Fibre ISPs and undersea cables

[Venom Rush]

My ISP uses Seacom for international traffic and I was wondering why an ISP would decide to use Seacom instead of EASSy, WACS or even MainOne for international traffic considering those undersea cables have ~9 times the capacity that Seacom has.

Is there any industry insiders that lurk these forums who can shed some light on this because according to my ISP Seacom is having trouble with capacity because of the introduction of fibre (not only from my ISP but other ISPs as well).

 

[SpiderGear]

I'm guessing it has to do with pricing.

 

[quovadis]

Seacom hasn't even lit their undersea cable's full capacity. Your ISP is being creative with the truth. The cables have different routes and different termination points and different pricing/commercial options. ISPs shop around just as you would based on your specific requirements.

 

[PBCool]

Also Seacom offers an IPTransit service, which makes it far more accessible to smaller players, same as with what WIOCC does on the WACS and Eassy cables. MainOne isn't servicing South Africa as yet. But all the undersea cables aren't being used for their full capacities or even near them.

 

[Looney]

Also Seacom offers an IPTransit service, which makes it far more accessible to smaller players, same as with what WIOCC does on the WACS and Eassy cables. MainOne isn't servicing South Africa as yet. But all the undersea cables aren't being used for their full capacities or even near them.

Is there any specific reason why the undersea cables are not being used at their full capacity?

 

[Valerion]

Is there any specific reason why the undersea cables are not being used at their full capacity?

Sales.

It's expensive i.t.o equipment cost to light up a section of the fibre (number of fibre strands), so the cable operators will only do it once they have fully sold the lit part of the cable, then they light up some of the remaining parts. So if the ISPs don't buy enough capacity, they don't light up the cable to full capacity.

[Edit] This is now 2 years old, but is relevant. https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/128830-seacom-less-than-5-used.html

 

[PBCool]

Is there any specific reason why the undersea cables are not being used at their full capacity?

There hasn't been a need to as yet, with fibre becoming more and more popular there is more demand for capacity, more competition and eventually they start lighting up more.

 

[bigboy529]

https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showth...city-boost-for-SEACOM?p=19693818#post19693818