ANALYTICS
BY KIERAN CLARK
GLOBAL CAPACITY OUTLOOK
Big Data Driving Big Bandwidth
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ig Data. Datacenters. Over-TheTop (OTT) Providers. Cloud Services. Video Streaming. Artificial Intelligence. What do all of these have in common? They are involved in nearly every aspect of modern life and have a near insatiable need for telecommunications bandwidth. As we continue to move towards a Star Trek like future (or Blade Runner, depending on your point of view), our increasingly technologically dependent way of life drives the need for more and more bandwidth. The cornerstone of this huge upswell in data driven industries is, of course, our little corner of the telecommunications market. The submarine fiber industry makes it all possible by connecting the world to a global telecommunications network. Industry dynamics have changed very little from a year ago, and trends observed previously have largely
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
continued. Indeed, the prevalence of content and service providers driving new cable systems instead of ISP and infrastructure providers should be considered the new normal. This new way of approaching the business seems here to stay. As all these providers continue to expand their reach, the submarine fiber industry will have
numerous opportunities for growth. Welcome to SubTel Forum’s annual Subsea Capacity issue. Every May, we aim to take the industry’s pulse by looking at the future of our section of the telecoms market. Specifically, how much cable owners are planning to add to the ever-growing pool of capacity and what technol-
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Figure 1: Global System Capacity by Year, 2013-2017
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