Renesys analyst Mr. Doug Madory found earlier this month that Cuba had activated Internet traffic via its first undersea cable “Alternativa Bolivariana para los Pueblos de nuestra América" （ALBA-1）landed at Siboney beach, Santiago de Cuba and linking Cuba, Jamaica and Venezuela. And as reported by FOXNEWS, Cuba's state telecom monopoly confirmed on January 24 that the island's first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world has been activated, but said it won't lead to an immediate increase in access.

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.

Boston, MA – July 30, 2012 – Seaborn Networks announced that, in response to significant customer demand, its Seabras-1 submarine cable will now provide the first-ever direct route between the commercial and financial centers of Brazil and the United States.

New Delhi - August 7^th, 2012 – Reliance Globalcom, a leading global provider of connectivity, hosting and managed services for multinational enterprises and carriers, today announced availability of 10G LAN PHY, a dedicated Ethernet point-to-point service, as a standard service offering across all the major destinations on its global network.

ASSC-1 Communications Group Pty Ltd announced on January 19, 2012 to deploy a new subsea cable connecting Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, the Australia-Singapore Subsea Cable (ASSC-1). ASSC-1 will bring more competition in Australian capacity market.

Southern Cross today announced in January 2012 the availability of the first 200G of capacity on the  Southern Cross Cable Network, a 28,500 km submarine cable system linking Australia, New Zealand and the US. And Southern Cross will offer a price reduction of up to 44 percent. In the meantime, Southern Cross also announced the deployment of 100G transmission equipment by December this year. 

First of all, at this moment of the year ending,  Submarine Cable Networks hopes you all a fantastic holiday and a prosperous new year, happy and healthy.

In the year 2011 in our submarine cable industry, we experienced disasters, we were excited for the application of new technologies, we were happy there had been a surge of investment and there were new projects worldwide.  Taking a look back, I'd like to list some top stories of the year 2011.

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.