PEACE Cable: Pakistan's Tenth High Bandwidth Submarine Cable Ready to Go Live

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) cable, a  96 TBPS (terabits per second), 15,000 km long submarine cable, is now ready for service. This brings to 10 the total number of submarine cables currently connecting or planned to connect Pakistan with the world: TransWorld1, Africa1 (2023), 2Africa (2023), AAE1, PEACE,  SeaMeWe3, SeaMeWe4, SeaMeWe5, SeaMeWe6 (2025) and IMEWE. PEACE cable has two landing stations in Pakistan: Karachi and Gwadar. SeaMeWe stands for Southeast Asia Middle East Western Europe, while IMEWE is India Middle East Western Europe and AAE1 Asia Africa Europe 1. 

PEACE Cable. Source: Cybernet

PEACE is a privately owned submarine cable that originates in Karachi, Pakistan and runs underwater all the way to Marseilles, France via multiple points in the continent of Africa.  It is being built as part of the Digital Silk Road sponsored by China. Cybernet is the local landing and global connectivity partner of PEACE Cable System in Pakistan. It is designed to enable high-speed access to a variety of content, cloud computing, gaming and video streaming platforms.  

Map of Submarine Cable Connections to Karachi, Pakistan. Source: Te...

The PEACE Pakistan-Egypt segment connects Karachi, Pakistan and Zafarana, Egypt, spanning a total length of 5,800 km. The landings of Karachi and Zafarana were completed in March and December 2021 respectively, according to a press release of PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd. In addition, the Mediterranean segment of PEACE linking Marseille, France, to Abu Talat, Egypt, a 3,200km long project, has also achieved RFS in March 2022. Therefore, the route from Pakistan to France of the PEACE cable system is now fully constructed and ready for use.

Telecom Services Subscriptions in Pakistan as of June, 2022. Source...

Number of broadband subscribers and demand for data has seen rapid double digit growth in Pakistan over the last several years. Number of broadband subscriptions has grown to 119 million, representing 53.92% of population. Per user data consumption has nearly tripled from 2.1 gigabytes per month in 2017-18 to 6.1 gigabytes per month in 2020-21. As of June 2022, it exceeds 7 GB per subscriber per month. Telecom service providers are responding to it by increasing the capacity of the Internet by laying more and higher bandwidth fiber cables and adding faster speed equipment. Ookla’s data reveals that the median mobile internet connection speed in Pakistan increased by 3.43 Mbps (+26.5%) in the twelve months to the start of 2022.

Per User Data Demand Growth. Source: Pakistan Telecom Authority

Pakistan Per Subscriber Per Month Data Use

Worldwide Mobile Data Use Per Subscriber Per Month. Source: Statista

Cybernet, the landing partner of PEACE in Pakistan, claims it has built the country’s state-of-the-art, Cable Landing Station in Karachi, which will allow global carriers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), content providers and virtually all IT-enabled firms to tap into the submarine cable capacity at easily accessible interconnect points across Pakistan. 

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[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan’s Cybernet taps Nokia to build country’s first 600G commercial network | Lightwave

https://www.lightwaveonline.com/optical-tech/transport/article/1430...


Cybernet, Pakistan’s largest wireline operator, deployed the country’s first DWDM network at 600Gbps per wavelength. Leveraging Nokia's optical equipment, the new optical network connects Cybernet’s main metro sites and provides the enhanced network capacity needed to support growing consumer and enterprise demand for fast, high-quality broadband services.

By further strengthening its global footprint through the establishment of its international points of presence (POPs) in MC-1 in Barka (Oman), MRS-2 in Marseille (France), SmartHub in Fujairah (UAE) and SG1 in Singapore, Cybernet is providing its global peering community members with its advanced IXP platform powered by the Nokia 7750 SR and 7250 IXR routers. Cybernet offers Internet, EVPN and MPLS-based services with rich Quality of Service (QoS) at its international POPs.

Operators are looking to upgrade their optical networks to meet the rising demand for high-speed broadband access and network speeds. Cybernet partnered with Nokia to deploy a future-proof optical network capable of delivering over 600Gbps per lambda. This enhances the capacity and speed of its network to connect main metro sites within the country. Leveraging Nokia’s PSS 1830 optical transport platform, Cybernet can effectively scale its total network capacity to 28 Tbps, serving broadband and enterprise customers across Pakistan.

Cybernet implemented Nokia’s advanced integrated ROADM architecture based on flexgrid technology. Through this deployment, Cybernet can better optimize and extend the reach of its optical network. Additional software management and control functions from Nokia’s WaveSuite service enablement automation software help Cybernet to further increase operational efficiencies. Broadband and enterprise customers can also benefit from low latency, superior quality of services and enhanced customer experience.

“Using Nokia’s innovative in-house PSE-Vs chipset with super-coherent optical engines allows us to connect our main sites while also giving us headroom to grow our capacity efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Maroof Ali Shahani, COO of Cybernet. “Through our partnership with Nokia, we can meet our customers’ increasing demand for the best connectivity services while also enabling them to benefit from the latest innovations within optical technology.”

[Riaz Haq]

China, Pakistan sign agreement to route Internet traffic through Pakistan, generate $400 million revenue


https://www.arabnews.com/node/2450631/pakistan

Dr. Umar Saif made the announcement as he inaugurated the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) in Islamabad on Monday, powered by DE-CIX, an operator of carrier- and data-center-neutral Internet Exchanges, with operations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia.

Saif said Pakistan had achieved four important milestones in collaboration with Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), DE-CIX, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), China Mobile and PEACE Cable, which stands for Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe, a submarine cable project designed to facilitate data transmission between Asia, Europe, and Africa.

“We have reached an agreement for China to start routing their Internet traffic through Pakistan, making Pakistan a regional hub for connectivity,” Saif said.

In a second development, the minister said UAE state-owned telecommunications company Etisalat had set up Pakistan’s first carrier neutral IXP (Internet Exchange Point) and data center to strengthen the reliability of Internet connectivity.

Thirdly, PTCL would work with DE-CIX to run the operations of the new data center, which would enable Pakistan to both bring super-scaling cloud services such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure to Pakistan and provide a local content hub for content services such as YouTube, TikTok and Netflix, according to Saif.

“And last but not the least, Pakistan’s Internet users can now access services locally and Pakistan can become a hub of regional connectivity.”

Explaining the measures, the IT minister said Pakistan was a massive digital market with an Internet user-base larger than the population of Italy. In recent years, the country had made significant strides in advancing fiber connectivity and multiple submarine cables making a landfall in Karachi.

Now, the PTCL data center, managed by a tier-1 data center operator like DE-CIX, would generate “exciting” prospects for localized content hosting from leading platforms like YouTube, Netflix and TikTok.

Content cached and routed from Pakistan could seamlessly reach other markets, positioning Pakistan as the regional digital connectivity hub, Saif said, and generate annual revenues ranging from $200-400 million through transit traffic to substantially add to the economy.

Owned and managed by Etisalat, PTCL is the largest integrated Information Communication Technology (ICT) company of Pakistan and DE-CIX is the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator.

Housed in the PTCL data center in Karachi, the IX is operated by DE-CIX under the DE-CIX as a Service (DaaS) model and built on DE-CIX’s award-winning interconnection infrastructure.

The interconnection platform offers local peering as well as remote access to DE-CIX Frankfurt (Germany).

Zarrar Hasham Khan, Group Chief Business Solutions Officer at PTCL & Ufone 4G, said the company’s nationwide network and DE-CIX’s interconnection infrastructure would serve as a foundation to enhance the Internet experience of customers while facilitating the local hosting of content by international platforms.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX, said as one of the most populous countries in Asia and with Internet usage growing extremely fast, Pakistan needed local interconnection.

“The Pakistan Internet Exchange powered by DE-CIX will prove itself to be key to unlocking the economic potential of excellent Internet connectivity for the country,” he added.

The Pakistan Internet Exchange will be joining such success stories as the UAE-IX, powered by DE-CIX in Dubai, whose growth and success over the last twelve years have led to it being recognized as an important international Internet hub.

[Riaz Haq]

Asad Nasir
@asadnasir2000
The 🇵🇰 PTA has approved granting a license to 🛰️ Starlink, aiming to bring fast 🛜 internet services to the country.

This move is expected to improve digital connectivity nationwide.

https://x.com/asadnasir2000/status/1842166963885543676

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The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is poised to enhance internet connectivity in the country by preparing to grant a license to Starlink, the satellite internet venture led by Elon Musk.

PTA officials report that the decision to issue the license has been finalised, pending only security clearance.

"Starlink's license is ready; we are just awaiting security approval," confirmed PTA representatives.

The rollout of Starlink's high-speed satellite internet service is expected to significantly improve connectivity, particularly in rural and remote regions where conventional broadband options are often limited or slow.

In addition to the license, Starlink will be required to enter a commercial agreement with Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco). This agreement will also need PTA approval.

If all goes according to plan, Starlink is expected to launch its services in Pakistan within the next year, providing residents nationwide with access to reliable and fast satellite internet.

https://dunyanews.tv/en/Technology/841556-pta-to-issue-license-to-s...