Hi You do need licenses in both countries to be able to use it though. - In the UK, you need a IFL, and in the US I think its a "214" For some cables you need to worry about the backhaul (ie the bit from the coast to where you want it) which can be significant, and sometimes not available on the same purchase terms (ie once of large payment and small shared maintenance charges) Gemini and AC1 both have "city to city" prices which effectivly means from one of their "on-net" buildings in New York and in London. ($11m seems to be the price for city to city, $7m just for the wet bit) Now heres the downside :- If the cable breaks, you have no connectivity. The 250k/pa maintenance doesnt give you a recovery route. Most telcos/cable owners negotiate with other cable owners to give them a backup path - for instance (I think, Cantat3 backs up to Gemini and vice-versa) - I dont quite understand what happens if theres not enough B/W on the backup cable spare, but I would assume that those people who own sections dont get the backup bandwidth ..) And, also, you dont have someone to shout at when it breaks ;-) And, also, the cable wont get repaired if its old and breaking (ie the cable has a life, assume 10-15 years) You also risk the price of B/W coming down rapidly as WDM takes off, thus leaving you with something you bought expecting 10 years use for $11M but the price of STM1 being much less in 5 years time :-( Cheers Richard In a previous message Hank Nussbacher wrote:

I have a client that has the option of buying b/w directly from the undersea cable owners. Turns out that the new non-PTT owned cables, allow anyone to own STM-1's. Depending on who you use (Gemina, AC-1, etc.) prices hover around $7-11m purchase and around $250K/yr for maintenance. Since I do not know of the European counterpart to NANOG, I am hoping that people outside the USA (as well as inside) that have gone down this path can provide more info as to the pros and cons of buying from one of the standard carriers like Teleglobe, Sprint, Worldcom, etc. vs buying/owning the b/w yourself.

Thanks, Hank

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