NYTIMES: New undersea cable projects face some old problems

Mon May 10 13:38:26 UTC 2004

[about new cables laid by FLAG and SEA-ME-WE-4]

-- 
suresh ramasubramanian suresh at outblaze.com gpg EDEDEFB9
manager, security and antispam operations, outblaze ltd

> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/business/10cable.html?th=&pagewanted=all&position=
>  New Undersea Cable Projects Face Some Old Problems By KEN BELSON
> 
> Published: May 10, 2004
> 
> It has been several years since executives in the undersea cable
> industry had anything to cheer about. Nearly every company that
> strings fiber optics across oceans has been restructured or has gone
> bankrupt. Lease prices for cable lines have collapsed and are still
> falling. Bankers pulled the plug on most new projects long ago
> because so much cable was already sitting at the bottom of the ocean.

[...]

> The projects - the Falcon cable financed privately by Flag Telecom
> and the Sea-Me-We 4 line built by a consortium of global telephone
> companies led by Singapore Telecommunications - are nothing if not

[...]

> But the operators of the new cable lines face the same problems that
> sank many competitors. Chief among them is that the amount of
> capacity being added far outpaces growth in Internet use and demand
> for long-haul lines. Until this changes, prices will slide, making it

[...]

> Mr. Rawle also expects demand for data links from countries in the
> Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea to the rest of the world to
> increase 38 percent a year on average through 2013. The problem is

[...]

> "If you're a buyer, that's the side you want to be on," said David W.
> Dorman, the chairman and chief executive of AT&T, which has not built
> undersea cables since 1999. "Any time I hear someone is going to
> build another cable, we go, 'Bravo.' " But Mr. Dorman added that as a
> business proposition, "I wouldn't be putting any new cable into the
> ocean right now."