Optical & Fixed Networks

An independent survey has once again named Huawei as market leader in the optical network terminals (ONT) sector, a position it has now occupied for the last seven years.

The Europe India Gateway(EIG) submarine cable system has been upgraded to accelerate and strengthen connectivity between businesses in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and India, says Ciena, a networking systems, services and software company.

Cable system solutions company Huawei Marine Networks (HMN) has announced that it has been awarded a contract for a new submarine cable project: the Maldives Sri Lanka Cable System (MSC).

There’s finally some good news about repairs to the West Africa Cable System (WACS) submarine fibre cable – at least for subscribers in South Africa.

Repairs to submarine cables bringing internet connectivity to Vietnam have been rescheduled.

With data demand growing in the country, Indonesian operator PT XL Axiata has announced what appears to be a fairly aggressive fibre-optic network deployment.

The recent SAT-3/WASC and WACS cable system problems that disrupted services in a number of African countries have still to be completely solved, although restoration of services seems to be getting closer, according to local press reports.

A cable company working across multiple regions has high hopes for its latest project which, it says, is designed for poorer countries with limited internet connectivity.

Djibouti and Somaliland are at loggerheads over the installation and proposed route of the DARE1 (Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1) submarine cable.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has deployed Nokia’s technology to expand the capacity of its recently installed 100G transport network to 200G optical network for both domestic and international traffic.

The cable breaks we reported earlier this week are still disrupting communications in parts of Africa and will do so for a while – but help is on the way, according to regional press reports.

Russia’s MegaFon is entering into Fixed Virtual Network Operator (FVNO) partnerships with domestic ISPs in order to extend the reach of its converged fixed and mobile services.

Partners in an extension to a submarine cable system connecting Asia, Africa and Europe are claiming it will deliver a major bandwidth boost for Africa as it enters a new phase.

Better news for cable connections after recent disruption near Africa comes from Djibouti and Angola in the form of announcements of new trials and ongoing installation.

Submarine cable disruption has affected a number of areas in recent months. The last two weeks have seen many countries in Africa in particular affected by two regional undersea cable faults.

New figures suggest strong growth for the rollout of fixed broadband lines in Argentina in the next four years.

Prysmian Group, a leading name in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, is to undertake a major cable supply project in Mexico to bring broadband to remote regions.

Avaroa Cable Ltd (ACL), a wholesale fibre optic operator providing managed wholesale connectivity services to and between the Cook Islands, has confirmed that the Manatua One Polynesia submarine cable system has successfully been brought ashore in Rutaki village, Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands.

Local press reports indicate that undersea cable repairs on three internet cables connected to Vietnam are soon to conclude, enabling faster internet connectivity after a number of breakdowns and disruptions.

As the Indian government this week inaugurated work on submarine cables between Chennai and the Andaman Nicobar Islands, reports indicate that Reliance Jio may have ambitious plans of its own in the submarine cable area.

Paraguay expects its national fibre-optic network (Red Nacional de Fibra Optica, or RNFO) to be complete by February.

According to Japanese press reports, global technology and services provider NTT Ltd is planning to lay a new submarine cable connecting Myanmar and India.

Algeria has completed a cross-border fibre-optic network link with Mauritania.

Start-up firm CHT Holdings Dominicana is planning to use infrastructure from Dominican electricity firm ETED (Empresa de Transmision Electrica Dominicana) to increase the country’s options for broadband connectivity.

Liquid Telecom South Africa, part of the pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, together with a consortium of telecommunications companies, has officially inaugurated the landing station of the Melting Pot Indianoceanic Submarine System (METISS).

Integrated ICT and infrastructure provider Vox has entered into a partnership with Angola Cables that will give it remote peering access to the undersea South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) linking Africa with the Americas.

Operators Djibouti Telecom, Somtel Somalia and Telkom Kenya, along with SubCom, which designs, manufactures, deploys, maintains and operates fibre optic cable networks, have announced that all manufacturing aspects for the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1) submarine cable system are complete.

MainOne, a provider of telecom services and network solutions for businesses in West Africa, has announced that its submarine cable in Cote d’Ivoire is live and ready for service.

Local carrier SCCI and New Zealand submarine cable system operator Hawaiki Submarine Cable have signed a multi-million-dollar contract to provide SCCI with a turnkey solution to connect the island nation of New Caledonia to Hawaiki.

A plan to upgrade communications infrastructure connecting the major Myanmar cities of Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon and Mandalay, along with the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), has been announced.

Underlining its growing strength in diverse areas of telecommunications and IT, search engine giant Google has announced that Curie, a 10,500-kilometer-long undersea cable, now connects Google data centres in the US and Chile.

Pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom has launched the fastest direct land-based fibre link connecting East to West Africa.