SECRETS AND LIES IN REGIONAL SYSTEMS By Marc Fullenbaum
I. INTRODUCTION Expectations have firmed up over the last 18 months in the field of Regional Systems. These stems from the current situation in the trans-oceanic systems, which can be described by the word, overbuild. The main transoceanic routes now have several cable systems, each with a tremendous upgrade potential. While large transoceanic systems are not disappearing, the market pull may end up with one large system being built every two years. Therefore the industry ought to prepare to better face the challenges of Regional Systems, generally of lower capacity, and with reduced CAPEX and OPEX than the major trans-oceanic systems.
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II. THE MARKET There is no doubt that the Regional Systems market demand has picked up over the past two years in all the parts of the world (e.g. Farice, CamRing, TIS, Med Cable). The driving demand is regional connectivity in areas that aren’t connected to the large transoceanic systems. For the sake of clarity, the upper boundary of Regional Systems is considered as 2000 - 3000 km in length. Our analysis has shown 26