Over the past ten years, we have observed a significant evolution in investment in submarine cable infrastructure.
Originally, submarine cables were built within the framework of international agreements between states concerned with a project.
Their design, deployment and maintenance were taken over by consortia of major telecoms operators.
Hyperscalers and big tech players used to buy or lease bandwidth in undersea cables from a telecom operator, and they still do.
Yet, with their growing need for bandwidth, driven by high internet penetration, video content, the cloud and AI, they have started to invest significantly in these major infrastructure projects. Currently they invest mainly in key intercontinental projects.
Building a new subsea system represents a substantial budget, it is rarely the property of a single player. Although hyperscalers and big tech players have considerable financial clout, they need telco partners with solid financial resources to share costs.
Perhaps more importantly, partnerships allow them to share resources and benefit from telco’s experience in managing such strategic infrastructure.
These new players need to rely on win-win relationships with telecom operators that provide them with strong expertise and know-how.
Telecom operators have significant experience in deployment, landing, backhauling towards major data centers, and maintenance and operations. Telcos invest in these new systems and own fibre pairs.
Also, telco operators play an essential role in providing permits and authorisations with regards to local telecom regulating bodies or states.
In this area, only one operator provides a full end-to end and fully integrated expertise, including a strong cable ship fleet: Orange.
It is important to mention that big telco operators continue to invest significantly in their own cables to sell or lease bandwidth to hyperscalers and big tech players on their own infrastructure or capacities.
Also, telco operators remain key providers to these new players as they propose alternative routes to reduce the risk of outages while improving the resilience of their networks.
They also provide capacity in complementary routes where hyperscalers and big tech players do not invest, providing them with international connectivity, as well as the strategic last mile they need to get to the right interconnexion centers.
Last but not least, telco players are key partners when it comes to respecting the environment. They have decades of experience in complying with local regulations to preserve the environment during the construction phase of the cable, as well as managing the lifecycle until the end of life of a cable, lifting and removing it from the seabed and oceans.
In summary, over the past ten years, hyperscalers and big tech players have increased their investments in submarine cables.
They’ve built their own private cables to complement the ones telco players continue to deploy and diversified their routes but they continue to establish close partnerships with telco players.
Working together can help hyperscalers meet their growing needs for international connectivity, redundancy and make sure the infrastructure is sustainable and properly operated and maintained.
