WCA September 2020

From the Americas

industry-leading technology and leveraging best practices, is the ‘monitor of monitors’, where we have the ability to monitor a client’s complete environment, including software, applications, raw packets, cloud, flow, phone systems and environmentals.” An overland first for Alaska The first overland fibre optic cable between Alaska and continental USA has been completed. The cable, operated by Matanuska Telephone Association, will reduce Alaska’s reliance on undersea cables and satellite and microwave links for high-speed Internet and telephone service. Alaska’s subsea cables are vulnerable to earthquakes, and an overland connection offers a “geographically diverse route for internet traffic,” said Matanuska Telephone CEO Michael Burke. The 772km overland link begins at North Pole, Alaska, near Fairbanks, and ends at Haines Junction, Yukon. Too much of a good thing A report from the International Wrought Copper Council (IWCC) says that the coronavirus outbreak has put pressure on supply and demand for copper and intensified market oversupply. IWCC is expecting to see a surplus of 285,000 tonnes of copper as a result of the pandemic, increasing to 675,000 tonnes in 2021. “These are unprecedented times, and the copper industry is not immune from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the group report said. “The economic disruption and its impact on the copper industry has resulted in greater uncertainty in the factors affecting the supply and demand for copper.” Refined copper demand could reach 22.625 million tonnes in 2020, representing a decline of 5.4 per cent compared to 2019, though demand is expected to increase in 2021; some estimates suggest a 4.4 per cent jump to reach 23.625 million tonnes. Nearly half of all copper is used by the construction industry, but demand from new segments such as electric vehicles is increasing year on year. In analysing each region, the IWCC report suggests North America could see the deepest decline in 2020 with total demand for refined copper down 6.9 per cent to 2.223 million tonnes. A 5.3 per cent recovery is expected in 2021. Europe is forecast to see a decline in refined copper demand of 6.4 per cent during the year, and the forecast for China is for demand to be down by 2.8 per cent, to 11.87 million tonnes. The International Copper Study Group expects mined copper supply to reach 19.65 million tonnes in 2020, a decline of 4 per cent compared to the 20.46 million tonnes achieved in 2019. Refined copper is also forecast to decline to 22.91 million tonnes, compared to 23.47 million tonnes a year earlier. Gill Watson – Features Editor

to 13.3 per cent. Industry leaders viewed that as a turning point. “We think that travel goes hand in hand with economic recovery. The more that people start to move and travel, the more demand there will be for these jobs,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, US Travel Association’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy. Looking to the future: “International travel is probably not going to come back until there is a vaccine,” said Mr Kletzel. A survey carried out by PwC found 60 per cent of respondents said a vaccine would inspire confidence for travelling, with 36 per cent feeling that easy access to public COVID-19 tests at the destination would also make them more likely to travel. Amazon to buy into Airtel? Amazon is exploring its first investment in a telecom service provider, and currently has its sights set on Indian operators. Reports suggest that after some initial interest in Reliance Jio, Amazon is considering a $2 billion stake in Airtel: this would represent about 5 per cent of Airtel, based on a June 2020 market valuation of $37 billion. Neither company was prepared to comment on what was described as “speculation”, but Amazon already has a significant presence in India’s e-commerce space, including an investment of around $6.5 billion in the country. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, India has seen a massive adoption of digital products and services, and with a population of around 1.3 billion people, the country still has only 625 million Internet users. The figures suggest there is significant room for growth for any digital company ready and able to invest in the region. It is unclear whether Amazon is interested only in Airtel’s Indian operations, or if the operator’s African subsidiaries are under consideration. In 2019, Amazon showed an interest in buying Boost Mobile, a prepaid mobile service in the USA, from the network operators T-Mobile and Sprint, and has since collaborated on relevant technologies with companies such as Nokia. Monitoring the monitors FirstLight, a provider of fibre optic data, Internet, data centre, cloud and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the north-eastern USA, has bought TruePath Technologies. TruePath provides a cloud-based, fully managed monitoring software system that remotely configures and maintains its clients’ monitoring software, whether open source or enterprise grade. “We have worked with FirstLight for many years, supporting an outsourced enterprise monitoring solution to FirstLight’s customers,” said Douglas Mauro, president of TruePath Technologies, who will remain with FirstLight to help lead its managed services practice. “This service, based on Telecommunications

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2020