Managing Underutilized Assets: Embarking on a Path of Seeking Out Project-based Opportunities

Chris de Josselin discusses how to manage underutilized submarine cable assets and seek out project-based opportunities.By Chris de Josselin
March 16, 2020

The StrataNet business continues to evolve in line with its strategy plan to become the Global Telecom Infrastructure Company of the future. StrataNet’s strategy of acquiring distressed subsea assets from those carriers streamlining their international business units and wanting to off-load significant levels of capacity is resonating well within the industry.

StrataNet has hit the new year running hard and continues its subsea network expansion, now with over 20 terabits of subsea cable spanning some eight different cable systems on its books. Predominantly, these assets are Asia based and plans are afoot to further build on its network in the Asia Pacific region to capitalize on the significant demand that StrataNet is experiencing for its services on the capacity buy-side. StrataNet is also exploring opportunities beyond Asia in other emerging markets such as Africa, South America and the Caribbean on a similar model.

With today’s hot topics being- AI, IoT, ML, autonomous cars and 5G – we will continue to see insatiable demand for subsea capacity. With more than three billion people – roughly half of the world’s population – in emerging world markets which we are focussed on, there is a high demand for connectivity that can only be delivered through subsea cables. These are the markets of our future.

Our global economy will continue to be brought closer together through advances in technology – technology that can only be delivered through subsea cables. To put things in perspective, $10 trillion of daily transactions takes place across the subsea cables of the world. The e-commerce and finance industries are highly dependent on subsea cables – making them even more critical to a global economy.

Interestingly, across Asia, we know that roughly 50% of the capacity that exists on already deployed cable systems remains unused,  yet we continue to see CAGR exceeding 40% year on year. Whilst the industry continues to build and in some cases over-build, StrataNet sees intrinsic value in the systems already in use, yet underutilized and is focused on extracting value from what already exists.

To continue reading the rest of this article, please read it in Issue 111 of the SubTel Forum Magazine on page 38 or on our archive site here.