Vietnam Internet restored to normal after the AAG cable repaired on January 6. The latest AAG cable outage occurred off Vietnam coast near the Vung Tau Cable Landing Station on Dec 20, 2013 and some 60 percent of the Vietnam Internet traffic, according to FPT Telecom. There was moderate saying that the AAG cable outage affected only about 40 percent of Vietnam's international Internet traffic. Anyway, Vietnam Internet was disrupted by the AAG cable outage.

Today, the first working day in 2014, it is a wonderful day. The professional Linkedin group on submarine cable industry, 01 The Submarine Cable Systems group, reached 20,000 members, the default maximum size of a given Linkedin Group. Cheer, we all contribute to the 20000-member group, 01 The Submarine Cable Systems group, the best social networking for professionals in submarine cable industry worldwide. 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday postponed her next month’s scheduled trip to Washington, angering at the spying that the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted her communications, hacked into the state-owned Petrobras oil company’s network and spied on Brazilians who entrusted their personal data to U.S. tech companies such as Facebook and Google. Rousseff ordered a series of measures to break away from the U.S.-centric Internet.

Capacity revealed on Tuesday the shortlisted companies for the 2013 Global Carrier Awards. 

The nominations for over 20 categories are listed below, and the winners will be announced at the Capacity Awards ceremony and gala dinner on Tuesday 19 November at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

[Tianjin, China, September 5, 2013]:Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd. (Huawei Marine) today announced that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has selected Huawei Marine Optix BWS 1600S to upgrade the Bahamas Domestic Submarine Network International (BDSNi).

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.