Fiber Optic Cables Vs. Fixed Satellite Services A Framework for Analyzing Their Relative Merits for Serving the Pacific Region by Nikos Nikolopoulos & Travis Kassay
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ince the 1980s, operators have been migrating their point-to-point communications requirements from fixed satellite services (“FSS”) to fiber optic cables as a result of the cost, reliability and performance advantages fiber optic transmission has over satellite technology. By the late 1990s, the introduction of new performance expanding optical technologies such as optical amplification, higher bit rates and DWDM accelerated this process. In the major economic and telecom hubs of the world this process was virtually completed with the massive fiber optic
construction build out during the telecom boom of 1996-2001. However, today there are still a great number of regions of the world – particularly the South Pacific and Southeast Asia – that depend exclusively on FSS for their point-to-point communications.
economic growth by developing call center and telemarketing infrastructures. Furthermore, the massive build-out of the 1990s means that dozens more cities have emerged as gateway cities thus pushing the gateways much closer to remote locations. This build-out has also resulted in drastic price declines (8095% since 1998 on many of the major routes) thus making onward connectivity considerably c h e a p e r. M a n y of the design improvements originally developed to improve performance and reduce costs of longhaul systems have found their way to short-haul networks. And finally, many thin route countries are nearing the STM-1 level in total demand – a point at which fiber satellite often becomes cost prohibitive.
Satellite and undersea cable systems have a broad range of difference from the type of coverage and amount of capacity available to the cost of solution deployment.
The common denominator among these regions is that they are characterized by low traffic volumes (“thin routes”) and remoteness from international telecom hubs (“remote hubs”); two factors which have made fiber optic cable solutions expensive in the past but which have begun to disappear recently.
There are six key reasons/trends that explain this change. First, the development of cellular networks in “thin route” countries has led to increased demand for international connectivity. Secondly, many governments are using telecommunications as a way to stimulate
As a result, thin route regions are now in a position to analyze the merits of migrating to fiber-based solutions by building: (1) small “feeder” submarine systems that connect to a global fiber grid; 17