Broadband outstrips dial-up for international capacity
Announcement posted by Australia Japan Cable 12 Feb 2003
Australian broadband connections last year consumed more international bandwidth than dial-up connections for the first time ever, according to industry analysis presented by Australia Japan Cable today.
AJC Chief Executive Officer Robin Russell said more capacity was now devoted to broadband services, despite the number of connections trailing well behind the still popular dial-up mode of Internet access.
"We are seeing the emergence of a new era, with broadband now the dominant capacity driver. In the information age, technology evolution has accelerated dramatically, to the point where the future is here almost before we can recognize it," Mr Russell said.
"It was only at the end of 1999 that data volumes exceeded voice in Australia and that marked the emergence of the internet as a pervasive resource for business and in the home."
Mr Russell said the findings were significant for the submarine cable industry, which has been looking to broadband to boost international data consumption.
"The submarine cable industry has known for sometime that broadband would a significant driver in bandwidth consumption however I think very few of us thought we would see the impact of this so quickly," Mr Russell said.
"The encouraging point is that bandwidth consumption will continue to rise as more Australians choose to have a broadband connection in their home." Industry analysts are projecting 3M broadband connections in Australia by 2006.
The AJC analysis found Australia's 500,000 broadband connections currently consumed a theoretical average of 1.2 Gigabits per second of international capacity. This is compared to the theoretical average 0.8 Gbps consumed by approximately three million dial-up users.
Substantially more actual capacity is required to service internet customers than indicated by the theoretical averages, because usage concentrates heavily in busy periods.
Mr Russell said the challenge for network operators such as Australia Japan Cable would be to ensure their services were 'broadband ready'.
"Australia Japan Cable was designed with broadband services firmly in mind and has adequate capacity and network design to accommodate the increase in broadband services. This may not be the case with older generation networks," he said.
"While we do not believe that we will see another explosion in network construction just yet, I do think carriers are certainly going to be more selective when deciding from which cable network to purchase capacity."
Australia Japan Cable is a 12,500-kilometre submarine fibre optic cable system that has landing stations in Australia, Guam and Japan. Through strategic interconnect points the system can be used to transport data through the Asia Pacific region, to North America and around the world.
-ends-
About Australia Japan Cable
Australia Japan Cable is a two-fibre pair system, with a design capacity of 640 Gbits/sec. Initially it is equipped with 40 + 40 Gbits/sec (service + protection).
The AJC network uses a collapsed ring architecture, which combines the low cost of a single sheath cable in water depths below 4000 metres with the security of full redundancy for the more vulnerable shallow water segments and for transmission systems.
The network is, in essence, three loops of optical fibre. On the main trunk route the fibre pairs are enclosed in a single cable, while in shallower shore end waters, where historically most cable failures occur, there are diverse cables and dual landings in Australia, Guam and Japan, providing optimal levels of protection.
Australia Japan Cable branching units are laid at a depth of greater than 4,000 metres, ensuring further system resilience. AJC service, in the event of disruption to a branch segment, would be rerouted via the redundant branch using AJC's ring protection.
The total length of AJC, including all branches and in-country closure of the fibre ring, is approximately 12,700 km.
The Australia Japan Cable was delivered on time and under budget on 30 December 2001.
Australia Japan Cable network features
Route Australia to Japan via Guam
Configuration - A 12,700km optical fibre cable in a collapsed loop configuration employing 10Gbit/s DWDM technology. Branch protection for fishing or shipping risks via double landings in Japan, Guam and Australia. Single sheath in deep water (>4000m) for some 90% of the route.
AJC includes automatic network protection operating ring and span switching in accordance with ITU-T Rec G.841 MS SPRING (Transoceanic Application), to protect against equipment, fibre or cable faults.
Capacity - Design: 320 + 320 Gbit/s (Service plus Protection) Initially equipped for 40 + 40 Gbit/s (Service plus Protection)
Cable stations - In Australia, at Paddington (operated by Reach) and Oxford Falls (Reach) . Paddington is considered a city exchange while Oxford Falls is about 20km from the Sydney CBD. In Guam, at Tanguisson (AT&T) and Tumon Bay (AT&T) both of which are a few km from the Guam Business centre. In Japan, at Shima (NTT Com) and Maruyama (Japan Telecom) which are about 120km from Nagoya and 80km from Tokyo respectively
Landing Points - In Japan and Guam the cable lands at or very near the cable stations. In Australia Segment 1 lands at Tamarama beach (4.5 km from Paddington) and Segment 2 at Narrabeen (10.7 km from Oxford Falls)
Terrestrial links The cable stations in Australia and Guam are joined by terrestrial links and form part of the AJC owned network. The Japanese landing stations are joined by a submarine link, Segment 10, also owned by AJC.
Ready for Service 30 December 2001
Connectivity - AJC was designed to connect to major existing and planned cables in the Asia-Pacific area. Notably AJC will connect to China-US and Japan-US in the same cable stations at Tanguisson and Maruyama. Other cables landing within a few km of AJC include APCN2, PC1, EAC, C2C, RNAL, G-P and TGN.
Network Operations Centre (NOC) - AJC has contracted with Telstra's Global Operations Centre in Clayton (Victoria), Australia, which currently manages the Telstra national network and a number of international cable systems, to operate the AJC network management equipment. AJC NOC functions include management of traffic through all AJC cable stations plus monitoring of all AJC cable, repeaters and terminal equipment. For AJC network security, backup NOC equipment is located in the AJC Paddington cable station.
AJC Chief Executive Officer Robin Russell said more capacity was now devoted to broadband services, despite the number of connections trailing well behind the still popular dial-up mode of Internet access.
"We are seeing the emergence of a new era, with broadband now the dominant capacity driver. In the information age, technology evolution has accelerated dramatically, to the point where the future is here almost before we can recognize it," Mr Russell said.
"It was only at the end of 1999 that data volumes exceeded voice in Australia and that marked the emergence of the internet as a pervasive resource for business and in the home."
Mr Russell said the findings were significant for the submarine cable industry, which has been looking to broadband to boost international data consumption.
"The submarine cable industry has known for sometime that broadband would a significant driver in bandwidth consumption however I think very few of us thought we would see the impact of this so quickly," Mr Russell said.
"The encouraging point is that bandwidth consumption will continue to rise as more Australians choose to have a broadband connection in their home." Industry analysts are projecting 3M broadband connections in Australia by 2006.
The AJC analysis found Australia's 500,000 broadband connections currently consumed a theoretical average of 1.2 Gigabits per second of international capacity. This is compared to the theoretical average 0.8 Gbps consumed by approximately three million dial-up users.
Substantially more actual capacity is required to service internet customers than indicated by the theoretical averages, because usage concentrates heavily in busy periods.
Mr Russell said the challenge for network operators such as Australia Japan Cable would be to ensure their services were 'broadband ready'.
"Australia Japan Cable was designed with broadband services firmly in mind and has adequate capacity and network design to accommodate the increase in broadband services. This may not be the case with older generation networks," he said.
"While we do not believe that we will see another explosion in network construction just yet, I do think carriers are certainly going to be more selective when deciding from which cable network to purchase capacity."
Australia Japan Cable is a 12,500-kilometre submarine fibre optic cable system that has landing stations in Australia, Guam and Japan. Through strategic interconnect points the system can be used to transport data through the Asia Pacific region, to North America and around the world.
-ends-
About Australia Japan Cable
Australia Japan Cable is a two-fibre pair system, with a design capacity of 640 Gbits/sec. Initially it is equipped with 40 + 40 Gbits/sec (service + protection).
The AJC network uses a collapsed ring architecture, which combines the low cost of a single sheath cable in water depths below 4000 metres with the security of full redundancy for the more vulnerable shallow water segments and for transmission systems.
The network is, in essence, three loops of optical fibre. On the main trunk route the fibre pairs are enclosed in a single cable, while in shallower shore end waters, where historically most cable failures occur, there are diverse cables and dual landings in Australia, Guam and Japan, providing optimal levels of protection.
Australia Japan Cable branching units are laid at a depth of greater than 4,000 metres, ensuring further system resilience. AJC service, in the event of disruption to a branch segment, would be rerouted via the redundant branch using AJC's ring protection.
The total length of AJC, including all branches and in-country closure of the fibre ring, is approximately 12,700 km.
The Australia Japan Cable was delivered on time and under budget on 30 December 2001.
Australia Japan Cable network features
Route Australia to Japan via Guam
Configuration - A 12,700km optical fibre cable in a collapsed loop configuration employing 10Gbit/s DWDM technology. Branch protection for fishing or shipping risks via double landings in Japan, Guam and Australia. Single sheath in deep water (>4000m) for some 90% of the route.
AJC includes automatic network protection operating ring and span switching in accordance with ITU-T Rec G.841 MS SPRING (Transoceanic Application), to protect against equipment, fibre or cable faults.
Capacity - Design: 320 + 320 Gbit/s (Service plus Protection) Initially equipped for 40 + 40 Gbit/s (Service plus Protection)
Cable stations - In Australia, at Paddington (operated by Reach) and Oxford Falls (Reach) . Paddington is considered a city exchange while Oxford Falls is about 20km from the Sydney CBD. In Guam, at Tanguisson (AT&T) and Tumon Bay (AT&T) both of which are a few km from the Guam Business centre. In Japan, at Shima (NTT Com) and Maruyama (Japan Telecom) which are about 120km from Nagoya and 80km from Tokyo respectively
Landing Points - In Japan and Guam the cable lands at or very near the cable stations. In Australia Segment 1 lands at Tamarama beach (4.5 km from Paddington) and Segment 2 at Narrabeen (10.7 km from Oxford Falls)
Terrestrial links The cable stations in Australia and Guam are joined by terrestrial links and form part of the AJC owned network. The Japanese landing stations are joined by a submarine link, Segment 10, also owned by AJC.
Ready for Service 30 December 2001
Connectivity - AJC was designed to connect to major existing and planned cables in the Asia-Pacific area. Notably AJC will connect to China-US and Japan-US in the same cable stations at Tanguisson and Maruyama. Other cables landing within a few km of AJC include APCN2, PC1, EAC, C2C, RNAL, G-P and TGN.
Network Operations Centre (NOC) - AJC has contracted with Telstra's Global Operations Centre in Clayton (Victoria), Australia, which currently manages the Telstra national network and a number of international cable systems, to operate the AJC network management equipment. AJC NOC functions include management of traffic through all AJC cable stations plus monitoring of all AJC cable, repeaters and terminal equipment. For AJC network security, backup NOC equipment is located in the AJC Paddington cable station.