According to Telstra Global, the Indigo Consortium announed on Wednesday 19, Septermber 2018 a significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the landing of the INDIGO West cable at Floreat Beach in Perth. This marks the completion of work to lay the first section of cable across approximately 2400km from Christmas Island to Perth. Work to lay the second section of the INDIGO West cable between Singapore and Indonesia will start this month and is expected to be completed by the end of December 2018. The Indigo Consortium comprises AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners (acquired by Superloop) and Telstra.

Telecom Egypt (TE) announced on Monday it has concluded the acquisition of the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) from Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) through its subsidiary Egyptian International Submarine Cable Company (EISCC) at a total value of $90 million. The acquisition of MENA cable system was approved by its Board of Directors in May 2018.

2018-2022 will be the golden era of submarine cable systems. Nearly 40 submarine cable systems in different stages of planning and implementation will go live in this period globally, taking total length of submarine cables operational from 1.2 million kms to 1.5 million kms with nearly 500 submarine cables. The volume play will bring economies of scale and with heightened competition make submarine cable construction more cost effective from current benchmark of $20-40k per km. Submarine cable and photonics associated with it is also on steep technology evolution curve, having reached 200G and poised for 400G leap by 2020.

TE Connectivity, a maker of electrical connectors and sensors based in Switzerland with U.S. headquarters and executive offices in Berwyn,  said Monday that it had reached an agreement to sell its undersea communications business, called SubCom, for $325 million.

The buyer of SubCom, which rolls cable across the ocean floor for Google, Facebook, and other large tech and telecom enterprises from its specially-designed ships, is Cerberus Capital Management LP, a Washington-based private-equity giant that owns Acme Markets and other companies.

WALL, NJ – September 18, 2018 – NJFX, the first and only carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station Campus in the U.S to offer Tier 3, carrier-neutral data center capabilities, announces that the HAVFRUE (also known as AEC-2) transatlantic subsea cable system will land at its colocation campus, in Wall, New Jersey. The HAVFRUE subsea cable will be constructed between New Jersey and Denmark, with branch connection to Ireland and Norway, by a consortium that includes Aqua Comms, Bulk Infrastructure, Google and Facebook. The consortium members selected to land the HAVFRUE system in New Jersey at the NJFX Tier 3 by the Subsea Colocation campus.

Connecting the west and east gateways becomes a milestone in Telin's history. Through IGG, Telin makes North America and Western Europe well connected. IGG is the hub bridging the two cable systems, the SEA-US with the SEA-ME-WE 5, in South East Asia. As a global digital solution, Telin has answered the problem of increasing demand for better quality of communication for a larger part of the world. A wider connectivity also means a greater opportunity for you to capture your new emerging market.

NEW YORK, NY, September 17, 2018 – Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”) today announced that one of its affiliates has entered into an agreement with TE Connectivity Ltd. (“TE”) under which Cerberus will acquire TE’s Subsea Communications business (“SubCom”).

It’s taken almost two years to construct; involved more than five years of planning; seen 4600km of undersea cable laid, at times kilometres down to the ocean bed; cost $US170m; and involved more than 60 staff but today marks the fully operational start of Australia’s newest, fastest and most direct connectivity route into Asia.

MainOne announced in April, MainOne secured C1B license to expand national and international connectivity services in Cote d’Ivoire. The C1B license, issued by the Ministry for Communication, Digital Economy and Postal Services, will enable MainOne land its MainOne submarine cable and build transmission infrastructure in Cote d’Ivoire, to strengthen connectivity, reduce international capacity costs and support wholesale customers, major operators and Internet Service Providers.

Orange and MainOne Cable Company announced on Wednesday that they have signed an agreement allowing for a major investment by Orange in the MainOne submarine cable system. to construct two new branches and stations connecting the MainOne cable to Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire by mid-2019. Through this partnership Orange will acquire additional capacity, thereby reinforcing its position in the African telecommunications ecosystem.

According to press release from Australia's Sunshine Coast Governent, Sunshine Coast Council and RTI Connectivity Pty Ltd (RTI-C) have concluded a new international submarine cable contract for Japan-Guam-Australia South (JGA-S) submarine cable. Under this contract, Sunshine Coast Governent and Queensland Government will joint invest up to AU$35 million for a 550km branch to the JGA-S cable system, a new cable landing station near the Maroochydore City Centre and the land-based infrastructure. The JGA-S submarine cable project is expected to deliver up to 864 new jobs and stimulate AU$927 million in new investment in Queensland.

Vocus confirmed Tuesday that its Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) was put into early service following a major service disruption on the Sea-Me-We3 (SMW-3) submarine cable between Perth and Singapore. Vocus announced last Firday the completion of project installation for ASC which was then scheduled to be ready for service on September 14, 2018.

Fort Lauderdale, FL and Menlo Park, CA – September 5th, 2018 – GlobeNet, the leading, fastest growing wholesale provider of telecom infrastructure in the Americas, and Facebook, announce today that they have begun construction of the new submarine cable system GlobeNet announced in May. GlobeNet and Facebook will co-own the system and it will be operated by GlobeNet.

[Fortaleza, Brazil, September 5, 2018]: The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) consortium announced the completion of the close to 6000km marine installation of its 25-year life- span transatlantic fiber optic subsea cable on September 4^th.  This marks a significant milestone: for the first time, two continents, Africa and Americas, in the Southern Hemisphere are fully connected to their respective landing stations, Kribi in Cameroon and Fortaleza in Brazil. 

The 4th Asia-Pacific Submarine Networks Forum with the theme of “Innovation Driving Future Submarine Networks”, was held in Shenzhen on Wednesday. The forum attracted more than 300 participants from government, financial institutions, consultants, major telecom operators in Asia Pacific, Africa and China, and well-known Chinese Internet companies Alibaba and Tencent. 

With the flick of a switch, Vocus Communications’ $US170m Australia Singapore Cable was today connected to the company’s terrestrial network, providing the country with a massive increase in capacity into the Asian region. Vocus Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Russell, said the Vocus team was finalising its testing phase for the cable system to be Ready for Service on 14 September, when customers will be able to enjoy the newest, fastest and most direct connectivity route into Asia.