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Crafting environmental rules

The United States, whose strong interest in the historic treaty, has not yet joined the global group. If the conservative Heritage Group continues blocking a senate approval over the terms of numerous presidents, the U.S. will not have a vote in crafting approving bids and environmental rules for seabed mining, leaving China as the power at the newly created International Seabed Authority.

"We are conceding," John Negroponte, a former National Intelligence director in the Bush administration, told CBS 60 Minutes. "If we're not at the table and we're not members of the Seabed Authority, we're not going to have a voice in writing the environmental guidelines for deep seabed mining. Well, who would you prefer to see writing those guidelines? The People's Republic of China or the United States of America?"

What is the buried treasure?

What is driving the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty is access to the seabed to begin mining next year for vast amounts of minerals on and beneath the ocean floor. This will be handled by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous international organization created under UNCLOS.

As of 18 May 2023, ISA has 169 members, including 168 member states and the European Union. Valued minerals can include rocks which include cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel, according to the 60 Minutes report.

When and who?

No deep seabed mining operations have started anywhere in the world, according to the ISA. “Current exploration activities undertaken in the seabed area are aimed at gathering the necessary information on the location and quality of the seabed minerals and collecting all the necessary environmental information.”

To date, ISA claims it has approved thirty contracts for exploration involving twenty-two countries and covering more than 1.3 million square kilometers of the seabed.

Twelve are sponsored by developing countries.
Thirteen countries and one intergovernmental consortium currently have contracts for the exploration of polymetallic nodules.
Seven countries have contracts for the exploration of polymetallic sulfides.
Five have contracts for the exploration of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts.

The treaty was created to avert an undersea rerun of the U.S. Gold Rush and included support for the naval resources needed on the surface. Splitting up the seabed between the signatory countries, without the U.S., would seem to create challenges for military presence in a world flush with geopolitical hot spots. The list includes the narrow space between China and Taiwan, the shipping lanes of the Red Sea, and the war zone in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.

Subsea cable construction forecast

Will the beginning of seabed mining have an adverse impact on the building of subsea cables? Many recent and planned systems have been in the works for years.

Between 2023 and 2025, a new cable boom valued at a record $10 billion will bring an estimated seventy-eight systems online measuring over 300,000 kilometers in length, a level of growth not seen in over 20 years. That is according to a blog by Telegeography, a global telecom market research firm. The group has released its 2024 world submarine cable map.

What becomes of subsea cables – current and planned?

Subsea fiber optic cables are lifelines that typically lay atop the seabed to support lifeblood data communications between hubs on almost all continents. They needed to be maintained and repaired when damaged or severed, which has seemingly become more frequent.

Protecting the health of this network of subsea cables has become paramount because other services, such as satellite and wireless, cannot match the capacity and speed and are, therefore, relegated to short-term, but only partial, backup options.

Will an anticipated increase in ocean bottom activity and supporting shifts and equipment threaten the safe and continued operation of subsea cables? The risk of damage would seem heightened considerably because, at present, faults are mostly due to accidental human activities such as fishing and anchoring. Deep sea mining is a largely new and potentially profitable activity that could transform sea floors and surrounding waters into commerce areas.

The big picture

The global submarine cable network of more than four hundred cable systems and 1.5 million kilometers of submarine cables crosses the oceans worldwide, according to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), which promotes submarine cable protection and resilience. “This network underpins our daily lives, carrying more than 99% of all digital data traffic worldwide, including the Internet,” the group added.

The global group recommends countries provide security for repair ships and crews used to repair today’s variety of subsea cable damage and cuts. The ICPC’s 215 member firms from seventy countries build, operate, and maintain submarine telecommunications and power cable infrastructure.

The importance of protecting subsea cables has increased of late, creating a myriad of problems for users. Repairs on two out of three cables cut in the Red Sea off Yemen in early February began in May, while work on the third has been delayed with no time to repair interval provided. The continuation of armed conflict in the area has delayed permitting for the repairs and forced users of the cables to scramble for rerouting of crucial traffic over diverse paths on unaffected cables in the busy region.

Asked whether subsea cables will be impacted by seabed mining due to start next year, the ICPC replied. “Uncoordinated deep seabed mining poses risks of damage to submarine cables and foreclosure of diverse routes used to strengthen resilience of submarine cable networks,” explained Kent Bressie, International Law Adviser, ICPC, and Partner, HWG LLP.

The ICPC and its members have been working with states, the International Seabed Authority, and mining contractors to mitigate these risks through the adoption and implementation of effective regulations for mining contractors and direct coordination between submarine cable operators and mining contractors.

A spokesperson for Telegeography said the firm is unable to assist in addressing the question.

Exploration drives environmental concerns

Extensive exploration is already going on pursuant to the exploration contracts, explains Bressie. "The submarine cable industry worries about that, as even exploration can damage cables if it is not coordinated sufficiently. And, of course, there are significant concerns about the environmental impact of any deep seabed mining activities."

Users of the subsea cables are expected to see an increase in costs from operators of the link as the cost of insuring them is increasing, as is the cost of repairs resulting from the sizable delay in the ability to get clearance to get to work as is the case in the Red Sea, which is going on for four months now. Route diversity is crucial but not yet widely available.

Details: Published on 13 July 2024

(Credit Julian Dragamir / Alamy Stock Photo)

The continent's operators struggle to provide businesses network resiliency for the much-needed economic growth of African nations.

Doing business in Africa has become tougher thanks to recent subsea cable cuts off South Africa, western Africa in April, and the numerous cable cuts in the Red Sea in February, with repair on the last group yet to conclude.

Africa is home to endless national resources, with terrain from the Sahara Desert to deep jungles and Mt. Kilimanjaro. But the continent’s communications options are fragile and limited, with backups such as satellite and wireless insufficient for high volumes of traffic.

The number and impact of the subsea cable cuts underscore the fragile nature of Africa's telecom options, not just multinational businesses in the continent, foreign businesses considering expanding to the continent, and African countries looking to attract economic investment globally.

The cost of subsea cable failures can be substantial, with repairs costing up to $6 million on average and taking around 13 days to complete. Additionally, the cost of cable repairs in bad weather can escalate to upwards of 200,00 Euros per day, emphasizing the need for a focus on the long-term reliability of subsea circuits.

Recent outages: West Africa

An update from theWIOCC, a wholesaler carrier that delivers high-capacity connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world, said 35 networks across West African countries, Nigeria inclusive, have been restored to full capacity resilience, adding that it will take another four weeks to fully restore internet services to all network operators that are connected to the affected four submarine cables that came from Europe, with landing points along the West African coast.

WIOCC has access to vast terrestrial fiber and subsea cable networks. The carriers’ carrier offers cloud operators, content providers, fixed and mobile telcos, ISPs, and other operators reliable, seamless, high-capacity connectivity between more than 30 African countries and key global financial and commercial centers.

The WIOCC head estimated it will cost a total of about $2 million to achieve full restoration to a single subsea cable, depending on the extent of the cut on the cable.

Commissioned studies show that new cable landings can be a catalyst for change. Decreases in broadband prices and increases in broadband penetration rates often translate into economic growth for the surrounding population that benefits individuals and businesses.

RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institute, reports that 2Africa will improve Africa's GDP by up to 0.58 percent, equivalent to about $36.9 billion within the first two to three years of operations. The company emphasizes this is “a very conservative estimate since more countries have been added to the cable design since the study was published.”

With the situation approaching a breaking point, the telco for a small island nation vacation destination and financial services user off southeast Africa was victimized by a cable outage that cut its internet connection. Mauritius reported business interruptions as ATMs, banks and hotels for hours were without Internet access. Now, it has taken action that could eventually help the region in the future.

Mauritius Telecom CEO Kapil Reesaul has brought together providers Reliance, Jio, Infocomm, and Orange for a new undersea cable linking Africa, Indian Ocean islands, and Asia, improving redundancy in regions hit by breakdowns.

Good news, bad news, plan

2Africa: In 2020, a consortium-driven subsea cable named 2Africa was announced and expected to be online by late last year. It practically encircled the continent, promising to provide higher-speed service and advanced technology.

Equiano: A new subsea cable driven by Google connects Europe with Western African countries through Portugal. Part of the allure is the ability to handle route diversity with other cables. It also boasts advanced optical technologies and far higher speeds of 800G.

T-4: The route will be built to link Africa with the Indian Ocean and Asia. However, it is replacing a current cable, dubbed Safe Africa Far East (SAFE), which is due to be retired in 2027 after 25 years of service. The cable will have a thousand times more capacity than SAFE, the telco CEO claimed.

While new and planned subsea cables will bring benefits to customers, planning for a major cable retirement, transitioning data, and locating sorely needed route diversity will require research and planning for starters.

“With so many cable breakdowns we are having, we want to secure the Far East with a cable that will run from Mauritius to India and Singapore,” the island telco’s CEO said in a recent interview.

The bottom line on subsea cables

Africa has long been viewed as mysterious and largely unexplored. Nowadays, the mystery is how businesses around the world -and on the continent -can overcome challenges to forge reliable and resilient network links to brighten commerce opportunities.

Details: Published on 13 July 2024

(Credit Jochen Tack / Alamy Stock Photo)

Network planners can learn from the defaults, discord, and debate that followed the beginning of the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) disbursements.

Network planners and business expanders hoped the $20 billion FCC- administered RDOF would help close the digital divide. Below is a list of issues for these teams to consider as the program has underwhelmed.

The two-phase reverse auction effort launched in 2020 with a charter to deliver broadband to un- and under-served rural locations that could join the national economy as home workers, branch offices, and new business sites.

Now, nearly one-third of the money awarded through RDOF Phase 1 ($9.2 billion) has been defaulted on, leaving those in many census blocks with no definite help in sight. The FCC would not say when Phase 2 will begin.

The ISPs continue to default, with many thinking they can simply grab funds from the BEAD program, but that is unlikely as most states have already chosen providers that will deliver broadband, and defaulters have been assessed fines.

Enterprise impact

“For enterprises looking to expand service in areas designated as unserved or underserved, this all means they won’t be getting appropriate broadband service in a reasonable amount of time,” explained Jeff Heynen, Director, Broadband Access and Home Networking for Dell’Oro Group, a telecom market research and consulting firm. “They have to continue to look for contingencies.”

What is the RDOF?

The RDOF will disburse up to $20.4 billion over ten years to bring fixed broadband and voice service to millions of unserved homes and small businesses in rural America. RDOF uses a two-phase, competitive reverse auction "that prioritizes higher network speeds and lower latency," according to the FCC. Phase II will cover locations in census blocks that are partially served, as well as locations not funded in Phase I.

The RDOF Phase I Auction ended on Nov. 25, 2020, and awarded $9.2 billion in support to 180 winning bidders. RDOF (Phases 1 and 2) was originally budgeted for $20 billion, but it is unclear if or when the remaining funds (and defaulted amounts for Phase 1) will be made available. When asked, an FCC spokesperson declined to comment.

Shortly after the awards, ISP top recipients started to drop out/default, leaving countless census blocks in the lurch. Some were for internal financial issues (Starry) and more (LTD Broadband and Elon Musk's SpaceX) for other reasons. These three accounted for nearly a third of the $9 billion awarded by the RDOF. Just last month, Altice USA defaulted on RDOF funding, betting that the census blocks would be included in BEAD. Charter Communications has done the best job providing broadband at volume under the RDOF, claimed Heynen.

What are enterprises to do?

For enterprises, especially those looking to expand service in areas designated as unserved or underserved, this all means they will not be getting appropriate broadband service in a reasonable amount of time, according to Heynen.

Check with providers. Are any providers planning to expand their networks using their own capital? That way ISPs are not beholden to some requirements of each program.

Have a plan B. Enterprises must continue to look for contingencies—including fixed wireless—as a stopgap until the wired services become available. Another feasible option is low-earth orbit satellites. Look into home and business options.

The RDOF defaults are frustrating, for sure. But they are only going to increase as operators bow out and re-submit the projects for inclusion in the BEAD process. “RDOF is turning out to be a bit of a bust,” said Heynen.

BEAD is more attractive, especially with the benefit of better mapping and matching funds by the providers themselves to show they have some skin in the game. The FCC plans to use a reverse auction for disbursing $9 billion from the 5G Fund, which was created to drive deployment of 5G service in rural areas.

Keep in mind that there are overlapping broadband programs. With several overlapping programs, assume there will be confusion as they are typically run by different government agencies that use differing approaches to incenting ISP to cover un and underserved areas.

Balance the pros (time) and cons (cost) of the DIY approach. Funding programs can take years from introduction to delivering funds. If your business needs cannot wait, or the timelines do not match, waiting for government funding to get to ISPs will be the hardest part.

A final word on reverse auctions

"It is highly unlikely that another reverse auction process like the one used for RDOF will ever be done again," predicted Heynen. "Providers used their marketing speeds—not the actual speeds they delivered—to leave millions of locations that could not get 25/3 out of the process. Until coordination was handed to the individual states, like it is in BEAD, RDOF was going to have a challenging time succeeding. And with it, millions of homes and businesses are struggling to get anywhere near the 25/3 threshold."

Details: Published on 15 May 2024

(Credit: Tadej Pibernik / Alamy Stock Photo)

Pending 6GHz spectrum availability, faster speeds, and private wireless access use drive FWA forward.

Fixed wireless access has lived in the shadow of fiber in the nationwide broadband breakout. But now, higher speed, expanded use cases, and the anticipated availability of 6GHz spectrum have the option of commanding a broader role, which includes corporate networking.

"Fixed Wireless Access has proven that it can provide connectivity both in rural and underserved markets while also competing head-to-head with fixed broadband technologies in urban and suburban markets," said Jeff Heynen, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group . “Beyond residential connectivity, enterprises are relying more heavily on FWA-enabled routers and gateways to connect branch offices, vehicles, and kiosks as part of their own private wireless initiatives,” added Heynen.

Beyond residential use

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has surged in recent years to support both residential and enterprise connectivity due to its ease of deployment along with the more widespread availability of 4G LTE and 5G Sub-6GHz networks, which offer increased throughput and reliability, comparable in many cases to more traditional fixed broadband technologies.

The most important trend, according to one analyst, has been the increase in millimeter wave deployments at Verizon and USCellular. “Both are planning to use mmWave in urban areas where subscribers are close to small cells. mmWave can deliver speeds beyond 1Gbps and is averaging speeds of anywhere from 300-1.5Gbps, depending on the distance to the small cell,'" explained Heynen.

T-Mobile is also discussing using mmWave to complement its mid-band spectrum-based FWA offerings. "That market and technology are going to see interesting developments and use cases throughout the year and into next year," predicted Heynen.

When used for 5G signals, millimeter waves (mmWaves) are produced using low-power small cells. These small cells are arranged as a network in clusters to provide coverage in an area. This band of frequencies provides greater bandwidth, making it ideal for network operators to provide faster service to bandwidth-intensive applications.

6GHz for FWA

Another watershed development in the emergence of FWA would be the opening of spectrum in the 6GHz band for the use of unlicensed FWA. However, before this work-in-progress becomes a reality, companies that must be found to operate advanced frequency control (AFC) systems to guard against interference must complete testing tasks and receive approval from the FCC.

At last check, the agency cleared seven vendors to test their AFCs. They include:

Broadcom
Comsearch
Federated Wireless
Qualcomm
Sony
Wi-Fi Alliance
Wireless Broadband Alliance

At least six more entities have received conditional FCC approval.

The North American market remains the most dynamic in terms of deployed FWA technology options, with CBRS and other sub-6GHz options growing alongside 5G NR and 60 GHz options.

5G FWA technology is seen as an accelerator, and its use is expected to represent 45% of the total FWA subscription base by 2029, reaching 118 million at a CAGR of 35%, according to a report from ABI Research.

FWA Benefits and Challenges

The top benefits of FWA are that it can be deployed without cable in the ground or hung on poles and requires only limited permitting. And with access to additional spectrum, it's easier to find space for wireless communications. As a result, FWA is quicker to deploy, cheaper, and more flexible than fiber, especially in mountainous and wooded terrain.

The biggest challenge remaining is that FWA requires a clear line of sight between the point of signal original and the points of the requested termination. A longstanding shortcoming of FWA is its lower than fiber data speeds supported in resulting services. However, the ability to use additional spectrum has some service providers talking speeds of up to 1 Gigabit/sec.

Challenging terrain deployments can be made more accurate and quicker using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), which uses light and sensors to help survey and mapping. The tech creates accurate maps and digital elevation models for geographic information systems for commercial surveying and mapping applications.

A final thought on FWA

The fiber first and foremost focus that came with the BEAD program didn’t seem to leave room in the broadband breakout for other access options. Now, years later, the realities of closing the digital divide and the near-term needs of users have created plenty of room for FWA.

In fact, The FWA equipment spend is expected to exceed $40 billion over the next five years, according to Dell’Oro Group. Spending on 4G and 5G-enabled enterprise routers and gateways is expected to reach $4 billion by 2027.

Details: Published on 31 March 2024

(Credit: Liubomir Paut-Fluerasu / Alamy Stock Photo)

SASE can provide secure and efficient access to cloud-based services and resources for users, regardless of their location. Follow this checklist to attain this goal.

Secure access service edge (SASE) provides companies a centralized means to manage, monitor, and optimize their wide-area networks, SASE solutions provide the flexibility to protect corporate assets, remote offices, and home-based and mobile employees, as security threats continue to evolve and rapidly increase.

Introduction to SASE Architecture

SASE is an architecture that provides converged network and security as a service with an array of cloud-based capabilities that can be located where and used when they are needed.

As such, SASE expands the perimeter to include all resources, regardless of their location or device. It provides a single and consistent security policy spanning all network and application assets.

Details: Published on 31 March 2024

(Credit: Denis Putilov / Alamy Stock Photo)

With partner Neural Magic's software, potential user benefits may include lower latency, higher service levels, and faster response times.

Cloud and content delivery network Akamai Technologies last week teamed with Neural Magic to deploy advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software across its global edge server network.

The duo's efforts could provide businesses with lower latency, higher service levels, and faster response times. Adding the software could enable use cases such as AI inference, immersive retail, and spatial computing.

Long ago, Akamai built a distributed global network comprised of edge servers containing cached content located close to users to cut the time and boost the performance of delivering rich media such as streaming video. Now, the provider is using the same network to provide Neural Magic's AI much closer to the sources of user data.

The company said it intends to “supercharge” its deep learning capabilities by leveraging Neural Magic’s software, which enables AI workloads to be run more efficiently on traditional central processing unit-based servers, as opposed to more advanced hardware powered by graphics processing units (GPUs).

Potential Business Benefits of AI at the Edge

One expert sees several potential benefits to using Akamai’s content delivery network (CDN) business customers with Neural Magic’s AI acceleration software.

“This could potentially lower the cost of service and still meet the requirements for the AI workloads,” said Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group, a global telecom market research and consulting firm. “Lower cost can be achieved because the service provider (Akamai) can use general-purpose servers that uses traditional infrastructure, rather than expensive dedicated AI/GPU servers and infrastructure.”

Potential applications benefits are possible "because these nodes are situated at the network edge, close to where the user or machines are located, faster response time of applications for customers could be realized, especially for workloads that are AI related."

Higher service levels could be attained. “Because of the scalable nature of the solution, new CDN nodes suitable for AI workloads could be scaled quickly in high-demand regions.”

Running AI Workloads Close to Data Sources

In February, Akamai launched its Generalized Edge Compute (GECKO) initiative which focused on embedding cloud computing capabilities in the provider’s massive edge network. The initiative will efficiently support modern applications and workloads, wrote Zacks Investment Research. “These workloads will span a wide range of next generation use cases such as AI inference, immersive retail, and spatial computing.”

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