Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S.

Tue Sep 16 00:10:02 UTC 2008

On 15/09/2008, at 10:06 PM, Joe Abley wrote:
>
> As an example, PacRimEast still had capacity in the late 90s,  
> strictly speaking. But given the difficulty in ordering anything  
> other than E1s on it at that time, did it really exist as a  
> terrestrial option for New Zealand ISPs trying to send packets to  
> the US? There was a lot of satellite transmission sold around that  
> time on PanAmSat, IntelSat and Loral transponders, and it's not as  
> if anybody was really using satellite out of choice. There are only  
> so many discrete E1s you can comfortably inverse-mux together before  
> it's really not worth bothering.

Satellite was mainly because it was cheaper in a world where 2mbps out  
of Australia to the US cost US$150k/month.   Circa around 1996 Telstra  
Internet had 16x2Mbps to the US plus 1x2Mbps to NZ.    That didn't  
change until Southern Cross (SCCN) arrived in 2000.

(I started in the ISP industry in 1994 in Australia, so whilst some of  
this is now a tad fuzzy, I was at least there for this bit.  My home / 
24 was 16 years old last month).

>
>
> The timelines are no doubt different, since Europe experienced a  
> giant boom in Internet demand and infrastructure while smaller  
> markets like New Zealand were still preoccupied with X.25. However,  
> the original question was whether there had ever been a time during  
> which Europe had no option but to cross oceans to get to Asia, and  
> I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case.

I guess it depends how far back you look in telecommunications  
history.   The 1901 telegraph network was as extensive as today's  
submarine networks (if not broader) (http://atlantic-cable.com/Maps/1901EasternTelegraph.jpg 
).   Australia had telegraphy connectivity via Singapore and the All  
Red Route that the British ran and controlled since around 1879.

>
> Perhaps someone who actually knows this stuff can throw some facts  
> into the thread and put a stop to my wild speculation.
>
>> SEA-ME-WE predates FLAG by almost a decade.   I'm sure some digging  
>> would reveal a bit more on that path either submarine or terrestrial.

Before SEA-ME-WE4 and 3 there was SEA-ME-WE and SEA-ME-WE2.   SEA-ME- 
WE had an inservice date of 1986.

MMC
-- 
Matthew Moyle-Croft Internode/Agile Peering and Core Networks
Level 4, 150 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
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