Diplomacy, Technology and Finance: ESCAP’S Way Forward to Asia-Pacific

Information Superhighway

Expert Consultation on the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway and Regional Connectivity

Thimphu, Bhutan. October 2, 2014

Abu Saeed KhanSenior Policy Fellow

LIRNEasiaabu@lirneasia.net

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Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

The great Asian broadband divide

Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

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Median IP transit prices per Mbps per month on Q2 2014. Prices exclude local access and installation fees. Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Internet Geography 2014.

Prohibitive wholesale internet bandwidth in Asia

Intra-Asia 10 Gbps median monthly lease prices (US$) excluding local access and installation fees.

Route Q4 2013 Km $/Km

East Asia & China

Hong Kong–Seoul $21,000 2,100 $10.00

Hong Kong–Singapore $21,500 2,588 $8.31

Hong Kong–Taipei $21,000 803 $26.15

Hong Kong–Tokyo $21,000 2,893 $7.26

Singapore–Tokyo $23,250 5,328 $4.36

India

Bangalore-Singapore $132,500 3,174 $41.75

Chennai-Singapore $130,000 3,721 $34.94

Mumbai-Hong Kong $132,500 4,306 $30.77

Mumbai–Singapore $134,500 3,913 $34.37

Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Bandwidth 2014.

Trans-Pacific Bandwidth (Gbps)Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Bandwidth Research, 2014.

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Used Capacity 1,964 3,039 4,882 7,123 10,003

…for Internet 1,518 2,323 3,725 5,322 7,039

…for private networks 438 707 1,148 1,791 2,955

…for voice 9 9 9 9 9

Purchased Capacity 5,681 7,739 9,713 11,995 14,596

Lit Capacity 7,960 10,880 12,700 13,470 19,510

Potential Capacity 26,400 33,360 43,840 48,840 90,160

Lit Share of Potential Capacity 30% 33% 29% 28% 22%

Route Q4 2013 Km $/Km

10 Gbps Wavelengths

Chennai–Los Angeles $135,000 10,069 $13.41

Hong Kong–Los Angeles $36,000 14,434 $2.49

Los Angeles–Singapore $40,000 11,662 $3.43

Los Angeles–Tokyo $19,000 8,804 $2.16

STM-1 Circuits

Beijing-Los Angeles $14,500 9,591 $1.51

Kuala Lumpur-Los Angeles $7,828 14,113 $0.55

Los Angeles-Seoul $5,000 8,814 $0.57

Lit and Potential Europe-Asia via

Egypt Bandwidth (Gbps)

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Lit Capacity 1,765 2,835 3,710 10,910 11,590

Potential Capacity 2,380 6,260 34,200 71,380 115,860

Lit Share of Potential

Capacity 74% 45% 11% 15% 10%

Median 10 Gbps Wavelength Prices, Q4 2013

Roadblocks to affordable Internet

Source: The state of Broadband 2012: Achieving digital inclusion for all. ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission.

Costs of civil works in fiber deployment

France Approximately 80%

United Kingdom Between 70% and 80%

Republic of Korea Between 80% and 90%

European Union Approximately 80%

MENA Approximately 80%

OECD average (2008) Between 50% and 80%

Source: “Harnessing cross-sectoral infrastructure synergies.” ESCAP. August 27, 2014.

Right-of-way (ROW) = ?%

“Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing disruption to drivers.”

Milo Medin, Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc.

April 18, 2011

Conduit of fortune

“Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing disruption to drivers.”

Milo Medin, Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc.

April 18, 2011

Conduit of fortune

Submarine networks = Terrestrial networksLandlocked countries = Coastal countries

Courtesy: Ciena

“Noting that some states were levying hefty RoW charges, equivalent to Rs 1.27 crore (US$ 208,000) per km, DoT has urged states to scrap such practices, failing which NOFN project costs would shoot up and scuttle the Centre's ambitions of delivering affordable broadband services. DoT has reached out to states as there has scarcely been any progress in laying down optic fibre over the past three years.”

Lesson from India: ROW up to $208,000/km.

Meshed and resilient telecoms ROW

Connecting 32 Eurasian countries with EU through 141,000 km of standardized roadways.

Integrated map of highway & railway

Roads are red.

Each country’s share in Asian Highway

Core objectives• Creating a cross-border telecoms consortium of 32

countries being linked through the Asian Highway.– Example: Intelsat (Past) and SEA-ME-WE3/4/5 (Present).

• Using Asian Highway’s right-of-way (ROW) for open-access optical fiber transmission networks.– Highways are preferred ROW for long distance telecoms.

• Each country’s road authorities will own the fiber.– State-ownership and open-access guaranteed. No

payment is required for ROW.

• Only the licensed operators will have access to it.– No regulatory disruption.

Way forward

Internal activities

1. Conduct route survey of Asian Information Superhighway.

2. Design the network. Assess the costs of C&M.

3. AH members endorse the concept of Asian Info Superhighway and approve the C&M Agreement.

4. Finalize C&MA and award the project.

External activities

1. Get engaged with partners (World Bank, ADB, ITU, APT, SATRC, BIMSTEC etc.)

2. Make the long distance telecoms carriers on board.

3. Update the people by effectively disseminating the status of Asian Information Superhighway.