David Burnstein's List: Submarine Cable

New data from TeleGeography’s Global Bandwidth Research Service reveal that demand for international bandwidth grew 39% in 2012, and at a compounded annual rate of 53% between 2007 and 2012.

International bandwidth demand growth has been robust on all five of the world’s major submarine cable routes, but has been particularly rapid on key routes to emerging markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. While bandwidth demand on the trans-Atlantic route – which has long been the world’s highest-capacity route – increased at a healthy rate of 36% annually between 2007 and 2012, demand for bandwidth from the US to Latin America grew 70% per year over the same period
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‘While the total amount of lit bandwidth on routes to developing markets remains smaller than on routes between mature markets, demand on emerging market routes is growing much faster,’ said TeleGeography analyst Paul Brodsky. ‘Consequently, as telcos upgrade submarine cable networks to meet bandwidth demand, new capacity deployments are being distributed ever more evenly around the world.’

Here's a map from telecom data company TeleGeography that shows how the Internet works around the world. 

The map charts out all the undersea fiber optic cables that send Internet communication from country to country. There are more fiber optic cables that are land based, but they're not charted here. 

Columbus International and Ocean Networks have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) relating to a Landing Party Agreement for a submarine cable and related network services in Panama. Ocean Networks is the owner and developer of the South America Pacific Link (SAPL) submarine cable system. The planned 9,700km trans-Pacific cable will link Balboa, Panama to Oahu, Hawaii. Under the terms of the partnership, Columbus Networks, working through the recently formed alliance company with Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), CNL-CWC Networks, will design and construct a carrier class cable station to house the SAPL system and provide network operations and management services. In addition, Columbus and Ocean Networks have agreed to include additional commercial agreements for onward connectivity from this link to the Network Access Point (NAP) of Americas in Miami, and the Caribbean region, using a variety of subsea network routes.

Between Q1 2013 and Q1 2014, sales of ports at capacities below T-1/E-1 decreased sharply, and now account for just 8% of global IP VPN sales, while sales of 2Mbps to 10Mbps ports soared, and now account for 51% of MPLS VPN ports sold. As sales volumes shift toward larger ports, carriers are implementing price reductions at these capacities to position themselves in the market. Between Q1 2013 and Q1 2014, median 10Mbps port prices decreased an average of 18% in major cities around the world.
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‘IP VPN port prices reflect both the level of competition in, and the relative cost of international bandwidth to, a city,’ said TeleGeography analyst Brianna Boudreau. ‘As end-user capacity requirements increase and the underlying cost of transport decreases, carriers will continue to adjust prices. Further price erosion for IP VPN services, particularly at higher capacities, can be expected.’