Lots of telecom stories to consume this month. Chief among them is Google's recent announcement of three new undersea cables (Curie, Havfrue, and HK-G) that are scheduled to go online next year.
The Curie cable will be the first new cable to land in Chile in almost 20 years. You can read up on it in the TechCrunch post below. We're also sharing stories about cable security, pricing trends, and wireless subscribers in Asia. Happy reading.
Google Cloud infrastructure expansion to continue with three new undersea cables
Why it’s worth your time: Well, I guess we'll be updating our submarine cable map again soon. Google recently announced that three new undersea cables are scheduled to go online next year. Read more about them in this rundown from TechCrunch.
Why it’s worth your time: We always love a good TeleGeography map sighting in the wild. Today it comes from this Business Insider piece about the security of submarine cables and the likelihood that nefarious actors are plotting to cut cables. (But if you care to know what happens when a cable goes down for any reason, look no further.)
No more penny pinching: Wireless carriers’ capex to surge in 2018
Why it’s worth your time: In a note to investors, analysts at the Wall Street Research firm Barclays recently said that they expect capex among Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint to rise by 10 percent in 2018.
This post outlines how and why this capex surge may come about.
Says FireceWireless' Mike Dano, "That growth is likely to be driven mainly by AT&T and Sprint. Both companies have made it clear that they are getting ready to open their purse strings in order to grow their respective network strategies."
Asia’s Wireless Boom: 4.7 Billion Wireless Subscribers by 2022?
Why it’s worth your time: The Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half of the world’s 7.7 billion wireless subscribers. It’s home to some of the most advanced mobile markets—and some of the least developed. While one country boasts the largest 4G LTE market on the planet, others have yet to offer licenses for LTE services.
Pete Bell looks under the hood to understand how and why this region is experiencing such a boom in wireless subscribers.
Big content providers influence undersea cable price drops
Why it’s worth your time: If you've been following our blog, you know that content providers like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are taking a more active role in the latest submarine cable boom. You can read more about that trend (and catch a few quotes from TeleGeography's own Mike Bisaha) in this post on cable investments and the impact on pricing.