NEW YORK, NY, September 17, 2018 – Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”) today announced that one of its affiliates has entered into an agreement with TE Connectivity Ltd. (“TE”) under which Cerberus will acquire TE’s Subsea Communications business (“SubCom”).

It’s taken almost two years to construct; involved more than five years of planning; seen 4600km of undersea cable laid, at times kilometres down to the ocean bed; cost $US170m; and involved more than 60 staff but today marks the fully operational start of Australia’s newest, fastest and most direct connectivity route into Asia.

MainOne announced in April, MainOne secured C1B license to expand national and international connectivity services in Cote d’Ivoire. The C1B license, issued by the Ministry for Communication, Digital Economy and Postal Services, will enable MainOne land its MainOne submarine cable and build transmission infrastructure in Cote d’Ivoire, to strengthen connectivity, reduce international capacity costs and support wholesale customers, major operators and Internet Service Providers.

Orange and MainOne Cable Company announced on Wednesday that they have signed an agreement allowing for a major investment by Orange in the MainOne submarine cable system. to construct two new branches and stations connecting the MainOne cable to Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire by mid-2019. Through this partnership Orange will acquire additional capacity, thereby reinforcing its position in the African telecommunications ecosystem.

According to press release from Australia's Sunshine Coast Governent, Sunshine Coast Council and RTI Connectivity Pty Ltd (RTI-C) have concluded a new international submarine cable contract for Japan-Guam-Australia South (JGA-S) submarine cable. Under this contract, Sunshine Coast Governent and Queensland Government will joint invest up to AU$35 million for a 550km branch to the JGA-S cable system, a new cable landing station near the Maroochydore City Centre and the land-based infrastructure. The JGA-S submarine cable project is expected to deliver up to 864 new jobs and stimulate AU$927 million in new investment in Queensland.

Vocus confirmed Tuesday that its Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) was put into early service following a major service disruption on the Sea-Me-We3 (SMW-3) submarine cable between Perth and Singapore. Vocus announced last Firday the completion of project installation for ASC which was then scheduled to be ready for service on September 14, 2018.

Fort Lauderdale, FL and Menlo Park, CA – September 5th, 2018 – GlobeNet, the leading, fastest growing wholesale provider of telecom infrastructure in the Americas, and Facebook, announce today that they have begun construction of the new submarine cable system GlobeNet announced in May. GlobeNet and Facebook will co-own the system and it will be operated by GlobeNet.

[Fortaleza, Brazil, September 5, 2018]: The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) consortium announced the completion of the close to 6000km marine installation of its 25-year life- span transatlantic fiber optic subsea cable on September 4^th.  This marks a significant milestone: for the first time, two continents, Africa and Americas, in the Southern Hemisphere are fully connected to their respective landing stations, Kribi in Cameroon and Fortaleza in Brazil. 

The 4th Asia-Pacific Submarine Networks Forum with the theme of “Innovation Driving Future Submarine Networks”, was held in Shenzhen on Wednesday. The forum attracted more than 300 participants from government, financial institutions, consultants, major telecom operators in Asia Pacific, Africa and China, and well-known Chinese Internet companies Alibaba and Tencent. 

With the flick of a switch, Vocus Communications’ $US170m Australia Singapore Cable was today connected to the company’s terrestrial network, providing the country with a massive increase in capacity into the Asian region. Vocus Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Russell, said the Vocus team was finalising its testing phase for the cable system to be Ready for Service on 14 September, when customers will be able to enjoy the newest, fastest and most direct connectivity route into Asia.

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 29, 2018 -- PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd. (PEACE Cable) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and landing party agreement with Pakistan network service provider Cybernet and Djibouti Telecom during the 4th Asia-Pacific Submarine Networks Forum. Remaining landing party agreements will also be signed within the next two weeks, representing a key milestone in the delivery plan which includes the permit application work in each country.

According to Telxius, the11,000 km BRUSA submarine cable system linking Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza (Brazil) with San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Virginia Beach (USA), is now open for business. With its ultrafast transmission capacity reaching up to 138 Tbps, BRUSA is the highest capacity subsea cable connecting the Americas.

[Tianjin, China, August 23, 2018] Huawei Marine and Megacable announced that work is underway on marine survey for the Topolobambo – La Paz project. The submarine cable system will provide more stable and low-latency communication for La Paz, Mexico’s second largest tourist destination.

By this autumn, two new undersea cables – SACS and SAIL - will connect Africa to South America and the USA. Whilst all new fibre capacity to the continent is to be welcomed, these routes will need to find something more than just national demand to be feasible. Russell Southwood looks at what each cable promises and the likely downward pressure on international wholesale prices.

There are well recognised benefits to developing economies from investing in connectivity. However, the most pressing problems with facilitating the creation of new business and economic growth is a lack of the legacy infrastructure that has slowly been built in developed economies over the past 150 years. These infrastructure requirements include railway lines, highways, ports, telecommunication facilities and subsea cables, upon which the modern internet is built.

According to GlobeNet,  it plans the deployment of a new 2,500 km submarine cable that will link Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires. This new infrastructure will connect Argentina to the GlobeNet network in Brazil, effectively linking the Southern Cone of South America to the United States and the world.