WCA January 2011

Telecom news

Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt told Dylan Bushell-Embling of telecomasia.net that his company’s cable would take advantage of the absence of com- petition in New Zealand’s international bandwidth market. Southern Cross’s SXC is currently the only cable with spare capacity linking Australia and New Zealand. “There’s a lack of diversity for the Auckland-to-Sydney route, [and] SXC is the only game in town,” he said. “So competition was needed to bring bandwidth pricing out of New Zealand to realistic levels.” Mr Hunt commented that the mere threat of competition from the two projects had already brought capacity prices down significantly. Southern Cross was said to have slashed its fees by 75% since the OptiKor project was announced. While OptiKor is in an “advanced stage of preparation,” according to its CEO – with surveys completed and landing routes plotted – the project has not advanced to the construction phase. Mr Hunt acknowledged, “We need foundation customers in place to underpin the financing of the project and we don’t have them in place.” For its part, Pacific Fibre has a tentative rollout schedule that would see a vendor chosen early this year and the cable in service by 2013, CEO Mark Rushworth said. But his project, too, has met with obstacles: “typical” issues of technology, funding, and sales. As noted by telecomasia.net, the two parties are looking into the possibility of a collaboration. Nikkei Weekly , Japan’s English–language business news- paper, reported on 21 st October that negotiations were believed to be under way for the imminent $1.2 billion purchase of Keane Inc, a Boston-based IT services firm, by NTT Data Corp of Japan. NTT Data is the network-services unit of the largest Japanese phone company, and the strengthening of its presence in the US would advance its stated aim to quadruple overseas sales in the three years to March 2013. Elsewhere in telecom . . . The ✆ ✆

“Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology,” asserts secretary-general Hamadoun Toure of the International Telecommunications Union. “It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity, and underpin long-term economic competitiveness.” The report “The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures,” published by the ITU in October, presents the Geneva-based UN agency’s analysis of the current state of information and communication technologies around the globe. The opening section, “The Rise of 3G,” provides these statistics: By the end of 2010, there will be an estimated 5.3 billion mobile cellular ✆ ✆ subscriptions worldwide, including 940 million subscriptions to third-generation (3G) services Access to mobile networks is now available to 90% of the world’s ✆ ✆ population and to 80% of those living in rural areas People are moving rapidly from 2G to 3G platforms, in both developed ✆ ✆ and developing countries. In 2010, 143 countries were offering 3G services commercially, compared to 95 in 2007 Regarding 4G, a number of countries have started to offer services at ✆ ✆ even higher broadband speeds, moving to next-generation wireless platforms. These include Sweden, Norway, Ukraine and the United States “Towards The End Of Double-Digit Mobile Growth,” the second section of the ITU report, supplies these statistics: Mobile cellular growth is slowing worldwide. In developed countries, the ✆ ✆ mobile market is reaching saturation levels with on average 116 sub- scriptions per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2010 and a marginal growth of 1.6% from 2009 to 2010 At the same time, the developing world is increasing its share of mobile ✆ ✆ subscriptions from 53% of total mobile subscriptions at the end of 2005 to 73% at the end of 2010 In the developing world, mobile cellular penetration rates will reach ✆ ✆ 68% at the end of 2010, mainly driven by the Asia-Pacific region. India and China alone are expected to add over 300 million mobile subscriptions in 2010 In the African region, penetration rates will reach an estimated 41% at the ✆ ✆ end of 2010 (compared to 76% globally), leaving a significant potential for growth The remaining sections of the report are: “SMS Triples in Three Years”; “Two Billion People on the Internet but Too Few in Africa”; “Connecting Homes”; “The Continuing Broadband Divide”; and “Broadband Speed and Affordability”. The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures may be read in its entirety on the ITU website www.itu.int After a decade of growth driven by mobile technologies, the UN’s telecoms agency takes stock of the connecting-up of the world

Television New Zealand transmission arm that now operates on both sides of the Tasman Sea. Pacific Fibre is a private company founded in 2010 by six New Zealanders. Dylan Bushell-Embling of telecomasia. net noted the similarities and differences between the two projects. Kordia’s $100 million OptiKor cable would connect Auckland with Sydney and then link with the PPC-1 of PIPE Networks, running from Australia to Guam. The Pacific Fibre cable is slated to link Auckland with Sydney and then the United States. That project would cost an estimated $400 million.

Two cables under the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia would be one too many Each of two New Zealand companies – Kordia and Pacific Fibre – has plans for an undersea cable linking New Zealand with Australia. But, as reported on telecomasia.net , both company chiefs acknowledge that only one such project would be viable. (“NZ Firms Square Off in Tasman Cable Race,” 11 th October). State-owned Kordia is the former

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2011