Capacity LATAM 2018 is fast-approaching. The 2018 conference is happening March 20-21 in Rio de Janeiro. As you might expect, TeleGeography's Anahí Rebatta and Lilian Lea will be on the scene.
And good news for TeleGeography readers. Use the code LATAM18-TELEGEOGRAPHY to get 15% off registration for up to two people.
Anahí will present "Capacity and Connectivity in the Region: Exploring the Current State of the Wholesale Telecom Industry Across Latin America" on March 20 at 10:25 a.m. She'll lead the panel "What is Driving the Regional Re-emergence of the Submarine Cable Construction Boom?" directly after.
As the team gears up for the two-day event, Anahí gave me a preview of her sessions, including a sneak peek at some of the big questions she'll be posing to attendees.
As I understand it, you’ll be looking closer at the impact of regional projects during your presentation. What are some of the recent examples of cable projects that you’ll be taking a closer look at?
Hi Jayne. Yes, as we’ve discussed previously, Latin America is experiencing a subsea cable construction boom. During our participation at Capacity Latin America I’ll be focusing primarily on the impact that these new systems have on the ever-changing wholesale telecom market.
With all this new capacity serving an already competitive market, we anticipate seeing more price reductions on this route and across the region.
Just to mention a couple of examples here: the activation of Seabras-1 and Monet during the second half of last year added a total of 136 Tbps of potential capacity to the U.S.-Brazil core route alone. And more capacity is expected to be added to that route when BRUSA (a Telxius’ project) enters into service this year. With all this new capacity serving an already competitive market, we anticipate seeing more price reductions on this route and across the region.
With over $1.5 billion of new cable investment in 2017 and 2018, Latin America is leading the sector. I’ve read that content providers’ demand plays into this. Could you tell me more about that relationship?
We’ve seen that content providers have been involved in the submarine cable scene for a few years now, particularly in the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific. These companies have such large demand requirements that in many cases it makes more sense to invest in new infrastructure—as owners or anchor customers—than to buy or lease capacity on existing systems.
Latin America is no exception to this trend, with content providers looking for opportunities to invest and expand their reach to meet their capacity requirements. Putting this in numbers, long-haul demand from content providers grew at a compound annual rate of 127 percent between 2013 and 2017, outpacing the 36 percent growth of internet backbone capacity over the same time. With this in mind, several of the projects in the region are backed up by content providers.
Latin America is no exception to this trend, with content providers looking for opportunities to invest and expand their reach to meet their capacity requirements.
Your panel session sounds like it’s going to be an excellent conversation, with panelists from Angola Cables, Huawei Marine Networks, NJFX, Seaborn, and Telxius. What are you most excited to ask this group of experts?
I’m really excited to moderate this panel! Having all these experts in the same room willing to share their experience and views about the industry is exciting.
I’m looking forward to ask Huawei Networks about the new opportunities the region has to offer to a supplier (like them) and if this is just the beginning of a construction boom. I’m also curious to hear from Angola Cables, NJFX, Seaborn, and Telxius about their strategies to maximize revenues while riding this subsea cable boom wave.
Anahí Rebatta
Anahí is a Senior Analyst at TeleGeography. As part of the infrastructure team, she heads the Global Internet Geography research service. Her regional focus is on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Lilian Lea
Lilian Lea is TeleGeography's Sales Director for the Americas. She is an accomplished business development specialist in the telecom industry. She manages key accounts for the region and provides data and market research intel to telcos, content providers, government agencies, and TMT consulting companies.