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Companies would spend more than $6-billion on submarine and terrestrial fibre optic cable infrastructure projects in Africa over the next two years, as countries scramble to boost international connectivity, market analysis firm BMI-TechKnowledge (BMI-T) said on Wednesday. In its latest research report, entitled 'Outlook for submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cable developments in Africa', BMI-T said that the effective high-speed internet services required for critical business, government and consumer applications have remained either unavailable or very expensive in Africa. Governments' awareness of this situation, and the perceived commercial attractiveness of the opportunity to close this gap, has given rise to the current frenetic activity for construction of submarine fibre cables on the continent. Investment in Africa's ICT infrastructure has improved significantly over the past decade. However, marked deficiencies persist in the backbone networks across the continent. "Although countries on the African west and southern coasts have access to fibre connectivity through the SAT-3 undersea cable, an estimated 80% of Africa's international voice and data traffic is carried via satellite," said Chanakira.

UK telecoms provider BT is to invest £1.5 billion ($3 billion) to roll out superfast broadband to up to 10 million UK homes by 2012. The system will enable services such as video conferencing, video on demand, and other high bandwidth activities. The programme is Britain's largest ever investment in superfast broadband, which will deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The fibre will be linked to a cabinet in the street and in some cases - such as the Olympic village for the 2012 Games - directly to the premises. Homes linked to a fibre-to-the-cabinet network will receive initial speeds of up to 40 Mbps, due to the copper cable that connects the house to the cabinet. However, BT expects this to increase to 60 Mbps with new technologies. Those on a fibre-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Nexans announced on 28th September that after having received expressions of interest in its Berk-Tek copper and fibre cable subsidiary, it is "exploring the possibility" of selling it. Berk-Tek manufactures high-performance copper cable from its plants in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and Elm City, North Carolina, and also produces fibre optic cable in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. Nexan's statement follows its acquisition of Shandong Yanggu Cables Group of China for around RMB930M in early September.

Carrots are more appealing than sticks - and sometimes just as effective. That, at least, is the message that Europe's big telecoms operators have successfully delivered to European policy makers in Brussels. Late last week, Neelie Kroes, EU telecoms commissioner, backed down on her threat to make owners of old-style copper networks - the likes of France Telecom or Telefónica - lower the price at which they grant access to smaller rivals unless investment in high-speed fibre networks is stepped up. Instead, the Dutch politician, who estimates EU broadband investment needs at €270bn, promised regulatory "stability and consistency". True, she plans stricter rules to ensure equal access to networks. But for incumbent telcos, that is like being poked by a twig compared with the big baton of lower access charges.

Deal worth $11.5 million

As of the 30th May, the Optical Cable Corporation acquired Superior Modular Products Incorporated (known in business as SMP Data Communications) in a deal worth $11.5 million. SMP Data Communications is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Optical Cable Corporation. The President and CEO of Optical Cable, Neil Wilkin, said the acquisition would enable the company to expand its product offerings with more complete cabling and connectivity solutions, including fibre optic and copper connectivity. SMP Data Communications manufactures more than 2,000 products including cutting edge Category 6a connectivity solutions which offer a 10 Gig throughput.

Copper

A proposal was made by the European Union (EU) to force telecoms operators to lower their charges to firms who rent their copper networks. Firms that utilise fibre-optic networks would however be exempt from this regulation. The EU believes fibre-optic to be a worthwhile investment that will dramatically improve European infrastructure in the future.

"superconducting fiber"