Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has introduced an innovative design approach, SDM1 by ASN, Spatial Division Multiplexing, optimizing cost per bit. This disruptive solution is an alternative to the traditional design philosophy status quo. The SDM1 by ASN is revolutionizing the traditional submarine network design: "High power, High OSNR, High Effective Area (Aeff) fibre" by using "Low Power, Low OSNR, Low Aeff Fibre and more fibre pairs".

MainOne has announced an Open Access metro fiber infrastructure project in two states of Nigeria, with the support from Facebook. The infrastructure collaboration is part of Facebook’s efforts to connect more people to broadband internet. As part of this open access project, MainOne is building and operating approximately 750 km terrestrial fiber infrastructure in Edo and Ogun States, two of Nigeria’s fastest growing states.

MainOne Cable Company signed supply contract with TE SubCom in September 2018 to extend the MainOne submarine cable system with two additional branches connecting Senegal (Dakar) and Cote D’Ivoire (Abidjan). SubCom will light the new branches with Ciena’s transmission equipment, which enables this flexibility and higher capacity. It is also an industry first for the deployment of undersea spectrum-sharing in Africa.

Telecoms environment across the Continent of Africa, especially the domain of Terrestrial Fiber Networks is a short-term Goldmine for most stakeholders, but a long-term nightmare for the stakeholders that really matter – the People / Users.

You would think that Telecom Project Costs across Africa should fall each year, as technologies mature, developed market networks reach scale, equipment’s are optimized, rapid obsolescence and large market dynamics of Africa come into play , right ?. Wrong.

Google followed by Facebook are the behemoths of submarine cables with global investments in 22 cable systems over the last 10 years. It seems, their submarine cable investments will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. Expectedly hence, they are also the key driving force for technology innovations in wet plat and dry plant leading to many firsts in subsea data transmission. In parallel they are developing captive hyperscale datacenters in developed markets and pursuing in country presence in emerging markets in collaboration and co-investment with local providers. The objective evidently is to accelerate availability of affordable broadband. For Africa, it includes Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria, where they have already ventured. In doing so they bring together learnings from scaling global infrastructure with local provider’s knowledge of the market landscape to develop new working models with open infrastructure.

Cisco and Acacia Communications announced on Tuesday they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia for $70.00 per share in cash, or for approximately $2.6 billion on a fully diluted basis, net of cash and marketable securities.

Google has been obviously the largest owner and investor in submarine cable networks globally. Upon announcing its latest investment of the private Equiano subsea cable system, Google has invested in 14 subsea cable systems, with approximately 112,000km cable length in a total. Between 2016 and 2018, Google invested US$47 billion in capex to improve Google Could infrastructure which includes 134 points of presence (PoP) and 14 subsea cable investments globally.

Google has officially announced its fully funded new private Equiano subsea cable, connecting Portugal, South Africa and other African countries. A contract to build the Equiano cable with Alcatel Submarine Networks was signed in Q4 2018. Certain potential landing party and professionals have released the Equiano cable project earlier. Between 2016 and 2018, Google invested US$47 billion in capex, which includes investment in improving its global infrastructure.

PacketFabric announced recently the expansion of its platform to Sydney, Australia. The PacketFabric platform is now available at the Equinix SY4 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®). This Sydney point of presence (PoP) is the first data center in the Asia-Pacific region on PacketFabric’s network. PacketFabric and Hawaiki Cable concluded earlier a strategic, mutually beneficial partnership agreement.

The INDIGO consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra announced on May 30^th that the INDIGO subsea cable system is ready for use. The INDIGO cable consists of two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of around 36 Tbps. INDIGO cable system features new spectrum-sharing technology, each consortium member can deploy its own SLTE, upgrade their networks and enable capacity increases on demand independently.

Infinera and Fastweb announced recently the successful demonstration of 500Gbps single-wavelength DWDM service connectivity in a production network using Infinera’s configurable technology on the Groove platform. The high-speed optical transmission demonstration, the first in Italy, spanned over 180 kilometers (km) on Fastweb’s low-latency long-haul backbone network, between Milan and Turin.

Zayo Group announced on Wednesday that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners (“Digital Colony”) and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund (“EQT” or “EQT Infrastructure”). The transaction would result in Zayo transitioning from a public company to a private company. Under the new ownership, the Zayo team would continue to execute the Company’s strategy and remain headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. The transaction valued at $14.3 billion, including the assumption of $5.9 billion of Zayo’s net debt obligations.

The snaking submarine optical fiber cables resting in the darkest depths of the ocean floor carrying ultra-dense bundles of light signals that are modulated on every parameter of signal propagation that physics has defined, enhancing spectral efficiency, packing more bits per hertz and lowering cost per bit, to deliver incredible transmission capacity between cities, countries and continents. This is unarguably the submerged foundation of digital destiny for everything globalized and digital in business ecosystems spanning connectivity, cloud, content and commerce, that propels innovation for – MORE, endlessly. This article aims to present a brief synopsis of the leading-edge developments in technology and market landscape, take a closer look at the new era of open and disaggregated submarine cable systems, CLS design and characterize Open CLS in light of the new developments.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 30, 2019 - CloudSmartz, a global software company exclusively focused on next-generation solutions for Communications Service Providers, in collaboration with Seaborn Networks ("Seaborn"), a leading developer-owner-operator of subsea fiber optic cable systems, today announced that CloudSmartz will enable Seaborn's digital transformation strategy and deployment over the next several months. Seaborn's Seabras-1 offers the only direct POP-POP route between São Paulo, Brazil, and New York City, USA, and soon will offer an end-to-end automation platform that will enable services to be delivered by leading SDN technology.

The Landing Party Agreement for PEACE cable system was signed between Telecom Egypt, Hengtong and PCCW Global on 27th April, 2019 in Beijing during the second Belt and Road summit. In the presence of the minister of telecommunication of Egypt Dr. Amr Talaat and the chairman of Hengtong Group Mr. Cui Genliang, Mr. Adel Hamed, CEO of Telecom Egypt, Mr. Wu Qianjun, VP of Hengtong Group and CEO of PEACE, Mr. Jordick Wong, senior VP of PCCW Global, together signed the agreement.

According to 24horas, the National Television of Chile, Google’s Curie subsea cable has landed in Chile, connecting Valparaiso and California to the Google network. In earlier this year, Google has selected Equinix LA4 as its Los Angeles cable landing station (CLS) for the Curie subsea cable system.