Comments on: Under Pacific, an optical bubble rises

By: Under The Sea, Google Expands Even More - GigaOM

Under The Sea, Google Expands Even More - GigaOM — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:10:40 +0000

[...] It isn’t much of a surprise that many cables are being built, leading to speculation that another optical bubble might be [...]

By: Can Undersea Optic Cables Predict An Economic Boom? - GigaOM

Can Undersea Optic Cables Predict An Economic Boom? - GigaOM — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:17:35 +0000

[...] similar scenario is now playing out in the Trans-Pacific region where cables are being built rapidly, and the bandwidth capacity on pre-existing cables is being doubled. Many [...]

By: Big Growth For Internet To Continue, Cisco Predicts - GigaOM

Big Growth For Internet To Continue, Cisco Predicts - GigaOM — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:54:58 +0000

[...] broadband is slowly pushing the demand for bandwidth, which has lead to a huge spurt in the traffic on regional and international backbones. New fiber construction to support the traffic growth also bolsters Cisco’s [...]

By: nikolaus heger

nikolaus heger — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:16:56 +0000

Where are you located? It’s rather easy to argue that the world doesn’t need more bandwidth when you are sitting comfortably in the USA and have more bandwidth than you know what to do with. Go to a different place and the situation looks rather different.

I am in Thailand and I can tell you that we need that fancy new AAG rather desperately. As you can see from this graph: (link)

Most content is located in the USA. Good for U.S. based users, but the rest of the world needs international bandwidth, as much as it can get. Count yourselves lucky ;)

By: corpgovind

corpgovind — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:27:14 +0000

Well, Cables need money…and some Companies have loads of it to put it under the sea…

Check it out…

(link)

By: Julian Rawle

Julian Rawle — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:32:54 +0000

Yes, the transpacific build-out is beginning to look like another bubble but there is a key difference: much of the new build is being funded internally by incumbents or major industrial conglomerates. We are not yet seeing the kind of injection of entrepreneurial capital from the financial institutions which was paritally responsible for the irresponsible expansion of the period 1999-2002.

Also, while a relatively small proportion of the world’s submarine capacity is lit, the surplus is now being steadily eroded in developed markets and new markets such as Africa are beginning to emerge. Moreover, the major routes probably represent only 20% of the total number of routes but these are filling up quickly. Don’t forget that a cable engineer won’t wait until the system is 80% full to begin planning the next system.
Interesting comments about Infinera. I was struck by the lack of enthusiasm at last years Submarine Networks World conference to discuss the potential for disruptive new technologies in the submarine space. History does repeat itself and DWDM will not be king forever!
Anyone who has been in this industry for more than 5 years knows that it is cyclical. Expecting investors to behave “rationally” within a 5-year cycle is expecting too much and, as a discussion topic, is a little bit pointless. Like national economies that inflate and deflate, the discussion should be about how we avoid a hard landing in this cycle.

By: Spinchange

Spinchange — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:13:21 +0000

…and yet the tubes cannot have a truck dumped on them…and the internet cannot scale for iptv.

By: hip2b2

hip2b2 — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:24:31 +0000

Hey. After you Americans build undersea cables galore, it is now the Asian’s turn. As they say, trends move in cycles. This time it is move from America to Asia. Yehey! More cheap bandwidth emerging!