Early in the calendar year is map design season around TeleGeography. Colorful proofs arrive at the office, which the design team pores over, so as not to miss any details. No cable left behind. No design flourish left unexamined.
So when the DC office packed up and transitioned to remote work in March 2020, we were left to wonder: how were we going to finish our cable map from within quarantine?
Have you heard? There's a new submarine cable map in town.
Our 2020 edition has arrived along with a new interactive experience and free map downloads.
Gather round. It's a new month and we have new content recommendations.
At the top of our list is a conversation led by the team at ThousandEyes featuring our own Alan Mauldin. The group gets to talking about the COVID-19 impact on cable operations and project roll-outs. Keep scrolling to listen to their chat.
What does the future hold for the global bandwidth market?
The two most predictable trends are persistent demand growth and price erosion. Beyond that, operators will have to navigate the major uncertainties of an evolving sector and a global pandemic.
Here are a few of the key trends from our Global Bandwidth Research Service, among many, that will affect the long-haul capacity market in the coming years.
Lots of submarine cable chatter this week around the announcement of 2Africa, the latest cable from owners Facebook, Vodafone, MTN Group, China Mobile, WIOCC, Orange, Telecom Egypt, and Saudi Telecom.
We pulled several stories about the Facebook-backed cable, what it means for connectivity in the region, and how much folks expect it to cost. Keep scrolling for more.
With the update of data and analysis within our Global Bandwidth Research Service comes a refreshed look at our network pricing intel.
Yes, operators are racing to keep revenue margins ahead of eroding prices, while bandwidth demand and supply continue to grow across global routes. Abundant supply and increasing competition have led to this robust price erosion throughout the global bandwidth market.
New 100 Gbps-equipped submarine cable systems and upgrades to existing networks have further lowered unit costs. And this has driven down both 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps wavelength prices. Across critical global routes, weighted median 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps prices fell an average of 14% and 23% compounded annually since 2016.
The global outbreak of COVID-19—and its associated economic impact—has amplified the role played by the international telecommunications industry and the bandwidth market that underpins it. The global bandwidth market has always been marked by change and uncertainty, and the current crisis is just an extreme example of this.
Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic is a recurring theme across the majority of industry headlines this month.
From reports on usage trends, to the new WFH plight of WAN managers, to Google changing its Chrome release plans to avoid any hiccups in service—coronavirus has permeated the industry from every corner.
You can peruse these stories below. And if you're looking for more updates on how the pandemic is impacting the telecom industry, there's lots more on our State of the Network page. We're curating the latest headlines, network status updates, and reports from service providers.
While most press coverage has focused on the massive impact COVID-19 is having on access networks, let’s not forget the role played by our massive network of undersea cables in global communications.
I wanted to offer some preliminary insights into how the submarine cable industry is coping.
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