When an executive from a leading Australian ISP threatens to ‘cut you off at the knees’ one can’t help but think theres something pretty serious going down. What’s more the threat came across as if the person was drunk, nice!

“I think their term was that they threatened to ‘cut us off at the knees’ and ‘make us their special project’. So it was a pretty interesting phone call,” Mr Slattery said. “I think he was drunk.”

Confused? OK, if you’re not up-to-date with the scenario it goes a little something like this….. PIPE Networks, who is Australia’s largest peering provider, has embarked on a project which consists on rolling out a 9000km submarine fibre-optic data link from Australia to Guam (U.S.). After this is in place and switched on, sometime in August 2009, it is believed that it should go a long way in making Broadband prices/usage limits more competitive and thus apply a little more pressure on the current duopoly of Telstra and Optus. Starting to get the picture?

You see, both Telstra and Optus, who are big players in the ISP market, also own huge shares in other cable links that deliver data in and out of Australia. Telstra have a 47% share in the Australian Japan Cable while Optus has a 40% stake in Southern Cross Cable. So up until now, these two Telecommunication providers have basically been able to control the price of broadband and data usage limits to a degree.

It’s believed that the new PIPE Networks undersea cable will significantly reduce the cost of International bandwidth and force further competition within the Australian Broadband Industry. PIPE Network chief executive Bevan Slattery, who led the revival of the project from the clutches of the Q4 2008 financial crisis, said the journey had been ‘arduous’, while iiNet’s managing director Michael Malone indicated that his company is seeking to pass on the cost saving to the consumer by increasing bandwidth limits which could be anywhere up to 15%. iiNet are one of two other  ISPs, namely Primus and Internode, who have invested in the submarine cable project.

If what Mr Slattery said about the threat is true, in my opinion it’s pretty bloody bad form by a leading Telecommunication provider to carry on like this and threaten PIPE Networks …This might be the nature of business, but I’m sure that most Australian broadband consumers out there would agree with me on that one. I just hope that iiNet and co deliver on their expectations and pass on the value to the consumer once the project is operational. Good luck PIPE!

Joining the spate of recent submarine cable projects is Telstra. The Telco giant has announced that it’s embarking on a 9120km fibre cable deployment from Australia to Hawaii with the commencement of the project scheduled for this coming Thursday. 

Stretching from Sydney’s Tamarama Beach across the Pacific to Hawaii, Telstra says the new Telecommunications Cable will alleviate the ever growing bottlnecks between Australia and the United States. The new link is slated to carry 1.28Terabits (1.280 Gigabits) of data per second, however Telstra adds that it’s not expected to create faster or cheaper Broadband Internet services as a result.

Kate McKenzie from Telstra wholesale said the new Australia-US connection would not lead to increased broadband speeds, or to a fall in prices.

The cable project was aimed at increasing bandwidth not speed she said, adding it would be “unrealistic” to think that, after the expenditure required to lay the cable, broadband prices would be lower.

Source: news.com.au article

Australian Broadband ISP enthusiast’s favorite ‘Internode’ have announced another International Cable Internet deal, this time with Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN). This latest agreement should significantly bolster Internode’s Broadband Services capacity to a level that may rival Australia’s other two major Telco’s ‘Telstra’ and ‘Optus’.

The 5 year deal with SCCN comes off the back of another recent cable deal struck with Pipe Networks (PPC-1) that’s expected to commence early next year. Internode’s Managing Director ‘Simon Hackett’ stated that Internode customers will reep benefits later on this year as new Broadband capacity will improve their ‘bang for buck’ download value.

“We expect that the deployment of this new Southern Cross capacity will allow us to improve our download ‘bang for buck’ later in 2008,”

“The price of broadband has been held rather high by Telstra and Optus, so having Internode in the picture adds a competitive element,”

“Long term contracts like the one between Internode and SCCN gets everyone nervous and creates a better environment for Internode to sign better deals.”

Read the entire article at ITNews.com.au

As expected, Pipe Networks have announced the go ahead of their $200 million submarine Internet cable project (PPC-1) which is due to open in June 2009. Federal Communications Minister ‘Stephen Conroy’ suggested that the new undersea cable would also open up the Broadband market and not only reduce costs, but moreover, increase Broadband speeds.

PPC-1 aka ‘Project Runway’ will rival Telstra and Optus Internet pipelines with Pipe Networks Executive Director ‘Lloyd Ernst’ referring to the scenario as a ‘Qantas’ v ‘Tiger’ type situation that could invoke a Broadband price war in the near future. Some of Australia’s leading Internet Services Providers such as iiNet, Internode & Primus are among those already signed up on PPC-1.

News of the Project Runway’s announcement is right up there with that of a new National FTTN Broadband network. This should give our current ailing and expensive Broadband Industry a right old shakeup with consumers the ones to benefit.  

At today’s launch in Melbourne, Senator Conroy said the new cable “fit very neatly” with government plans for a super fast fibre optic broadband network, by increasing the broadband carrying capacity from overseas.

It is due to open in June next year and Pipe Network executive director Lloyd Ernst today said PPC-1 was undercutting its competitors’ prices by 50 per cent.

Mr Ernst likened his company to budget airline Tiger Airways, saying he hoped to “disrupt” the broadband market and drive more competition.

Read the entire article at News.com.au

Pipe Networks has temporarily ceased trading on shares as an announcement on the go ahead of a Fibre Cable Link to Guam is expected to be made shortly.

‘Project Runway’, which will witness a submarine cable run from Sydney to Guam, has been earmarked to provide more competition to the likes of Telstra and Optus and break the current duopoly of cable links that connect International data transmissions to Australia. Speculation on the completion of Project Runway suggests that customers may start connecting to the new cable link as early as Q1 2009.

“Pipe Networks announced in December that it would shortly have enough customers signed to go ahead with the proposed PPC-1 (Pip Pacific Cable) 1) project, which it says will give Telstra and Optus a much-needed competition for international data traffic.”

Read the entire article at MISAustralia.com

Pipe Networks (Australia’s largest Internet Exchange) appears to be somewhat on track for a proposed submarine Cable link to Guam (U.S.), although progress has been subdued. Negotiations are still currently underway with many International parties in order to bring project ‘Runway’ into reality however the process might be significantly more complicated than first thought. Pipe’s quest to break the current duopoly on Internet Cable linkages in and out of Australia would be a welcome relief to Australian Internet subscribers. If the project was to go ahead, a third Cable link could witness data prices being reduced substantially by Q1 2009.

The company says it “continues to be actively engaged in negotiations…of contracts with domestic and international parties” and that until all such agreements are finalized it will not proceed with the project

Pipe announced in August that if Roject Runway were to go ahead, Tyco Telecommunications would build ad lay the cable system and had committed to a ready for service date of end of Q4 2008.

Read the entire article at ITWire.com