FEATURE CABLESHIPS CAPACITY CONNECTION UNDER-SERVED, NOT UN-DESERVED BY ANUP GUPTA
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any of us have grown up with limited means and, for anyone who grew up with not very much, have built an inherent ability to find ways of making things happen. Having limited resources at one’s immediate disposal in no sense requires that one’s ambition must be curtailed, or that one is undeserving of success. It simply redefines one’s journey to such success. The path will inevitably be steeper than for some others, demanding innovative thinking and a relentless willingness to push through the thorns that invariably block the routes. For countless individuals and, as we shall see, for entire regions of the world, this resourceful navigation of adversity is not just a tactic—it’s a way of life, even in the digital world of today. That mindset, the relentless pursuit of objectives that can only be attained by overcoming scarcity of resources, has shaped a lot of us. And it shapes how we see the world of global connectivity. Because there are countries, entire regions, that feel a lot like that kid looking at others with a discerning and longing eye. Full of ambition, bursting with potential—but left waiting while the rest of the world moves forward. This is not in any sense because they lack the will, rather because they were never part of the plan, a plan into which they had no input. Why? Well, it often boils down to a rather unglamorous reality: they are not conveniently located “en route”, on
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the shiny global fiber optic highways. The big telecom players and cable builders are often laser-focused on what they call “key markets.” These are, presumably, the places where the data traffic is high and every terabyte is worth its weight in gold – or per-
The big telecom players and cable builders are often laser-focused on what they call “key markets.” These are, presumably, the places where the data traffic is high and every terabyte is worth its weight in gold – or perhaps just where the return on investment looks a bit more straightforward on a spreadsheet. haps just where the return on investment looks a bit more straightforward on a spreadsheet. To put it simply, they’re not on the express route of cable builder investments. They are on the byroads, the meandering country lanes—underserved, underfunded, and, often, underestimated.
This creates a classic, almost frustrating, “chicken and egg” scenario. The cable builders, those seeking to collect and deliver large volumes of traffic, quite reasonably, need robust, reliable local digital infrastructure before they will commit significant resources to a new market. This is fair enough. But then you have the in-country infrastructure operators, those who need to provide the in-country networks, build the cable landing stations and data centers. To justify the colossal investment required to build that local infrastructure, they in turn often need a commitment from an anchor tenant, which is most often, a large traffic player who has already decided that the local infrastructure is not to its satisfaction, to make the local numbers work. Catch 22 anyone? So, the hyperscalers wait for the infrastructure, and the infrastructure waits for the hyperscalers. And while this polite, financially prudent standoff continues, entire populations remain underserved. They are stuck peering through the shop window of the digital age, able to see the possibilities but unable to fully participate. The irony is that the demand is there and is real. History has shown that there is tremendous untapped potential in these markets. Not only is the customer base enormous, but these markets are full of are intelligent, eager and ambitious people who are only in need of the right tools—such as bandwidth and infrastructure—to reach their potential. And remember,