China has planed to establish regional telecommunications service center and international telecommunications hub in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province, according to the speech by SHANG Bing, Vice Minister of the MIIT, on the China – Eurasia Regional Telecommunications Exchange and Cooperation Forum on September 2, 2013. This is an effort for China to promote Eurasia network integration.

The State Council of China has issued the Broadband China Strategy and its Implementation Plan. As huge demands from China have driven the rising of commodity prices for oil, iron ore, etc., the demands on international cable capacity driven by the Broadband China Strategy may promote or at least uphold the prices for international capacity. The terrestrial and submarine cable industry, no matter manufacturers or capacity providers, will benefit from China's broadband strategy.

China issued series policies to boost information consumption.  Following the Circular of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Broadband China Strategy and its Implementation Plan (Documents of the State Council [2013] No.31), the State Council issued Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting Information Consumption and Boosting Domestic Demand (Documents of the State Council [2013] No.32). Surprisingly, China's central government issued successively within one week two state policies on information sector. And the document will serve as a guidance for related Chinese companies to boost the information consumption.

According to the Circular of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Broadband China Strategy and its Implementation Plan (Documents of the State Council [2013] No.31) issued on 17 August 2013, China has promoted the Broadband China Strategy to a national strategy from a sector strategy. 

By  THA LUN ZAUNG HTET/ THE IRRAWADDY

RANGOON — Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication and China Unicom have signed an agreement to build a new optical fiber cable that would connect Burma with China and international submarine communications networks, a senior official said on Thursday. The project would improve Internet connectivity in Burma.

[Tianjin, China, July 30th, 2013]: Huawei Marine Networks Co, Ltd. (Huawei Marine) has announced the successful completion of the Boracay and Palawan Submarine Cable System (BPSCS) in the Philippines. The domestic system, with a total length of over 330km consists of two segments; one linking Boracay and Caticlan, the other linking Taytay, Palawan and San Jose, Mindoro with a branching unit towards the island of Coron. For Globe, completion of this submarine cable system enables them to complement the modernization of their transport backbone network.

Myanmar is undergoing great changes and reform. With the bidding and award of two mobile licenses to international operators, Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo, Myanmar's reform on telecom sector has caught worldwide eyeballs. From various information, it is obviously that Myanmar is planning several projects to boost its international telecommunications capacity, to meet the requirement for the development of broadband internet in Myanmar.

DALLAS, TEXAS, USA – (April 23, 2013) – Eastern Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS) Consortium has selected Xtera Communications Inc. (Xtera), a leading global provider of optical networking solutions, for the upgrade of its festoon subsea cable system. ECFS subsea cable system is made of 10 segments, connecting Tortola in the British Virgin Islands to Trinidad at the south of the Caribbean arc. Xtera’s Nu-Wave Optima^TM equipment offers the possibility to mix 10G and 100G channel rates to support existing and emerging high-capacity services. Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) are used in cable landing stations to avoid or minimize the number of regeneration points for island-to-island connectivity.

DALLAS, TEXAS, USA – (April 22, 2013) – Xtera Communications, Inc. (“Xtera”), a leading global provider of optical networking solutions, today announced the launch of a next-generation optical repeater for subsea cable systems. This enhances Xtera’s well-established portfolio of solutions for subsea cable systems, putting Xtera in a position to offer a range of elements on a full turnkey basis that will allow service providers to build high performance and highly reliable submarine cable systems with significantly improved reach and capacity.

[Tian Jin, China, April11^th. 2013]:  Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd. (Huawei Marine) announces first profitable year.

Although a relatively new supplier with large investment plans in the early years, Huawei Marine achieved breakeven at the end of 2012 after only four years of operation, passing a huge internal milestone and priding ourselves in successfully offering competitive solutions to our Customers.

Following the first edition of the Top Stories on Submarine Cable Networks, I'd like to share herein its second edition, the top stories of 2012 on Submarine Cable Networks.

1. No disaster, a rather healthy year.

In 2012, global submarine cable networks run rather healthy.
Unlike in the former years, such as Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Taiwan earthquake and typhoon Morakot in 2009, cable cuts in the Mediterranean affected 14 countries in 2008, and Taiwan Hengchun earthquake in 2006, there were disasters and accidents resulted in regional and even global impacts to submarine cable networks and global traffic. Although there were cable cuts from time to time in 2012, the whole submarine cable networks kept rather healthy and resilient.
No disaster, no story, this is the best story of the year 2012 on submarine cable networks.

According to a study published in the November 2012 issue of Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine, Xtera leads in submarine cable network upgrades in 2012 with 35% of market shares, Infinera takes the second, and Ciena seats the third. And it also shows in the study that 100G upgrades is now dominated in the market.

Source: TeleGeography

Prices for wholesale IP transit services continued to decline globally over the last few years. 
TeleGeography has identified that GigE ports declined at a compounded annual rate of 34% in London, 28% in New York, 26% in Hong Kong and 20% in São Paulo between Q2 2009 and Q2 2012.

Although prices have declined globally, significant geographic differences remain. TeleGeography notes that the median GigE price in Hong Kong has remained 2.7 to 5.1 times the price of a GigE port in London over the past three years.

Similarly, the price of a GigE port in São Paulo has remained between 5.2 and 8.2 times the price of a comparable port in New York. 

Source: Capacity Magazine's interview to Chris Wood, CEO at African cable consortium WIOCC.

Chris Wood has overseen the remarkable rise of one of the largest subsea cable consortium groups in telecoms today. The WIOCC CEO shares his African adventure with Kavit Majithia.

Chris Wood, CEO at African cable consortium WIOCC, conducted this interview from the heady heights of Mount Kenya. 

According to news from REUTERS on Nov. 2, Alcatel-Lucent is weighing selling its submarine cable business and a unit that sells telephone systems to big companies as part of its effort to shore up its balance sheet. The construction of new submarine cable projects is slowing down, can Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks survive for the next investment surge?

Chunghwa Telecom and other three mainland operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have completed the works on the Kinmen-Xiamen submarine cable system which in turn will be ready for service on August 21, 2012. The Kinmen-Xiamen submarine cable system becomes the first cable system linking Taiwan and Mainland China.