China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is going to announce soon the national plan for the development of communications industry in the next five years (2011-2015), i.e., the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Development of Communications Industry of the People's Republic of China.

November 9, 2011 -- According to CCTV News, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) confirmed today it has officially launched an anti-monopoly investigation into China Telecom and China Unicom on their broadband internet access services. China Telecom and China Unicom may be fined up to 10 percent of their annual revenues from internet services.

Sunnyvale, CA, October. 11, 2011 -- Infinera and Pacific Crossing announced today the successful completion of a 100 Gbps subsea trial on the trans-pacific PC-1 network. The subsea trial spanned more than 9,500 kilometers on PC-1 fiber from California to Japan.  

Beijing, October 13, 2011 -- China Telecom and Orange yesterday signed a strategic partnership framework agreement in Beijing in order to make the most of the complementary aspects of their networks and services. Mr.Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of France Telecom-Orange, and Mr. WANG Xiaochu, Chairman of China Telecom executed the agreement.  The new partnership may signal that Orange has abandoned its former Chinese partner, China Unicom.

In the recent Asian Carriers' Conference 2011 (ACC 2011) in Cebu, the Philippines, KDDI promoted its aggressive offers and solutions over the Russia-Japan Cable Network (RJCN) and the Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) cable system. The IPLC/IEPL price over TEA cable system will go down significantly. The other providers offering Transit Europe-Asia solutions over the TEA cable system and the ERA cable system may have to adjust their prices.

According to Taipei news, the National Communications Commission (NCC)  announced Wednesday that it has approved the Kinmen-Xiamen submarine cable project to be jointly invested by Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and three mailand operators, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile.

September 22, 2011 - According to the Austrialian Communications Day, Chinese companies are planning to build a new Trans Tasman submarine internet cable between New Zealand and Australia.

In the recent 2011 China Communications Industry Development Forum held in Beijing on August 8, 2011, Mr. Lu Xiangdong, vice president of China Mobile Group said China Mobile should make every effort to participate in the construction of international submarine cable systems. As reported, China Mobile has joined the SJC consortium and the APG consortium to invest on the intra-Asia submarine cable systems, and also participated in the construction of the TSE-1 and the Xiamen-Jinmen submarine cables across the Taiwan Strait.

Moscow - June 6, 2011

Rostelecom announced that it has wrapped up a deal with China Telecom to expand the capacity of the Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) system to 200 Gbps.

While the telecom industry is astonished by the announcement on April 11, 2011 that Level3 is going to acquire Global Crossing, and chating about its impacts on the industry, and analyst expecting that there should be acquisitions and mergings of the other operators so as to form considerable competitive advantages against the Levels and Global Crossing merger, it is coming the acquisition of Savvis by CenturyLink.

As mentioned in an early ariticle, the cable repair after the Japan earthquake may take longer, and the industry is nervse about any additional cable cuts.

Unfortunately, there were multiple cable cuts reported in Asia region, TPE, EAC and C2C were affected.

April 11, 2011, US time, Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:  LVLT) and Global Crossing Limited (NASDAQ:  GLBC) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Level 3 will acquire Global Crossing in a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction. The combined company will operate a unique global services platform anchored by fiber optic networks on three continents, connected by extensive undersea facilities. The combined network will serve a worldwide customer set with owned network in more than 50 countries and connections to more than 70 countries. This transaction will create a company with pro forma combined 2010 revenues of $6.26 billion and pro forma combined 2010 Adjusted EBITDA of $1.27 billion before synergies and $1.57 billion after expected synergies.

April 11, 2011, one month after the magnitude 9.0 Japan Earthquake,  the cable repair is still going on and it may take longer.

Submarine networks have demonstrated its importance for global communications, especially global internet which requires huge capacity. On the other hand, the whole submarine networks are still quite vulnerable, though there is increasing enhancement on diversity, redundancy and protection. Submarine cable cut occurs from time to time arround the world. Trawl fishing, vessel anchoring, nature disaster such as earthquake, typhoon and landslide are the main threats to the submarine networks.

On August 17, 2009, Magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit the east coast of Taiwan, after the spread of Typhoon Morakot on August 9, the deadliest typhoon to impact Taiwan in recorded history. Eight submarine cables were cut by the earthquake and landslides caused by the Typhoon Morakot.

On Tuesday December 26, 2006 at 12:25 UTC (20:25 local time), a maganitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Taiwan, approximately 22.8 km west southwest of Hengchun, Pingtung County, Taiwan (the 2006 Hengchun/Taiwan earthquake). Eight submarine cables were cut after the earthquake and its aftershocks, catastrophically disrupted Internet services in Asia, affecting many Asian countries. Financial transactions, particularly in the foreign exchange market were seriously affected as well. The 2006 Taiwan Earthquak renderred significant impacts on submarine networks.