INDIAN OCEAN REGION

9.6.1 CURRENT SYSTEMS

The Indian Ocean region has been on a steady path of development since the boom following the submarine cable industry downturn in the early 2000’s. It has enjoyed mostly consistent growth since 2003 despite its small size, due to it being an important crossroads region between the busier EMEA and AustralAsia regions. The region has experienced periods of rapid development, followed by a brief period of dormancy. The years of growth have been driven by trans-regional systems such as SEA-ME-WE 3, 4 and 5, FLAG, Falcon, and AAE-1 to name a few. This has resulted in three distinct development spikes in 2006-2007, 2009, and 2015-2017. (Figure 94) Local development is largely small systems linking India east to Indonesia or west to the Middle East and beyond, providing new connections for the countries that ring the Indian Ocean.

9.6.2 FUTURE SYSTEMS

With three new systems added in 2017, none in 2018, two in 2019, two in 2020, and nine systems planned through 2024, new system development will continue at a sporadic pace. This continues to follow the feast-or-famine style of system development that is the historical norm. There have been 1-2 systems added each year since 2019, and the 11 systems planned for the period 2022 to

TABLE 15: INDIAN OCEAN SYSTEMS, 2012-PRESENT

2025 potentially add over 114,000 kilometers of cable. (Figure 95) With Australia looking for more route diversity from its western coast and an increasing desire for connectivity between Asia and Europe, this steady growth could continue beyond 2025. Additionally, Hyperscalers are exploring routes from the United States to India and will potentially bring more system development to the region.

Of the 11 systems planned through 2025 in this region, 36 percent have achieved the CIF milestone. (Fig- ure 96) The majority of these systems are “passthroughs” looking to connect East Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Business cases for these systems may be difficult to prove given the ongoing political and economic instability in Europe and the Middle East, hampering efforts to secure funding. While these systems would expand route diversity in the region, several are competing, and it is very likely at least some of these systems will not hit their target RFS date.

REGIONAL SNAPSHOT:

Current Systems: 3

Capacity: 60 Tbps

Planned Systems: 3

Planned Capacity: Not Announced