Capacity Watch

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) are close to completing a full network migration at their regional UK interconnection point, LINX Manchester.

According to the Brand Finance Telecoms 150 2021, Verizon leads world’s most valuable telecoms brand with brand value up 8% to US$68.9 billion, followed by AT&T, Deutsche Telecom and China Mobile in turn. Reliance Jio is the strongest and fastest growing brand in terms of brand value, with a 50% increase to US$4.8 billion. Although in difficulties, Huawei continues to lead as the world’s most valuable and strongest telecoms infrastructure brand, with a brand value of US$55.4 billion, beating Cisco and Corning respectively on brand value and brand strength, according to Brand Finance Telecoms Infrastructure 10.

According to Nasdaq news, Investment firm KKR said on Monday it would acquire a majority stake in telecoms operator Telefonica Chile's fiber optic network in a deal valued at about $1 billion. 

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), a leading interconnection hub, has seen network data traffic passed by its members across its multiple peering LANS grow substantially over the last year.

On the exchange’s primary LON1 platform in London, data traffic has increased by well over 40%. The figure is closely reflected across all of LINX’s interconnection hubs, both in the UK, and the US. Indeed, all LINX LANs have set traffic records since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telia Carrier announced the launch of a new PoP (Point of Presence) at the Derio de Telxius Communications Hub , located near Bilbao; a communications node with great interconnection capacity. The agreement enhances Telia Carrier's fiber backbone and connectivity for customers seeking access to a completely new and diverse route, from America to Europe, with low latency and high capacity between the two continents.

Tokyo, January 26, 2021 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced on today the delivery of a submarine cable seismic and tsunami observation system to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau (CWB) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. This project is based on a contract between NEC Taiwan and the CWB.

According to Ciena, NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) will deploy a single-wave 800G line speed solution for Data Center Interconnect (DCI). Deployed with Ciena’s industry-leading WaveLogic 5 Extreme optical platform, NTT Com’s upgraded network can support capacity up to 33.6Tbps per fiber pair between data centers in metro area.

Orange announced the commissioning and commercial launch of Djoliba, the first pan-African backbone network, covering 8 countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. This Djoliba network infrastructure is based on a terrestrial fibre optic network, coupled with undersea cables, offering secure connectivity abroad from West Africa. This investment aims to support the digital ecosystem and meets the growing needs for connectivity in the region.

Liberty Latin America has confirmed that the company has entered into a consent judgment with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the previously announced acquisition of AT&T’s wireless and wireline operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The DoJ required Liberty Latin America Ltd. (Liberty), its subsidiary, Liberty Communications of Puerto Rico LLC (LCPR), and AT&T Inc. (AT&T) to divest certain fiber-based telecommunications assets and customer accounts in Puerto Rico. The DoJ also approved WorldNet Telecommunications, Inc. (WorldNet) as the acquirer. 

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cables operators in the region, announces that it is building Egypt's largest international data center facility. Expected to be commissioned in early 2021 with access to all the global submarine cable systems that land in Egypt, the new data center is going to be the first in the country with the Uptime Institute's certifications in the Design, Constructed Facility, and Operational Sustainability categories.

Telia Company announced on Tuesday to sell its global operation Telia Carrier to Polhem Infra, an infrastructure investor owned by Swedish pension funds, for 9.45 billion Swedish kronor (€900 million), on a cash and debt free basis, at an EV/EBITDA ratio of 18.9. Telia Company has reached an agreement with Polhem Infra. At the same time, Telia Company enters a long-term strategic partnership with Telia Carrier, securing continuous world-leading network solutions to Telia’s customers. 

In a blog post by Google Global Networking experts Valey Kamalov and Mattia Cantono on Friday,  Google unveiled a recent experiment using its subsea cables to detect earthquakes and tsunamis. Google has developed a technique which is capable of dectecting earthquakes and tsunamis over tens of thousands of kilometers away, using current in-service subsea cables and equipment that is present on the vast majority of the world’s existing subsea cable systems.

According to press release from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) of Egypt, the Minister Amr Talaat has issued a decree appointing Mohamed Nasr Eldin Mohamed Ali the Assistant ICT Minister for Global Information Infrastructure (GII) for one year. Nasr Eldin is a respectful verteran in developing and running submarine cable systems, global telecommunication networks and the Internet. He was the Head of Subsea Cable Infrastructure at PCCW Global prior to this appiontment, and headed International Business Unit at Telecom Egypt for years prior to his roles at PCCW Global. He contributed a lot and work extensively for the PEACE cable, the AAE-1 cable and other subsea cables.

The Commercial Division of the High Court of England and Wales in London on Friday (May 22) ordered Anil Ambani, the former chairman of the bankrupted Reliance Communications, to pay approximately US$717 million to three Chinese banks within 21 days, pursuant to a Facility Agreement and a binding personal guarantee. The court also ruled the court costs of 750,000 pounds in favor of the claimant (Chinese banks), owed by the defendant.

SUNeVision Holdings Ltd. (“SUNeVision”), the owner of MEGA Campus and one of the largest data centre providers in Hong Kong, announced a new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute site on MEGA Campus in Hong Kong. According to Microsoft, the new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute site is located at Mega-iAdvantage, the #1 Data Centre in Hong Kong, as Misrosoft Azure ExpressRoute location Hong Kong2. Microsoft established its first Azure ExpressRoute location Hong Kong at Equinix HK1.

March 09, 2020 Eastern Daylight Time-Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (“Zayo”) (NYSE: ZAYO), which provides mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies, today announced the completion of its acquisition by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners (“Digital Colony”) and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund (“EQT” or “EQT Infrastructure”). The close marks the consummation of the $14.3 billion transaction, which represents the largest syndicated private equity investment, the fifth largest Media & Communications LBO and the second largest LBO overall since 2008.