know it could be another week before normal service is resumed.

The West Africa Cable System (WACS) has been fully repaired after an outage was registered on 27th March.

It appears the Asia America Gateway (AAG) undersea cable has recently experienced another issue, meaning that Vietnamese internet users have yet again had to deal with slow internet connections.

CSC e-Governance Services India, a licence holder for the provision of internet services, has claimed a nearly 100 per cent jump in data consumption for rural India in March.

The West African Cable System (WACS) is in the news again, with continuing outages affecting South Africa for at least another few days.

Further evidence of the growing reliance on telecommunications during the Coronavirus pandemic comes from Bangladesh, where local news reports suggest that internet usage has shot up 15 per cent.

Ukrtelecom will deploy a rural GPON fibre optic network via a new agreement with Iskratel and SID Bank of Slovenia.

It’s no surprise in the current circumstances that home broadband and WiFi are enjoying a surge in the Indian market. But can providers keep up?

Congolese regulator ARPTC (Autorite de Regulation des Postes et Telecom) has granted Liquid Telecom a licence to build a second submarine cable landing station.

Consulting and investment company SUB.CO has announced that its Oman Australia Cable (OAC) project has entered contract in force (CIF) status, with its final system connection expected to be completed in December 2021.

The DARE1 consortium has landed cables in Somalia’s two largest coastal cities, Mogadishu and Bosaso.

A new open-access agreement has been signed by six broadband providers in Saudi Arabia.

Nepal’s Subisu Cablenet is boosting its network capacity using Nokia’s 100G backbone optical network.