Which Way Round The World?
From time to time Mensard reviews different aspects of the international fibre optic cable industry. We have recently looked at the three main geographical routes for linking Europe and Asia. The following insights result from a Client request for information about currently available capacity linking Frankfurt and Hong Kong. The information has relevance for other cities of North West Europe and North East Asia. The main issues we were looking at were: (a) (b)
Price of transmission capacity Round Trip Delay (RTD) time
The three main routings are via: 1. 2. 3.
USA/trans-Pacific Russia Middle East
USA/trans-Pacific
By Cate Stubbings International Capacity Broker, Mensard
Routes via the USA can be supplied on high quality, latest technology, mesh protected or ring-protected systems – on land networks right across mainland United States and in submarine systems across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The RTD for the whole link between Frankfurt and Hong Kong is circa 345 ms. This is significantly shorter than the RTD for geo-stationary satellite systems but is nevertheless the longest of the three surface routes. Capacity buyers can procure the overall Europe – Asia link in segments and integrate 29