More undersea cable wars brewing in India
.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ... srs http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=61366
Flag, VSNL spar over bandwidth
Posted online: Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 0046 hours IST
MUMBAI, DECEMBER 22: TATA group company VSNL, one of the original investors in the Flag Cable Systems in 1995-1996, has been accused by Flag Telecom Ltd, a Reliance company, of artificially restricting access on Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable and preventing the ability to respond to market demand.
as another article points out, they're invoking WTO GATS provisions on this -
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/968127.cms VSNL violates WTO norms
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2004 07:38:18 PM] MUMBAI: VSNL has been accused of restricting access on Reliance group-owned FLAG Europe Asia cable, which is in direct violation of WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
and then, REACH, seconded by VSNL, stirs the pot a bit more .. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1159772,0003.htm
FLAG partner calls for meet on cable upgrade Press Trust of India Mumbai, December 19, 2004|16:45 IST
[...]
The global carrier wants to discuss "unauthorised upgrade of FEA cable between UK and UAE" as it did not get approval from all 12 landing signatories, which is required under the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA), REACH said in a letter to FLAG Telecom Ltd's management committee.
-- Suresh Ramasubramanian (ops.lists@gmail.com)
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly? What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year? :) adrian -- Adrian Chadd "You don't have a TV? Then what's <adrian@creative.net.au> all your furniture pointing at?"
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:16:09 +0000, Adrian Chadd <adrian@creative.net.au> wrote:
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly?
God knows there's enough demand for it. Only, bandwidth prices are artificially inflated because of this shortage, and this would make prices drop SHARPLY
What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year? :)
FALCON (another FLAG cable) and SEA-ME-WE4 are both coming into India by mid to end 2005, as are a few smaller cables to places like Singapore --srs -- Suresh Ramasubramanian (ops.lists@gmail.com)
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:16:09 +0000, Adrian Chadd <adrian@creative.net.au> wrote:
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly?
God knows there's enough demand for it. Only, bandwidth prices are artificially inflated because of this shortage, and this would make prices drop SHARPLY
I know what its like. I'm in /Australia/. Trying to get bandwidth into Australia up until about two years ago was /really damned difficult/. Heck, trying to get bandwidth between cities was sometimes more expensive than bandwidth out of Australia.
What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year? :)
FALCON (another FLAG cable) and SEA-ME-WE4 are both coming into India by mid to end 2005, as are a few smaller cables to places like Singapore
But, like all other things, this timeline isn't fixed, hard in stone. What if they miss their timeline? What if there's teething problems? What if one of the existing fibres suddenly decides to not work? Its a crappy position to be in, I completely agree. But I think you should consider how much time, effort and money it takes to lay /new/ cable. Its eas(ier) to just light up a new pair when the demand is there. Capacity planning isn't easy when it takes a lot of said time, effort and money to lay new cable. Adrian -- Adrian Chadd "You don't have a TV? Then what's <adrian@creative.net.au> all your furniture pointing at?"
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:37:16 +0000, Adrian Chadd <adrian@creative.net.au> wrote:
Its a crappy position to be in, I completely agree. But I think you should consider how much time, effort and money it takes to lay /new/ cable. Its eas(ier) to just light up a new pair when the demand is there. Capacity planning isn't easy when it takes a lot of said time, effort and money to lay new cable.
So what you're suggesting is to just let them squabble over existing bandwidth and run a whole lot of new cables? Yes that's being done .. but let's remember that VSNL and Reliance, the two main parties in this bunfight, took over two companies that had billions of dollars worth of cable lying all over the ocean floor .. for a few hundred million dollars apiece. And there's the little matter of an agreement that VSNL, back in the years when it was the incumbent monopoly ISP + international telco in India, got hold of monopoly reseller rights from FLAG on their current cable to india - which lands at VSNL's landing stations in Bombay and Cochin. Finding a way to get this unused bandwidth disgorged would be excellent .. -- Suresh Ramasubramanian (ops.lists@gmail.com)
participants (3)
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Adrian Chadd -
Neil J. McRae -
Suresh Ramasubramanian