Networks

Jul 27, 2023

Choose Your Fighter: Payphone vs. Link5G Kiosk

Last year, New York City removed its last public payphone. This action marked the end of an era, but a new one has already unfolded.

Our July list of recommended reads touches on the latest iteration of LinkNYC, submarine cables, a fresh TeleGeography presentation, and … butter.

Jul 20, 2023

Content Providers Are Still Hungry for Bandwidth

Earlier this week, I joined Ciena and Telstra for a live webinar highlighting Asia-Pacific market drivers, trends, and new cable builds.

During my session, which focused on Trans-Pacific submarine cable trends, content providers came up quite a bit.

These companies prioritize the need to link their data centers and major interconnection points. As such, they often deploy massive amounts of capacity on core routes.

The Trans-Pacific and Intra-Asia routes are two great examples.

Jul 6, 2023

What’s the Difference Between FTTC, FTTN, and FTTP?

There are a lot of acronyms used in the telecommunications space, and it can be tough to keep them straight.

Thanks to TeleGeography's new acronym cheatsheet, you don't have to.

Mixing up FTTC, FTTN, and FTTP, for example? NBD, we've got you covered.

Jul 3, 2023

Webinar: Trans-Pacific Submarine Cable Trends

Almost a year ago, I shared a presentation on trans-Pacific submarine network opportunities in a live webinar with Ciena and Hawaiki.

A lot has changed since then, and I'm excited to share a new deck of fresh TeleGeography data on Tuesday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Jun 29, 2023

European International Bandwidth Demand Is Doubling Every Two Years

If you're a regular here on the TeleGeography blog, you've likely noticed that we round out each month with a list of telecom reading recommendations.

This month, we have more of a watching recommendation. That's because the recording of Research Director Alan Mauldin’s Namex Annual Meeting 2023 presentation—focused on Italy's Role in Global Network Expansion—is now available.

Alan first sets the stage with a breakdown of international bandwidth demand growth by region. Between 2018 and 2022, Europe grew at a compounded annual rate of about 41%.

This number implies that every two years, there is a complete doubling of all the bandwidth that links the countries within Europe, and other countries into Europe.

Jun 22, 2023

Satellite Mergers, Acquisitions, and Market Consolidation

Connectivity by satellite is not new, but expanding networks via low earth orbit (LEO) is a recent phenomenon receiving lots of investment.

As interest in LEO connectivity has grown, the number of companies looking to establish themselves in the market has also gone up. However, in recent conversations with satellite industry leaders, we’ve heard speculation that the market may have reached a saturation point.

That means mergers, acquisitions, and market consolidation are likely to occur. In fact, some of that has already begun to unfold.

Jun 12, 2023

Are Current Industry Practices Enough to Accommodate Future Capacity Requirements?

In 2019, my colleague Alan Mauldin and I busted the myth that the submarine cable industry’s current practices would sustain our future capacity requirements. 

Four years later, we revisited the same question during our telecom mythbusting session at SubOptic 2023.

Was the verdict the same?

Jun 7, 2023

Latin American Pricing Takeaways From ITW

Last month, the TeleGeography team joined scores of ICT infrastructure professionals in National Harbor, Maryland for International Telecommunications Week.

One of the many topics discussed was price erosion in Latin America. The main trend likely comes as no surprise: prices keep falling. But there is nuance to how price erosion is occurring in different markets.

Let’s explore the context in more detail.

Jun 5, 2023

Has Geopolitical Conflict Between China and the U.S. Caused Their Networks to Disconnect?

Let’s talk about geopolitical conflict between China and the U.S. and how it’s affecting the network. Has it caused the two countries to disconnect?

Jun 1, 2023

How Many Submarine Cables Are There, Anyway?

TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map recently hit a new milestone: depicting over 550 cable systems.

As of June 2023, that’s a whopping 485 in-service systems, with another 70 planned.

The number of cable systems we study is constantly increasing. This is due to massive investment in this infrastructure—both along major routes and to small islands—as well as our ongoing efforts to track global systems in more detail.

Still, the number of in-service systems is greater now than in any other year within the last two decades.