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What is a submarine cable? Subsea fiber explained

Our wireless world depends on a few hundred fiber cables laid on the ocean floor

Original article posted at DataCenterDynamics.com
by Dan Swinhoe

August 31, 2021

Though we live in an increasingly wireless world, that connectivity depends on wires under the ocean.

Subsea or submarine cables are fiber optic cables that connect countries across the world via cables laid on the ocean floor. These cables – often thousands of miles in length – are able to transmit huge amounts of data rapidly from one point to another.

What is a submarine cable?

A submarine cable is a fiber optic cable laid in the ocean, connecting two or more landing points.Rarely much wider than a garden hose, today cables generally comprise of the optical fibers that carry the information, which are then covered in silicon gel, then sheathed in varying layers of plastic, steel wiring, copper, and nylon in order to provide insulation to protect the signal and protect the cable from damage from wildlife, anchors & fishing, or weather & other natural events.

The cables are laid using ships that are modified specifically for this purpose, transporting and slowly laying the ‘wet plant’ infrastructure on the seabed. These special ships can carry thousands of kilometers of optical cable out to sea. A special subsea plow is also used to trough and bury submarine cables along the seabed closer to shorelines where naval activities, such as anchoring and fishing, are most prevalent and could damage submarine cables.

“We’ve had submarine cables for over 150 years,” explains Gil Santaliz, founder and CEO of New Jersey cable landing station NJFX, “and they’ve really been a way for communication between countries and continents.”“The most basic application is communicating what’s happening in one part of the world to another, but we’ve morphed that to allow applications to exist in multiple countries at the same time, to enhance the performance of applications, and to find eco-friendly locations where you can run applications with a zero-carbon footprint yet enjoy the application the country where they don’t have that resource.”

Subsea cables; connecting the world for 170 years

Work to demonstrate the potential of subsea cables began in the 1840s, when Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse Code, submerged a wire insulated with tarred hemp and India rubber, in the water of New York Harbor and telegraphed through it in 1842.The first commercial cable was laid in 1850, when the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company laid a telegraph cable between England and France. It was cut weeks later by fishermen thinking it was seaweed.

A successor company, the Submarine Telegraph Company, laid a second cable the next year and more cables linking the British Isles to mainland Europe followed.In 1854 and completed in 1858, the Transatlantic telegraph cable – which ran from Valentia in western Ireland to Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and was the first to traverse the Atlantic – was laid by the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It only functioned for only three weeks before breaking beyond repair.

The first official telegram to pass between two continents – at a rate of a single character every two minutes – was a letter of congratulations from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to President of the United States James Buchanan on August 16. Following progressive signal deterioration, the cable was destroyed after excessive voltage was applied to try and boost the transmission strength. While it was only in operation for a short time, it showed intercontinental communication was possible and a second cable was laid in 1865.The first trans-Pacific cables were completed in 1902 and 1903, linking the US mainland to Hawaii in 1902 and Guam to the Philippines in 1903.The first subsea telephone cable, TAT-1, was laid between 1955 and 1956.

A joint project between the UK Post Office (of which BT was part for a number of years), the American Telephone and Telegraph company (now AT&T), and the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation, it was able to carry 35 simultaneous telephone calls.The eighth transatlantic communications cable, TAT-8, was the first fiber optic subsea cable. Constructed in 1988 by a consortium of companies led by AT&T, France Télécom, and British Telecom, the cable was able to carry 280 Mbits per second. It was retired in 2002.Today there are more than 400 subsea cables in operation.

Some connecting nearby islands can be shorter than 50 miles long. Others, traversing the pacific, can reach more than 10,000 miles in length. Some connect singles points across a body of water, others have multiple landing points connecting multiple countries.Antarctica is the only continent not yet reached by a submarine telecommunications cable, though one is reportedly being considered to improve connectivity for researchers in the region.Cable technology evolves quicklyAfter choosing the desired route…
Read the complete article here.###

About NJFX

NJFX is a Tier 3 Carrier Neutral Cable Landing Station campus. Our colocation ecosystem has expanded to over 35 network operators offering flexibility, reliability, and security. Our Wall, NJ location provides direct access to multiple subsea cable systems giving our carriers diverse connectivity solutions and offers direct interconnection without recurring cross-connect fees.

NJFX Hosts Briefing with Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement Partners on Strengthening Data Centers and Cable Landing Stations

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NJFX Hosts Briefing with Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement Partners on Strengthening Data Centers and Cable Landing Stations

Securing National IT Infrastructure Requires Public/Private Partnership

August 30, 2022

Wall Township, NJ – NJFX, the only Cable Landing Station (CLS) colocation campus in the U.S offering Tier 3, carrier-neutral data center capabilities, has announced a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to protect against and prevent cyber and physical threats in the future.

NJFX Site Access Manager, Mike Reverendo, is in direct and consistent communication with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and CISA to help provide crucial information about U.S. infrastructure. Recently, Reverendo and his team of interns utilized a tool offered by DHS to proactively evaluate NJFX compared to other critical infrastructure throughout the nation. Michael Beekman and Tiffany Antonelli, both in the Criminal Justice Master’s Program at Monmouth University, presented a detailed assessment to officials from local, state and federal government. This briefing assists these agencies with the key tools they need to assess readiness of organizations across the country – for example a process to review a facility’s power, cooling and core functions and how that facility can continue to operate if any or all of these functions fail. The presentation turned into a collaborative discussion with state and local law enforcement about how to proceed and further work together in the future.

“We got some great feedback from this briefing. The simple fact that NJFX was willing to coordinate and cooperate with officials was very much appreciated,” comments Reverendo.

“There are few organizations that work with DHS at federal level, out of a hesitancy that they will open themselves up to regulation, changes to protocol or even be forced to give up control. But this is not a ‘gotcha’ attempt by these agencies. They are looking for assistance and input from those of us in the industry who can help them where they need guidance.”

DHS was created after America was targeted by terrorists as an agency to secure the U.S. from attacks by “land, air or sea”. Today, the Department is also engaged in protecting our country from attacks via cyberspace. The CISA division of DHS works actively to assess threats and vulnerabilities in our nation’s IT infrastructure, whether they are manmade or natural disasters.

One of the goals of CISA is to defend against threats to our infrastructure and to collaborate with public and private partners to build more secure and resilient infrastructure to protect against and prevent cyber and physical threats in the future. To achieve that goal, CISA partners with private organizations like NJFX.

Recent examples of what can happen when that infrastructure is not protected include the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in April, followed by the biggest ransom demand to date – $50M – against Acer computers in May. These attacks made headlines. According to the University of Maryland, hackers attack every 39 seconds. That is an average of 2,244 attacks EVERY DAY. Those are cyber events. An explosion in downtown Nashville last Christmas significantly damaged an AT&T building, causing widespread regional outages.

DHS also helps protect critical infrastructure from natural disasters, like hurricanes. As peak Atlantic hurricane season looms, NJFX is secure 64-feet above sea level and outside the NY/NJ metro area, making it impervious to tidal surge and ideal for disaster recovery. In addition, NJFX is a CAT-5 hurricane resistant infrastructure with onsite generators with fuel for up to five days of uninterrupted emergency service. DHS works with facilities like NJFX to make sure telecommunications infrastructure is up and running in times of emergency, which is crucial for public safety communications.

“We value our relationships with these agencies, and we know it’s through close collaboration with all types of organizations that they can ultimately stay one step ahead of those who want to do harm,” concludes Reverendo. Expect the unexpected is a motto that the NJFX was founded upon, and the facility continues to operate with that in mind today.

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About NJFX:

NJFX is a Tier 3 Carrier Neutral Cable Landing Station campus. Our colocation ecosystem has expanded to over 35 network operators offering flexibility, reliability, and security. Our Wall, NJ location provides direct access to multiple subsea cable systems giving our carriers diverse connectivity solutions and offers direct interconnection without recurring cross-connect fees.

NJFX Announces Appointment of Gabe Pannella to Vice President of Business Development

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September 24, Wall Twp., NJ – NJFX, the only Cable Landing Station (CLS) colocation campus in the U.S offering Tier 3, carrier-neutral data center capabilities, welcomes Gabe Pannella as Vice President of Business Development. In this position, Pannella will build upon the success of NJFX’s robust ecosystem of 25 carriers and four subsea cable systems to develop relationships with enterprise businesses.

Pannella first played a leadership role during his tenure at Metromedia Fiber Networks in the late ‘90s. He then joined Abovenet after the company reorganized, and he spent more than a decade bringing his expertise and knowledge about network architecture to executives at dozens of the country’s top 100 financial institutions. Pannella’s strong business development background with top names in the connectivity industry including Lightower, Zayo, Zenfi Networks, and data center industry expertise with companies such as Digital Realty, Cyxtera, and CoreSite that make him the ideal candidate.

“Gabe brings a wealth of experience and will further our goal of servicing the enterprise market. NJFX creates a level of transparency by educating the enterprise market on carrier network architecture and illustrates why it’s crucial to have reliable, resilient, and redundant routes for their business,” comments Gil Santaliz, Founder and CEO of NJFX. “NJFX enables dark fiber network access on subsea cables. Customers can create and maintain their own private optical networks bypassing carrier hotels and eliminating unnecessary points of failure.”

NJFX not only has colocation services; its large and diverse ecosystem offers customers access to a wide variety of domestic, international carriers and internet exchanges.

“I am looking forward to bringing the story of this vibrant and trusted NJFX ecosystem to prospective enterprise customers,” states Pannella. “As more and more businesses realize the importance of well-architected networks, they will require access to multiple routes to serve their customers.”

Over the last 25 years, Pannella has played roles that range from interconnection to data center colocation, thus providing a thorough understanding of how both industries operate. During Hurricane Sandy, Pannella played an essential role with his mission-critical customers to maintain available connectivity options in the New York metro area.

The pandemic has highlighted the growing significance of residential IP networks as no longer for entertainment purposes only. NJFX has taken the lead in making those networks available today bypassing the public internet. The surge in digital services usage places tremendous pressure on the internet to further handle the rise in traffic volumes and shifting patterns of demand that can potentially affect the end-user experience.

Pannella will be joining the NJFX team at International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2021, taking place August 29th through September 1st at National Harbor, MD along with an available virtual option. Register now to sit in on the Subsea Connect Panel, on which Gil Santaliz will share his expertise.

For more information, visit www.njfx.net.

About NJFX
NJFX owns and operates a 64,800 square foot purpose-built Tier 3 Cable Landing Station (CLS) Colocation facility and campus in Wall, NJ. The unique facility operationally supports high and low-density colocation solutions with 24/7 support. It is the only carrier-neutral CLS colocation campus in the U.S supported by several route-independent carriers that offer direct access to multiple independent subsea cable systems interconnecting North America, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. The facility offers direct access to the Havfrue/AEC2, Seabras, TGN1 & TGN2 subsea cable systems.

For NJFX media inquiries, please contact: media@njfx.net

NJFX Announces Appointment of Gabe Pannella to Vice President of Business Development Read More »

Spotlight on PCCW Global: Console Connect’s IXaaS Now Available at NJFX CLS

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Spotlight on PCCW Global: Console Connect’s IXaaS Now Available at NJFX CLS

Enables new levels of flexibility and agility with remote peering

August 16, 2022

Long time NJFX partner, PCCW Global continues to drive value and increased capabilities to the NJFX ecosystem and beyond. After launching its Console Connect platform at NJFX last year, which enabled global on-demand connectivity, PCCW Global is now offering its new IX-as-a-Service (IXaaS) to global carriers and enterprises through Console Connect.

This new capability is available to customers at NJFX’s CLS colocation campus and offers access to leading IX platforms including DE-CIX, LINX, HKIX, SGIX, KINX and JPNAP. IXaaS offers easy, fast and flexible ways to order, provision and pay for IX services from some of the world’s largest Internet Exchanges (IXs).

“There are no limits to what NJFX customers and partners can do, and that dynamic is exemplified by Console Connect’s new IXaaS. Through the company’s unique MeetingPlace, users can connect, buy, and sell a variety of services including cloud, SaaS, UCaaS and IoT. This creates tremendous optionality and further enhances our unique CLS ecosystem by meeting increased demand for rapid provisioning of on-demand, superior interconnection services.” – Felix Seda, General Manager of NJFX

IXaaS: Real-time, on-demand access to IXs worldwide

Directly order IX services and pay for connections to leading IX platforms in real-time
Experience high-performance remote peering with multiple exchanges across the world
Manage IX services and connections through a user-friendly web portal
Self-provision and pay for IX services and virtual connections in a few clicks
Multiple virtual connections can be provisioned via a single port
Directly interconnect with major cloud, SaaS and NaaS platforms including AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Cloudflare, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, RingCentral and more.

“We are excited to be introducing NJFX customers to our new IXaaS, transforming how they experience and access Internet Exchanges worldwide. What differentiates our remote peering solution is that it includes the dedicated layer 2 interconnection and the cost of the Partner Peering platform, enabling NJFX customers to seamlessly manage both their IX services and their connectivity from wherever they are located. And, of course, interconnections are on-demand and delivered across PCCW Global’s high-performance network.” – Michael Glynn, Vice President of Digital Automated Innovation, Console Connect

NJFX’s carrier-neutral CLS is THE place for your global connectivity needs. With four subsea cable systems and over 20 carriers, you have direct access to highly robust and resilient networking options – all in one place.

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About NJFX:

The Rise of 5G Continues to Drive the Proliferation of Subsea Cables

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The Rise of 5G Continues to Drive the Proliferation of Subsea Cables

Original Article posted at DigitalInfraNetwork.com
by Mark Venables

August 10, 2022

Since the first cable landing station began operating almost 150 years ago, they have grown to become a vital element of the digital infrastructure that drives much of the industrial and social communications. According to the last data available from Submarine Cable Map, there are about 400 submarine cables around the world, that is a volume of more than 1.2 million km of submarine cables. These submarine fiber-optic cables are irreplaceable: they are more efficient than satellite connections, as it is estimated that a cable has a transferring capacity of almost three thousand satellites.

One company heavily involved in this business is New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX). A big difference in what NJFX can offer is that they are carrier-neutral, meaning they do not own and operate the cable. Instead, they support the system’s operators, independent of the economic relationship, and help them manage the capacity and equipment to make sure it is always running.

The New Jersey facility that the company uses is impressive. Even though it appears to be one building, it is considered two buildings internally by code so that the generator room can support nine MWs of power. There is the support space for all the electricity coming into the building, the main distribution rooms, power distribution rooms, and DC plants. Then there is something called whitespace, which is essentially what is usable in the building. The company’s whitespace is designed for 1100 rack equivalents and 4.4 MW worth of IT. There is also a rise of enterprise customers coming from US banks and hospitals who are now tenants in the building because they want to be as close to those cables as possible and access the providers that come to the stations. “Verizon is a customer of ours, and they are there to pick up their international capacity and send it back and forth,” Gil Santaliz, CEO of NJFX, says. “My customers would work with Verizon in the building to get access to their core network nodes, and that’s where the action is in Telecom because that is how you connect countries.”

Powering the cable

The power that it takes to run the cables can vary depending on the cable’s distance. For a transatlantic system, the power feed will usually be between 50-60 KW, depending on how many paths of fibre there are. The way these cables are designed, they can power from either side of the ocean. There is no boost station required, the cables have repeaters on them which boost the signal across the ocean.

The company places a lot of emphasis on security in terms of access to those cables, this is due to the global economy’s financial implications for their operation and their privacy. The cable landing station that the company uses has many security provisions such as mantrap access controls, ballistic three lobbies and an advanced ticketing system for visitors who are coming to the building. Making sure that the security works has become as important as the security itself, as companies want to make sure that no one can get anywhere close to accessing vital fibres.

“On our campus, we have four subsea cables,” Santaliz continues. “This includes the original Tata TGN one and two that connect the UK to the US, the C Bras cable, which Telecom owns, and most recently, the half route cable that went live, this goes from NJFX in New Jersey to Denmark, Ireland and Norway.”

Challenges ahead

For landing station operators, there are some big challenges. While security may be a major issue, ensuring the correct maintenance of power and cooling is vital. If they cannot be properly maintained, the equipment will not work, and the cable will fail. “We provide Smart Hands, which is technical expertise on how to support cables, DW/DM or SLT equipment,” Santaliz continues. “We have a highly technical team that can support operating the subsea cables, which has been especially important during COVID because of restricted travel. Our team did a lot of the work where traditionally, they might have hired the third party to come and do it.”

The company was chosen by Bulk Infrastructure as the US on-ramp location for the Nordic Gateway, an on-ramp solution accessing fibre networks that unlocks the sustainable Nordic region’s natural resources which stretches 7,200 kilometres from New Jersey to Denmark and Norway. “We recognise NJFX as a model for an evolved cable landing station, with both direct access to subsea systems and data centre capabilities at the landing point,” Peder Naerboe, owner and chairman of Bulk Infrastructure AS,” Santaliz continues. “We believe The Nordic Gateway unlocks one of the few genuinely sustainable solutions in the data centre industry today. With this solution, the industry can utilise 100 per cent pure emissions-free hydropower from the Nordic countries.”

Coping with COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has also presented great difficulty for NJFX. Despite travel being highly restricted, having technicians work from home was not an option. The company worked alongside the local government to make sure that the vaccination of employees was prioritised. They also went through a protocol process to keep people separate in the facility and enforced a do not touch policy with cards indoors. “We did pretty well because we could help our customers, and we never took a hiccup in terms of staffing the facility,” Santaliz says. “The other one was, post the capital event, there were lots of threats on New York City once again, and the fact that we have a fenced-in perimeter, and in a rural area, gives us much better protection for those unfortunate man-made threats that are still out there.”

Despite these difficulties, the market for cables is expected to continue growing over the next few years, especially with the rapid spread of 5g. “There are two main parts of cables, the arteries and the capillarity,” Santaliz explains. “The arteries are the subsea networks, and the capillarity is what we are starting to see now with the proliferation of 5g. That capillarity will grow the artery requirement, and the more touchpoints we have between countries will make those arteries larger.”

This growth can be best exemplified by the increase of projects in countries that were never included before. “Africa has got an incredible boom going on right now when it comes to the number of connectivity projects in Africa,” Santaliz concludes. “South America is getting lots of projects that they never had before, the total number of cables between the US and Brazil five years ago was less than six cables, and there will be at least 12 in the next two years. Each cable has ten times more capacity than the ones before, so they are going to start retiring the older cables because they are just not economically viable.”

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About NJFX:

NJFX Founder and CEO Gil Santaliz Speaks at Subsea World Panel

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NJFX Founder and CEO Gil Santaliz Speaks at Subsea World Panel

The future of the subsea industry was a main topic of Subsea World 2021. The week-long virtual conferences focused on highlighting upcoming trends in the next year, as well as how rapidly transforming technology and connectivity is affecting the industry.

August 3, 2021

One highlight of the event was a panel discussion titled “Americas Spotlight”. Moderated by Andrew Lipman, the panelists included Gil Santaliz, Founder & CEO, NJFX, Andy Bax, COO, Seaborn, Buddy Bayer, Chief Network Officer, Windstream, Mike Cunningham, CEO, Crosslake Fiber, and Paul Scott, President and CEO, Confluence Networks.

With the Covid-19 pandemic greatly accelerating the need for more deployments of cables in new areas, the discussion of specific geographic locations and the reasoning behind them quickly became the topic of discussion. “Way back when we started, we picked this region because we saw it as one with a huge development opportunity, huge growth capabilities, underserved in terms of both capacity and competition,” commented Bax, speaking of connectivity between LATAM and the U.S.

“We have critical mass now in terms of carriers that are here, economies of scale. When we do this all of my customers benefit, they all benefit from being in a better, more secure place, and getting the latest and greatest of what we do best. If I start expanding beyond what I do best, I’m not going to be as good as what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s just housing the network, interconnecting, providing them smart hands for their equipment to lower their costs, provide marine protection services, and do what you do best. That’s what we believe in.”

Gil Santaliz, Founder and CEO, NJFX

“I think more cables need to land across the US, but New Jersey has been home to cables for 100 years. It’s a proven area, we’ve got density of population, we’ve got a thriving business community, we have financial exchanges, we can’t afford a lack of interconnection,” stated Santaliz.

Another important topic of discussion was Confluence-1, a 24 fiber pair submarine cable along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Paul Scott, President and CEO of Confluence Networks explained that his reasoning for deploying the new cable system was due to the need to enhance connectivity while still balancing latency and high performance. This cable is providing more secure linkages through existing terrestrial routes from Miami to New York.

While the other panelists agreed on focusing on their own expertise, they acknowledged that the pandemic is acting as a catalyst for digital transformation, forcing many to work together to discover solutions that can help best aid their customers.

Santaliz concluded by stating, “We happen to be sitting in probably one of the hottest markets ever for telecommunications, in terms of investments…it’s a fascinating time.”

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About NJFX:

Global Connectivity Reimagined: ITW Subsea Stream

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Global Connectivity Reimagined: ITW Subsea Stream

July 26, 2021

It goes without saying that we are all ready to get back into telecom event season! ITW2021 is one of the first in-person industry events of the year and is looking forward to welcoming attendees back at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD (near Washington, DC) August 29 – September 1, 2021. New for this year, the ITW agenda will be split into eight different streams, bringing participants a complete overview of the ever-changing and evolving ICT infrastructure and its latest developments.

As founder of the first carrier-neutral Tier 3 Cable Landing Station colocation campus in the U.S, NJFX CEO Gil Santaliz is uniquely qualified to weigh in on the special Subsea Connect stream. NJFX is home to four subsea cable systems including Havfrue/AEC2, Seabras, TGN1 & TGN2 subsea cable systems, along with 20+ route-independent terrestrial carriers. NJFX’s facility operationally supports high and low-density colocation solutions with 24/7 support.

Santaliz is excited to participate on the ‘Global Subsea Trends’ panel to be held at 10am ET on September 1st and moderated by respected industry journalist, Natalie Bannerman. Gil will join others in the subsea community to discuss the latest developments. The subsea community across the globe was vital to #KeepingTheWorldConnected this past year. With a number of new and exciting projects in the pipeline as well as ongoing innovation in the subsea sector, 2021 is set to be an equally exciting time. From new projects, emerging regions, the shift from interconnected cities to interconnected data centers, the push for more diversity, and more, the ITW subsea streams will tackle the trends driving the industry for the year ahead.

There will also be a virtual Subsea Networking Hour where participants will have the opportunity to make new connections in the subsea community. To take advantage of this opportunity, register for ITW2021, join the session, share who you are and what you’re looking to discuss.

Be sure to register to attend ITW2021 HERE.

To meet with the NJFX team at the event or to set up a virtual meeting, please contact info@njfx.net. Check out NJFX’s Tier 3 transcontinental ecosystem map HERE.

Happy connecting!

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About NJFX:

NJFX Plays Role in Global Connectivity Awareness as Member of the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union

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NJFX Plays Role in Global Connectivity Awareness as Member of the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union

July 19, 2021

Always focused on expanding horizons and learning how to best serve our industry, NJFX is proud to become a new member of the International Telecommunications Union Development sector (ITU-D). As an advocate for the important role the telecommunications industry and private sector play in the work of information and communication technology (ICT), NJFX Founder and CEO Gil Santaliz was asked to speak at the organization’s Industry Advisory Group for Development Issues and the Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers (IAGDI-CRO) meeting which took place virtually on June 22, 2021.

The IAGDI-CRO brings together policymakers, ICT Regulators, private sector entities, academia, and the international community, along with thought leaders from across the industry. The esteemed group met to discuss policy, regulatory and market approaches and incentives to foster investment and business opportunities for meaningful connectivity across the globe.

During this meeting, members of the IAGDI-CRO discussed the importance of having flexible regulation and explored ways that industry and regulators could work together to build a robust, reliable, and resilient digital ecosystem while emphasizing the importance of partnerships that extend to non-traditional stakeholders.

Collaboration is (Still) the Name of the Game

The ITU-D panel also focused on the group’s Connecting the Unconnected initiative, which aims to work with governments to bring internet access to 75% of the global population by 2025. The initiative also aims to achieve universal, affordable access by 2030. In order to make meaningful connectivity a reality, everyone needs access to higher quality broadband.

As Gil noted, collaboration between the telecom industry and local governments is key. He added that it’s important to look at how the private sector communicates as well as examine the infrastructure behind it. “The ITU-D initiative clearly relies on physical infrastructure. The infrastructure needs to have support and needs to have a fair marketplace to work within it, which the regulators in each country have to manage. The initiative also has to allow private dollars to be predictable in terms of how they extend their costs,” Santaliz added. “As we look at this $480B spend left for Connecting the Unconnected initiative, we need to have some sort of expectation of how those investment dollars will be treated. Regulations are expected and necessary. They should also be consistent and fairly static. What puts investment at risk is sudden and unexpected policy changes that are done unilaterally. The ITU provides a platform for that conversation to begin. Regulators play an important role in creating barriers or guardrails and how to work in a marketplace in a predictable manner.”

Pioneering Spirit

The panelists underscored the importance of the work at ITU-D as a critical platform for discussing collaborative approaches to bridging the digital divide.

As Gil noted, “We are truly pioneers. The rate of change that we have seen in the last 20 years, has exceeded the last 50-100 years. And the expectation for the next five years is that we will exceed the last 20 years. So, all in all, the rate of change will be extreme and it’s important for all of us to pay attention and try to carve out the future, as best we can.”

But how do organizations develop the relationships that are needed to map out a predictable business and get a good return for the investors and stakeholders? Gil believes that will come in time by having sessions like the one at ITU-D and having a strong focus on sharing and collaborating challenges. He believes that “We must all learn and further understand why certain markets make sense to invest in and what the barriers are that are left. The U.S., for instance, has a very open marketplace in terms of allowing international carriers to thrive. At NJFX’s facility, we host several subsea cables and are the interconnection point for the northeast in North America. NJFX takes the time to socialize with all of our customers, which we consider part of our network and family.”

The panelists also discussed other post-pandemic perspectives about promoting broadband adoption including:

How to best finance infrastructure buildouts
Continuing to work with governments and other partners to help stimulate the demand side of the equation
Digital skills development for underserved communities
Making locally relevant content and services available online
Providing more access to devices and virtual learning
And the need for reform in many regions to expand broadband networks and programs that would dedicate spectrum proceeds to low-income subsidy programs

The NJFX team looks forward to being a part of the conversation going forward and helping us all get to a better place, more connected place.

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About NJFX:

Pandemic Proves Connectivity is Mission Critical

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Pandemic Proves Connectivity is Mission Critical

NJFX’s Diverse Ecosystem Offers Disaster Recovery & Network Resiliency

July 12, 2021

Downtime can translate into substantial losses for enterprises – making disaster recovery plans critical for business continuity. The topic was the focus of this month’s JSA Virtual Round Table featuring a panel of experts as they discussed how to respond in times of crisis, and how to be sure organizations are prepared for any eventuality.

Moderated by João Marques Lima, speakers included Gil Santaliz, CEO, NJFX, Paul Scott, CEO, Confluence Networks, Ishaq Mian, VP, Sales & Support Engineering, Redline Communications, Warren Reyburn, SVP Sales & Marketing, Comstar Technologies, and Sean Farney, Director of Data Center Marketing, Kohler.

As Santaliz highlighted, the internet is our go to place for news and information. During the past year, it also enabled an entirely homebound society. Our internet infrastructure must be able to withstand any eventuality.

“If you think about disasters, and we are still in a disaster, we have employees that aren’t in office buildings today, we are asking traders to trade from home. There was never a game plan for this. We have to have data centers repurpose their data and access the internet. The internet became mission critical. We would not even be having this conversion if it wasn’t for the quality of the internet today,” commented Santaliz.

Consider the issues that have affected connectivity this year alone: below-freezing temperatures, ice storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, the bombing of a major metro area and a global pandemic.

Paul Scott of Confluence Networks pointed out that what might appear to be resilient, multipath environments is not necessarily the case. “It’s one thing to have 4-5 multiple paths to your data center, but to move on-premise and spin up virtual servers, you have to feel good about your core network architecture. When it fails you need your disaster recovery plans and they need to be vetted and tested. That includes cycling generators and working with the teams to test and tighten up action plans,” he added.

Santaliz concluded by stating, “The internet is how we are going to be communicating for the foreseeable future. We have to make sure as leaders in the industry, this works. It’s a collaborative effort – integrating your customers, vendors and partners with checks and balances in place.”

Watch the panel in its entirety here. To learn more about JSA Virtual Round Tables, click here. And learn more about NJFX here.

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About NJFX:

Dismantling Barriers & Accelerating Equity & Opportunity

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Dismantling Barriers & Accelerating Equity & Opportunity

June 26, 2021

Organizations globally have been investing in corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives, and recently PTC held a tech and telecom event to take a closer look. As a member of the PTC Membership Committee, our very own Felix Seda joined the panel, “Dismantling Barriers and Accelerating Equity and Opportunity” along with other industry leaders including:

Moderator: Tara Giunta, Partner, Paul Hastings; Legal Counsel, PTC, USA

Panelists:

Tara Kristick, Head of Wholesale & Satellite Sales, Americas, Telstra, USA
Sonal Patel, Vice President of Marketing, Verizon Partner Solutions, USA
Nico Roehrich, Manager Network Investment, APAC, Facebook, Singapore
Felix Seda, General Manager, NJFX, USA

The panelists discussed corporate commitments and their company’s efforts to embrace various strategies and approaches for addressing challenges, as well as how best to leverage opportunities to build truly diverse workforces and inclusive cultures.

What does Diversity mean for your company?

Tara Giunta answered this question by emphasizing that diversity is a representation of the world around us. It’s not just ticking a box and there is no one size fits all. Diversity is more than we see on the surface, for it to become alive, there needs to be a culture to support it and a management team that adheres to it and tracks it across the company.Other perspectives included:

Diversity and inclusion have been an ongoing evolution and journey over time.
Having a measurement system in place helps record progress and move the needle.
A common challenge is still how best to integrate diversity of thought into the realm.

Seda believes, ”Diversity is about fostering innovation and empowering new ideas and fresh thought into the workplace. NJFX is focused on cultivating and empowering young people with diverse backgrounds and allowing that next wave of people to take on more leadership roles.”The Moderator, Giunta also focused on the need for innovation in tech, and how telecom is key to the progress and further development of the industry.When asked about those expectations and how NJFX tries to address them, Seda responded:

“The world is changing quickly – we need to keep up with all the millennials, Gen Z’ers, and young people entering the workforce. Flexibility these days is just as important as salary and benefits. Now, flexibility is the name of the game. I’ve been fortunate that NJFX has allowed me to find my own voice, speak at conferences and forge my own path.For example, I was able to attend PTC over the past few years and engage with other thought leaders in the industry.

I began to see that there are a lot of young people in the industry, and many haven’t gotten the chance to go to major conferences to engage directly with industry executives, build up their knowledge base and forge industry relationships that can last a lifetime. The only way they can grow in the industry- and STAY in the industry is for companies to allow that to happen.

Diversity isn’t just about attracting talent, but fostering and keeping that talent in the workplace – keeping them engaged and allowing them to grow and become vocal leaders.”NJFX has backed up that philosophy by encouraging its team to get involved and help make a difference. Felix helped launch a Millennials in Telecom event at PTC2020. The group had a huge response from people who wanted a social setting to talk with others in the industry.

Felix noted, “We also had a lot of veterans in the industry who wanted to mentor and share their thoughts. The event was a balance of young people and veterans who wanted to bring this younger generation along. Diversity is also about fostering innovation – empowering new ideas and fresh thought into the workplace.”Seda is also part of SubOptic’s Diversity, Inclusions and Belonging mentoring program. One of the group’s goals is to establish new ways of cultivating young talent in the industry and allowing them to grow and become leaders in their respective fields.

There is clearly a bright future ahead for our industry and ample opportunities for young people to plug in, learn, build key relationships, and launch what could be a very rewarding and long-lasting career.On behalf of NJFX, Cheers and Good Luck!

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