.. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
srs
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=61366
Flag, VSNL spar over bandwidth
Posted online: Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 0046 hours IST
MUMBAI, DECEMBER 22: TATA group company VSNL, one of the original
investors in the Flag Cable Systems in 1995-1996, has been
accused by Flag Telecom Ltd, a Reliance company, of artificially
restricting access on Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable and preventing
the ability to respond to market demand.
as another article points out, they're invoking WTO GATS provisions on this -
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/968127.cms
VSNL violates WTO norms
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2004 07:38:18 PM]
MUMBAI: VSNL has been accused of restricting access on Reliance
group-owned FLAG Europe Asia cable, which is in direct violation
of WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
and then, REACH, seconded by VSNL, stirs the pot a bit more ..
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1159772,0003.htm
FLAG partner calls for meet on cable upgrade
Press Trust of India
Mumbai, December 19, 2004|16:45 IST
[...]
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly?
What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year? 
adrian
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be
used very very quickly?
What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year? 
There is also the costs of the backhaul and local loops
in India which isn't cheap either.
>
> .. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly?
God knows there's enough demand for it. Only, bandwidth prices are
artificially inflated because of this shortage, and this would make
prices drop SHARPLY
What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year?
FALCON (another FLAG cable) and SEA-ME-WE4 are both coming into India
by mid to end 2005, as are a few smaller cables to places like
Singapore
--srs
>
> >
> > .. and meanwhile, the best part of 32 STM-1s worth of fiber is lying dark ...
>
> If they lit /all/ of the fibre, don't you think it'll all be used very very quickly?
God knows there's enough demand for it. Only, bandwidth prices are
artificially inflated because of this shortage, and this would make
prices drop SHARPLY
I know what its like. I'm in /Australia/. Trying to get bandwidth into
Australia up until about two years ago was /really damned difficult/.
Heck, trying to get bandwidth between cities was sometimes more expensive
than bandwidth out of Australia.
> What will they do then? Lay more fibre next year?
>
FALCON (another FLAG cable) and SEA-ME-WE4 are both coming into India
by mid to end 2005, as are a few smaller cables to places like
Singapore
But, like all other things, this timeline isn't fixed, hard in stone.
What if they miss their timeline? What if there's teething problems?
What if one of the existing fibres suddenly decides to not work?
Its a crappy position to be in, I completely agree. But I think you should
consider how much time, effort and money it takes to lay /new/ cable.
Its eas(ier) to just light up a new pair when the demand is there.
Capacity planning isn't easy when it takes a lot of said
time, effort and money to lay new cable.
Adrian
So what you're suggesting is to just let them squabble over existing
bandwidth and run a whole lot of new cables?
Yes that's being done .. but let's remember that VSNL and Reliance,
the two main parties in this bunfight, took over two companies that
had billions of dollars worth of cable lying all over the ocean floor
.. for a few hundred million dollars apiece.
And there's the little matter of an agreement that VSNL, back in the
years when it was the incumbent monopoly ISP + international telco in
India, got hold of monopoly reseller rights from FLAG on their current
cable to india - which lands at VSNL's landing stations in Bombay and
Cochin.
Finding a way to get this unused bandwidth disgorged would be excellent ..