© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc th Annual Caribbean Internet Forum November 2007 St. Lucia Caribbean Infrastructure Investment in the Fiberoptic Submarine Cable Sector Thomas A. Soja, President T Soja & Associates, Inc. Boston, MA USA
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 2 Agenda The “Old” Network vs. the “New” Network Bandwidth Demand Growth Drivers Market Connectivity & Systems Supply –Activities in the BRICs, OECDs and ACPs Caribbean Projects –Recent investments and announcements
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 3 Older Cable Infrastructure Unable to Support Broadband-Driven Future Circa 2002 Courtesy: AT&T
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 4 Growth Drivers Competition Technology –Fixed line –Broadband DSL, HFC, Fiber –Wireless Free Space Optics, WiFi, WiMAX –Mobile Voice, increasingly broadband data capable
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 5 Caribbean Teledensities Overall Average Adjusted Average Source: and CIA World Fact Book
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 6 Caribbean Mobile Subscriber Growth Informa: Mobile and Wireless Opportunities in the Caribbean – 3rd edition
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 7 Households, Businesses, Mobile Teledensity in the Caribbean ~2 million Internet Households ~400,000 businesses ~5 million Internet HH ( millions)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 8 The Promise of Wireless / Mobile Broadband
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc. 9 Mobile Subscribers, Penetration and Mobile Broadband in the Caribbean ( millions)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Implication for Upstream Capacity
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Caribbean Competitiveness Global positioning BRICs vs. OECD vs. ACPs ICs –Multiple high-capacity cables in queue Africa –Multiple initiatives under development Pacific Islands –Long-thin routes being addressed Caribbean –Recent developments timed just right
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Recent Investment Cable Networks –GCN2006 –Antilles Crossing2006 –Fibralink2006 –MCN/SCF2007 –Trinidad-Curacao2007 Approximate CapEx: US$ million
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc GCN-1 (RFS Jan-2006)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Antilles Crossing Phase 1 (RFS Mar-2006)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc FibraLink (RFS Mar 2006)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc MCN (RFS Feb 2007)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc SCF (RFS June 2007)
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Prospective Investment Cable Networks –CFX –SAm-1 ext.2008 –Transbit (Venezuela-Cuba) 2009 Approximate CapEx: US$ million
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc CFX-1 and Trinidad Extension CFX-1 Announced May 2007 RFS Q ,400 rt-km Curacao-Trinidad Announced 2006 RFS Q ,000 rt-km
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Transbit Cable (Venezuela-Cuba) Announced Sept 2007 RFS ,552 rt-km 160 Gbps capacity
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc SAm-1 Extension (Puerto Rico-Colombia) Announced 2007 RFS 2010 (est.) 1,400 rt-km Permitting stage
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Antilles Crossing Phase 2
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Multiple Ring Resilient Infrastructure Other announced systems
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc Conclusions Real progress over past 5 years Timing took advantage of lull in systems supply More systems about to be built Local access shows viable path to dramatic improvement Scale needed – apps, content & customers Still more to come
© 2007 T Soja & Associates, Inc T Soja & Associates, Inc (tel) (mob) 2 November 2006 Thank you ! 5 th Annual Caribbean Internet Forum November 2007 St. Lucia