Telstra has secured an AUD8.2 million (USD5.8 million) contract to land the Coral Sea Cable System (CSCS), which will link Australia to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, at its Sydney landing site. ChannelNews writes that Telstra was judged to be the only network operator able to provide the required space within an existing cable landing station. The 4,000km cable – to be co-funded by Australia and the Solomon Islands – is expected to be completed by late-2019. Vocus was awarded the AUD137 million (USD101 million) contract by the Australian government to build and manage the system in June.
Telkom Kenya is in talks with two unnamed parties over partnerships to allow it to sell high speed internet capacity from two submarine cables, which are scheduled to land in the East African nation, according to CEO Aldo Mareuse. Telkom Kenya currently utilises capacity from three submarine cables.
The Lower Indian Ocean Network 2 (LION2) submarine cable has experienced a fault 8-9km off the coast of Kenya, reportedly caused by ‘maritime activities.’ According to a source at Emtel, there will be slowdowns during peak hours, with the operator planning to purchase additional capacity to mitigate the issue. For its part, Mauritius Telecom has switched its services to other cables. The 2,700km LION2, which was certified ready for service (RFS) in April 2012, connects Madagascar to Mayotte and Kenya.
The Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will stage a pilot run of the National Fiber Backbone (NFB) in November-December 2018. As part of the country’s National Broadband Plan, in June 2017 the DICT signed a Tripartite Agreement with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) for the establishment of a national backbone network. Seven point-to-point routes of the 6,154km dark fibre network of the NGCP in Benguet, Tarlac, Pampanga, Batangas, Mindoro, Albay, Camarines Sur, Cagayan, and Bohol are scheduled to be activated in 4Q18, in order to trial ‘the integrity of NGCP Optical Groundwire (OPGW) and the latest optical transport technologies in the market.’ Another element of the NFB, the TransCo-owned backbone grid, is being prepared in anticipation for the completion of the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI) project next year. The new LBI infrastructure – consisting of two cable landing stations connected by a 250km long cable network corridor – is expected to go live by the end of 2019. It will be operated by the DICT, which will also maintain the related facilities and provide last mile connectivity in the Philippines.
An US-based multinational bank has selected Zayo Group Holdings for an integrated infrastructure solution, which includes dark fibre, colocation and wavelengths. The colocation solution at a zColo data centre in the western US will serve as an interconnection hub for the customer. Dark fibre routes from the data centre, over the existing Zayo network, will connect to the bank’s core data centres in the area. In addition, a high-capacity wavelength solution will also be deployed, providing long-haul connectivity between nine markets across the US.
The Oregon Fiber Partnership has purchased more than 1,500 miles of optical fibre lines from CenturyLink in an effort to develop a shared state-wide high-speed broadband network. Activation of the fibre network is slated to start during the summer of 2019.
DASAN Zhone Solutions (DZS) has reached an agreement to buy Germany-based broadband access technology provider KEYMILE for EUR10.25 million (USD11.8 million), in a bid to expand its global customer footprint, particularly in Europe and Latin America. The deal is set to close in the fourth quarter of this year. KEYMILE develops and sells multi-service access platforms for FTTx applications. These include VDSL/Vectoring and G.fast for fibre-to-the-node/cabinet (FTTN/FTTC). Yung Kim, CEO of DZS, said: ‘This acquisition represents the continuation of our transformation from a leading networking equipment provider to a solutions vendor with next-generation software and services. As a combined DZS, we can capture the broader, global market opportunity and continue to elevate our position as a leading broadband vendor and trusted advisor to prominent carriers and enterprises.’
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