Eight companies have come together to build 2Africa, a subsea cabledesigned to serve the African continent and Middle East region. The cable willalso connect via east Africa with other subsea cables for expanded connectivityto Asia.

The big-name parties involved are China Mobile International,Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC.The cable will be some 37,000km long, making it one of the world’s largestsubsea cable projects. It will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), theMiddle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. Theconsortium has chosen Alcatel Submarine Networks to build the cable in a fullyfunded project.

2Africa will have a design capacity of up to 180Tb/s on keyparts of the system, and the expected ‘go live’ date will be in 2023/4. Incountries where the cable will land, service providers will obtain capacity incarrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fairand equitable basis. This will support healthy internet ecosystem developmentby facilitating greatly improved accessibility for businesses and consumersalike.

The 2Africa parties and Airtel have signed an agreement withTelecom Egypt to provide a completely new crossing linking the Red Sea and theMediterranean, the first in over a decade. This includes new cable landingstations and deployment of next-generation fibre on two new, diverseterrestrial routes parallel to the Suez Canal from Ras Ghareb to Port Said, anda new subsea link that will provide a third path between Ras Ghareb and Suez.

From a technology standpoint, 2Africa will be using freshtechnology in the form of SDM1 from Alcatel, allowing deployment of up to 16fibre pairs, bringing much greater and more cost-effective capacity. The cablewill incorporate optical switching technology to enable flexible management ofbandwidth. Cable burial depth has also been increased, and routing will avoidlocations of known subsea disturbance.

Jessica Gu, director and chief technology officer oat ChinaMobile International said: ‘The launch of 2Africa enables us to offer ourcustomers seamless connection between Africa and Europe, together with ourSEA-ME-WE 5 and AAE-1 subsea cable resources to further extend to Asia, whichis an important milestone of our global development strategy,’

Najam Ahmad, vice president, network infrastructure at Facebookstated: ‘2Africa is a major element of our ongoing investment in Africa tobring more people online to a faster internet. We’ve seen first-hand thepositive impact that increased connectivity has on communities, from educationto healthcare.’

According to Fr?d?ric Schepens, CEO of MTN Group’s wholesaleoperation, MTN GlobalConnect: ‘MTN GlobalConnect is delighted to participate inthis bold 2Africa subsea cable project. We are proud to be playing a key rolein providing the benefits of a modern connected life ? a core MTN belief.’

Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa said: ‘Thismajor investment will complete our existing submarine and pan-Africanterrestrial infrastructures to provide access to international connectivity ina redundant fashion throughout the west coast of Africa.’

Mohammed A. Alabbadi, wholesale VP in stc added: ‘The 2Africacable will be integrated into stc’s MENA Gateway (MG1) data centre in Jeddah,enabling customers to access our extensive international content and extendtheir regional connectivity through stc terrestrial geo-mesh network thatextends to all neighboring countries. The partnership demonstrates stc’scommitment, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, to deliver meaningful digitaltransformation and build a digital society for all.’

Adel Hamed, Telecom Egypt’s managing director and chiefexecutive officer said: ‘Telecom Egypt’s contribution to 2Africa marks animportant milestone in our endeavor to contribute to digital transformation inAfrica. We are honored to be part of such a revolutionary project alongsiderenowned global and African partners.’

Vinod Kumar, CEO at Vodafone Business stated: ‘Improvingconnectivity for Africa is a significant step which lays the groundwork forincreased digitalisation across the continent. 2Africa will give localbusinesses and consumers a better online experience while more connectivitybetween Africa, Europe and the Middle East will help to build a wider, moreinclusive digital society across the globe.’

WIOCC CEO, Chris Wood added: ‘For over a decade WIOCC has beenthe hyperscale capacity provider for Africa, based upon a strategy of ongoingstrategic investment in key subsea and terrestrial infrastructure. Ourinvestment both future-proofs our network capabilities and provides additionalresilience to maximise uptime for our critical infrastructure.’

Alain Biston, president of Alcatel Submarine Networks concluded:’We are honored by the trust of our partners and proud to have been selectedfor this project. With this state-of-the-art subsea system, Africa will take agiant leap to the digital age thanks to the best-in-class technologies.’

Africa is of particular interest as a market, when it comes tosubmarine cables. Last year saw Google announce its investment inthis market, with a private subsea cable that connects Africa with Europe.

Openreach has selected Adtran’s SDX Series of optical line terminals (OLT)s and Mosaic Cloud Platform to help ramp up its full fibre deployment in line with the goals outlined in its Fibre First programme. Launched in early 2018, the programme sees the access network division of BT Group working towards the target of bringing high-speedbroadband to three million UK premises by the end of 2020, and overall, 20 million UK homes by the mid-to-late 2020s.

Peter Bell, network technologies director at Openreach explained: ‘We’re already making our new broadband network available to around 32,000 UK homes and businesses every week ? and we’re on track to reach our target of reaching four and a half million premises with full-fibre’ by the end of March 2021. But we don’t want to stop there. Our new network will support the UK’s economy for decades to come and help it bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic, so we’ll be accelerating our full-fibre build throughout the year.’

The use of Adtran’s SDX platform will enable Openreach to economically scale its GPON and XGS-PON network with a higher level of flexibility. Its disaggregated, flexible design provides the framework to support a large number of customers by delivering the granularity of interconnect speeds required to meet the needs of retail service providers of all sizes. Capable of supporting gigabit and multi-gigabit access links on the same OLT port, Openreach’s retail customers can deliver the right mix of enterprise, business and residential services based on their own demographics,industry type and residential interests.

Dan Whalen, Adtran’s chief product officer said: ‘Given the breadth of Openreach’s full-fibre network, having the ability to deliver GPON and XGS-PON services from the same OLT port streamlines service delivery and reduces the complexity of network design. We make it possible for any service provider, based anywhere in the country, to have the service options they require to fit their customers’ needs.’

A private and public co-operative group is working to roll out a multimillion pound fibre broadband upgrade which will see Blackpool become one of the UK’s best connected towns.

The technology will see the town’s old copper lines replaced with a ‘hyperfast’ fibre alternative, giving residents and businesses the opportunity to access gigabit speeds.

The launch of the Fibre Blackpool initiative is a result of ?3.1m of funding that was secured in Spring 2018 through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The grant has been used to expand a shared fibre infrastructure into Blackpool town centre and along the length of the coast’s tramline, from Squires Gate Lane and Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone all the way to Fleetwood and Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone, thus future-proofing the town with a full ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP) connection.

SMEs and residents will be able to claim one-off vouchers to put towards the cost of connecting to the project.

Shaun Fensom,secretary of the Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI), said: ?Over the next two years we’ll be working with Blackpool to unlock a state-of-the-art fibre network for the benefit of both residents and businesses.

“The network will enable Internet service providers – members of our cooperative -to deliver some of the fastest internet connections available in the UK.They’ll be investing to connect businesses and residents along the Fylde Coast and in the two Enterprise Zones. That will mean faster, better connections, and bring yet more investment to Blackpool.”

Author? Tim Aldred

When consummated, an event the two parties expect will take place by the middle of next year, the joint venture will serve more than 46 million video, broadband, and mobile subscribers and boast ?11 billion of revenue.

Author – Stephen Hardy May 2020

Liberty Global plc (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK) and Telefonica SA (Madrid stock exchange: TEF) have reached an agreement to merge their operations in the UK into a joint venture. The merger, valued at ?31.4 billion ($38 billion) will see the combination of Liberty’s Virgin Media cable MSO with Telefonica’s O2 mobile services provider. When consummated, an event the two parties expect will take place by the middle of next year, the joint venture will serve more than 46 million video, broadband, and mobile subscribers and boast ?11 billion ($13.6 billion) of revenue. The joint venture does not include Liberty Global’s operations in Ireland.

The joint venture, which doesn’t yet have a name, would pose a significant rival to British Telecom in the UK residential and business services markets. Liberty Global and Telefonica say the new entity will invest ?10 billion ($12.36 billion) in the UK over five years.

?Combining O2’s number one mobile business with Virgin Media’s superfast broadband network and entertainment services will be a game-changer in the U.K., at a time when demand for connectivity has never been greater or more critical,” commented Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallette, CEO of Telefonica. ?We are creating a strong competitor with significant scale and financial strength to invest in UK digital infrastructure and give millions of consumer, business, and public sector customers more choice and value. This is a proud and exciting moment for our organizations, as we create a leading integrated communications provider in the UK.”

?We couldn’t be more excited about this combination,” added Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global. ?Virgin Media has redefined broadband and entertainment in the U.K. with lightning fast speeds and the most innovative video platform. And O2 is widely recognized as the most reliable and admired mobile operator in the U.K., always putting the customer first. With Virgin Media and O2 together, the future of convergence is here today. We’ve seen the benefit of FMC first-hand in Belgium and the Netherlands. When the power of 5G meets 1 gig broadband, U.K. consumers and businesses will never look back. We’re committed to this market and are right behind the Government’s digital and connectivity goals.”

The board of the joint venture will have eight members, four from each of the two participating companies. Fries and Alvarez-Pallette will be among the board members. The post of board chairman will be held for alternating two-year periods by someone from each company, with a Liberty Global executive holding the position first.

The deal involves a somewhat complicated recapitalization scheme involving multiple financings that will leave the joint venture a target closing net leverage ratio of 5.0X, or approximately ?18 billion ($22.25 billion) of long-term debt. Net new proceeds from the recapitalizations are expected to be approximately ?6 billion. With the recapitalizations, Telefonica expects to receive ?5.7 billion in total proceeds and Liberty Global ?1.4 billion ($1.73 billion), including approximately ?800 million from the recapitalization of its Virgin Media Ireland business. As part of the deal, a syndicate of banks has underwritten a ?4 billion standalone undrawn financing on the O2 business.

The transaction also includes equalization payments, based upon the enterprise value of each business involved in the joint venture. Within this context Liberty Global will make a cash payment to Telefonica of ?2.5 billion ($3.1 billion). Liberty Global expects this payment will be offset by funds from the recapitalizations, which will result in the Liberty Global netting cash from the deal.

The two parties expect the joint venture generate estimated run-rate cost, capex, and revenue synergies of ?540 million ($667.63 million) on an annual basis by the fifth full year after closing. Approximately ?430 million ($531.63 million) of this total would come from cost and capex synergies, say Liberty Global and Telefonica.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the completion of the recapitalizations, but not shareholder approval.

The owners of Virgin Media and O2 have confirmed a ?31bn mergerdeal to create a new ?national champion” to challenge BT and Sky in the UK

Liberty Global, which owns the UK’s largestcable company Virgin, and Telef?nica, which owns Britain’s biggest mobileoperator O2, are to merge their UK operations in a new 50-50 joint venture.

Liberty Globalis also ITV’s biggest shareholder, with a 10% stake, and owns half ofAll3Media, the production group that makes shows including Liar, Fleabag andHollyoaks.

The newcompany, which will challenge BT and Sky by offering consumers competitivebundles of TV, mobile and broadband packages, will have 46 million customersand ?11bn in revenue.

Mike Fries, the chief executive of Liberty Global, said it hadbeen only ?a matter of time” until there was more convergence in the highlycompetitive UK media and telecoms market.

?BT and EEtogether are a powerful combination in our minds,” he said, referring to BT’s ?12.5bn deal to buy the mobile company in 2016.?Our rationale was that it was just a matter of time, convergence has beenslower in this market. With Virgin Media and O2 together, the future ofconvergence is here today.”

The new companywill invest ?10bn in areas including gigabit-speed broadband and 5G networks.

?The UK is one of the most attractive markets on Earth,” saidJos? Mar?a Alvarez-Pallete, the chief executive of Telef?nica. ?Evenconsidering Brexit, we have been investing heavily in the UK. It is the righttime to commit to the future of the UK by building this value proposition.”

Under the deal,which is expected to complete in the middle of next year, there is an option toperhaps float the venture on the UK stock market in three years.

?We are bothcoming to the joint venture with the expectation we will remain partners,”Alvarez-Pallete said. ?We don’t come into this with the expectation that wewill turn right or left at a certain point of time. If a listing were to come downthe road, it can provide a transparency of value and give people the chance toown part of a national champion.”

Philip Jansen,the chief executive of BT, said the emergence of a new power player in the UKmarket would not make BT speed up its own investment plans.

?We are not going to go any faster,” he said. ?We have acomprehensive five-year plan. This deal is not a surprise, I think the industryneeds consolidation. It follows our strategy four years ago [buying EE].Competition is good, it drives innovation.”

The new jointventure will be overseen by an eight-strong board of directors, four each fromLiberty Global and Telef?nica, with the chairman rotating every two yearsbetween the two companies. Liberty Global’s Fries will be the first chairman.

The deal willinclude recapitalisations under which Telefonica will receive ?5.7bn inproceeds and Liberty Global ?1.4bn. The new venture will be laden with ?18bn inlong-term debt.

Vodafone, whichhas previously held talks with Liberty Global about a similar UK tie-up, couldyet look to make a counter offer.

The company asserts the platforms are the most compact available to businesses and mobile network operators (MNOs), as well as the only to offer uncompromised line-rate 100-Gbps activation testing.

Stephen Hardy FEB 2020

BusinessWire

ADVA (FSE: ADV) has unveiled the ADVA FSP 150-XG400 Series of demarcation and aggregation platforms for the delivery of MEF 3.0-certified 100-Gbps services to the network edge. The company asserts the platforms are the most compact available to businesses and mobile network operators (MNOs), as well as the only to offer uncompromised line-rate 100-Gbps activation testing.

Available in a 1RU or 2RU form factors, the FSP 150-XG400 Series features platforms with 1, 10, 25, 40,or 100 Gigbit Ethernet interfaces. They benefit from carrier-class Ethernet OAM and Y.1564 feature sets, including the aforementioned full line-speed activation testing for services up to 100 Gbps. The platforms support network overlay capabilities for the delivery of MEF services over IP networks and provide standard SDN interfaces for direct control from open source and commercial SDN controllers.

?Our newest product family removes all the roadblocks and makes the task of transforming metro networks simple. With our FSP 150-XG400 Series delivering high-density demarcation and aggregation, businesses can expand and embrace the potential of IoT, and operators can deliver the next level of resilient SLA-based Carrier Ethernet services,” commented James Buchanan, GM, Edge Cloud, ADVA.

For mobile network applications such as radio access networks, the environmentally hardened platforms also support hardware-based timing for precise frequency and phase synchronization.

?The arrival of 5G is bringing unprecedented data speeds, but mobile applications can only be as fast as the back haul network. That’s why MNOs are now looking to upgrade their access infrastructure from 10-Gbps to 100-Gbps line rates. Our FSP 150-XG400 Series supports a smooth and extremely cost-effective migration to higher capacity while also enabling the distribution of precise network synchronization that next-generation services require,” said Stephan Rettenberger, senior vice president, marketing and investor relations, at ADVA.

StephenHardy Feb 2020

More thanhalf of the data center switch ports shipped in 2024 will operate at data ratesof 100 Gbps or greater, predicts Dell?Oro Group in a new report. The high-speedport shipments will occur within the context of an overall market in 2024 ofmore than 60 million ports shipped, the marketresearch firm states in its new Ethernet Switch ? Data Center Five YearForecast Report.

While 100-Gbpsports have shipped for some time, Dell?Oro analysts expect deliveries of400-Gbps ports will begin to ramp by the end of this year and into early 2021.These 400-Gbps ports will be followed at some point during the forecast periodby 800-Gbps ports. Ports at 400 Gbps and greater will compose more than 25% ofshipments by 2024, Dell?Oro predicts.

?800 Gbps,400 Gbps, as well as new waves of 100 Gbps will be enabled by faster SerDestechnologies and higher -speed optics,? said Sameh Boujelbene, senior directorat Dell?Oro. ?Optics will continue to play a vital role in the data centerswitch market. The availability of high-volume, low-cost optics is crucial indriving any speed transition.

?Additionally,as network speed increases beyond 800 Gbps, pluggable optics will hit densityand power issues. Hence it will become imminent for the industry to adoptalternative options such as co-packaged optics (CPO). We expect such transition tobring major disruptions to the supply chain as it requires new business andserviceability models,? Boujelbene added.

The Ethernet Switch ? Data Center Five Year Forecast Reportdescribes market trends and includes tables covering manufacturers? revenue,port shipments, and average selling price forecasts for various technologies:Modular and Fixed by Port Speed; Fixed Managed and Unmanaged by Port Speed.Port speed demand assessed in the forecast include 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40Gbps, 50 Gbps, 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, and 400 Gbps.

Infinera(NASDAQ: INFN) has revealed partnerships with II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ: IIVI) andLumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) to advance the development of optical transceivers basedon the systems house’s XR optics technology. While the timeframe forcommercialization of such modules was not revealed initially, sources atInfinera tell Lightwave that products should be announced at some point thisyear.

XR opticstechnology made its debut at ECOC 2019 last September in Dublin. The technologyenables point-to-multipoint coherent transmission (see ?Infinera unveils XR optics single-source coherentpoint-to-multipoint transmission technology”), leveraging Infinera’sInfinite Capacity Engine and what Infinera terms ?coherent subcarrier aggregation”to enable Nyquist subcarriers or subcarrier bundles generated by a singlecoherent transmission source to be assigned to various endpoints. The approachwould significantly reduce the cost of hub-and-spoke architectures, Infinerabelieves.

As describedat the time, Infinera’s strategy is to deliver XR optics in the form ofpluggable coherent modules that could be inserted into router ports. (XR opticsmodules would need to be positioned at both ends of the coherent transmission.)The company said it would seek partners to ensure both the development of suchmodules and multiple sources of them. Infinera itself had announced previouslythat it plans to get into the pluggable module space (see ?Infinera offers Infinite Network pluggable coherent modulestrategy details”), making the company potentially one such source.

It appearsthat the collaboration could result in modules from all three partners. Whilethis conclusion wasn’t clear from the original announcements, a source atLumentum responded via an email to a Lightwave query that “Our intentionis to develop and market the XR Transceiver as a ‘Market Participant.’ Bothparties plan to jointly bring new interoperable transceivers to market based onthe Infinera DSP Device and the Lumentum TROSA.”

?Collaboratingwith Infinera leverages our deep experience in high-speed coherent componentsand pluggable modules to bring an innovative solution like XR optics tomarket,” commented Beck Mason, senior vice president and general manager ofLumentum’s Telecom Transmission Business, via Infinera’s press releaseannouncing their partnership. ?The XR optics concept aligns with our corestrategy to provide scalable and flexible coherent optical network solutionsthat enable higher speeds for next-generation transport networks.”

A sourceat Infinera wrote via email that the company and its partners would support aseries of XR optics modules in a variety of form factors and with varioustransmission rates. “Specific product announcements along with features,form factors, and implementation will be announced later this year,” thesource added.

A requestfor additional comment from II-VI remains unfulfilled. ?We are looking forwardto leveraging our highly integrated laser technology platform, coupled with ourindustry-leading optics and module expertise, together with Infinera’s coherentsubcarrier aggregation DSP and transmission expertise, to achievenext-generation coherent transceiver solutions,” said Matthias Berger, vicepresident, Coherent Optics Business Unit, at II-VI, in the press release thatannounced the company’s work with Infinera. ?This collaboration will enable usto jointly deliver digital coherent optics in small pluggable form-factors andwith low power consumption.”

Swiss operator Sunrise announced that Liberty Global will invest up to CHF 500 million in a combination of tradable rights and subsequent subscription of newly issued shares in the capital increase to finance the acquisition of UPC Switzerland. This was a demand of some Sunrise shareholders, who found the price of the takeover too high, and called for Liberty Global to share in the risk of merging the two operators.

As a result of the new terms, Liberty Global will hold a 7.8 percent stake in Sunrise at current market prices, and Sunrise will provide Liberty Global with the right to propose a representative for election to its board of directors at the next AGM. The terms of the takeover of UPC worth CHF 6.3 billion remain unchanged.

Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, believes that the combination will create a challenger to Swisscom in the market, while Sunrise is convinced that investment in the rights issue by Liberty Global will lessen the financial commitment needed from its shareholders. Sunrise’s shareholders will vote on 23 October to approve the capital increase.

The Swiss regulatory authority, WEKO, has approved the deal without conditions, citing the fact that it will create the second largest telecommunications carrier in Switzerland and that the combination will stimulate competition.

Meanwhile,proxy advisors Glass Lewis, Ethos and zRating have announced their support for the proposed capital increase to finance the acquisition of UPC Switzerland.

Last week, proxy adviser ISS recommended that shareholders of Sunrise should reject the proposal for a capital increase. ISS noted that the “fair value”of UPC ranges from CHF 4.6 to CHF 5.2 billion, making the current valuation of CHF 6.3 billion excessive. Sunrise replied in a statement that the ISS report is misleading because of valuation inconsistencies and factual errors that misrepresent the long-term benefits to Sunrise shareholders. Liberty Global said that the report issued by ISS is “flawed” and the adviser”demonstrated a surprisingly poor understanding of the telecom industry”.