Presented in Paro, Bhutan.

1. Diplomacy, Technology and Finance:
ESCAP’S Way Forward to Asia-Pacific
Information Superhighway
Expert Consultation on the Asia-Pacific Information
Superhighway and Regional Connectivity
Thimphu, Bhutan. October 2, 2014
Abu Saeed Khan
Senior Policy Fellow
LIRNEasia
abu@lirneasia.net

2. Unique users are 50% of connection
Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

3. Asia is a diverse market
Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

4. The great Asian broadband divide
Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

5. $1.28
$1.28
$1.28
$1.28
$1.58
$1.58
$1.64
$1.64
$1.64
$1.77
$1.90
$1.90
$1.25
$1.26
$1.26
$1.32
$1.36
$1.36
$1.36
$1.44
$1.49
$1.50
$1.55
$2.10
$2.20
$6
$6.25
$8
$8
$12
$12
$12.06
$19
$19
Seattle
Washington
Montreal
Toronto
Dallas
Los Angeles
Chicago
New York
San Francisco
Miami
Atlanta
Boston
Copenhagen
Frankfurt
Stockholm
Amsterdam
London
Paris
Warsaw
Madrid
Bucharest
Sofia
Milan
Moscow
Istanbul
Hong Kong
Singapore
Tokyo
Kuala Lumpur
Seoul
Taipei
Jakarta
Mumbai
Sydney
Median IP transit prices per Mbps per month on Q2 2014.
Prices exclude local access and installation fees.
Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Internet Geography 2014.
Prohibitive wholesale internet bandwidth in Asia

6. Intra-Asia 10 Gbps median monthly lease prices
(US$) excluding local access and installation fees.
Route Q4 2013 Km $/Km
East Asia & China
Hong Kong–Seoul $21,000 2,100 $10.00
Hong Kong–Singapore $21,500 2,588 $8.31
Hong Kong–Taipei $21,000 803 $26.15
Hong Kong–Tokyo $21,000 2,893 $7.26
Singapore–Tokyo $23,250 5,328 $4.36
India
Bangalore-Singapore $132,500 3,174 $41.75
Chennai-Singapore $130,000 3,721 $34.94
Mumbai-Hong Kong $132,500 4,306 $30.77
Mumbai–Singapore $134,500 3,913 $34.37
Source: TeleGeography.
Publication: Global Bandwidth 2014.

7. Trans-Pacific Bandwidth (Gbps)
Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Bandwidth Research, 2014.
Route Q4 2013 Km $/Km
10 Gbps Wavelengths
Chennai–Los Angeles $135,000 10,069 $13.41
Hong Kong–Los Angeles $36,000 14,434 $2.49
Los Angeles–Singapore $40,000 11,662 $3.43
Los Angeles–Tokyo $19,000 8,804 $2.16
STM-1 Circuits
Beijing-Los Angeles $14,500 9,591 $1.51
Kuala Lumpur-Los Angeles $7,828 14,113 $0.55
Los Angeles-Seoul $5,000 8,814 $0.57
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Used Capacity 1,964 3,039 4,882 7,123 10,003
…for Internet 1,518 2,323 3,725 5,322 7,039
…for private networks 438 707 1,148 1,791 2,955
…for voice 9 9 9 9 9
Purchased Capacity 5,681 7,739 9,713 11,995 14,596
Lit Capacity 7,960 10,880 12,700 13,470 19,510
Potential Capacity 26,400 33,360 43,840 48,840 90,160
Lit Share of Potential Capacity 30% 33% 29% 28% 22%

8. Lit and Potential Europe-Asia via
Egypt Bandwidth (Gbps)
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Lit Capacity 1,765 2,835 3,710 10,910 11,590
Potential Capacity 2,380 6,260 34,200 71,380 115,860
Lit Share of Potential
Capacity 74% 45% 11% 15% 10%

9. Median 10 Gbps Wavelength Prices, Q4 2013

10. Roadblocks to affordable Internet
Source: The state of Broadband 2012: Achieving digital inclusion for
all. ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission.

11. Costs of civil works in fiber deployment
France Approximately 80%
United Kingdom Between 70% and 80%
Republic of Korea Between 80% and 90%
European Union Approximately 80%
MENA Approximately 80%
OECD average (2008) Between 50% and 80%
Right-of-way (ROW) = ?%
Source: “Harnessing cross-sectoral infrastructure synergies.” ESCAP. August 27, 2014.

12. “Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit
is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber
by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs
almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and
then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing
conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that
construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize
the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing
disruption to drivers.”
Milo Medin,
Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc.
April 18, 2011
Conduit of fortune

13. “Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit
is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber
by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs
almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and
then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing
conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that
construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize
the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing
disruption to drivers.”
Milo Medin,
Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc.
April 18, 2011
Conduit of fortune

14. Submarine networks = Terrestrial networks
Landlocked countries = Coastal countries
Courtesy: Ciena

15. Lesson from India: ROW up to $208,000/km.
“Noting that some states were levying hefty RoW charges, equivalent to Rs 1.27
crore (US$ 208,000) per km, DoT has urged states to scrap such practices, failing
which NOFN project costs would shoot up and scuttle the Centre's ambitions of
delivering affordable broadband services. DoT has reached out to states as there has
scarcely been any progress in laying down optic fibre over the past three years.”

16. Meshed and resilient telecoms ROW
Connecting 32 Eurasian countries with EU through 141,000 km of standardized roadways.

17. Integrated map of highway & railway
Roads are red.

18. Each country’s share in Asian Highway

19. Core objectives
• Creating a cross-border telecoms consortium of 32
countries being linked through the Asian Highway.
– Example: Intelsat (Past) and SEA-ME-WE3/4/5 (Present).
• Using Asian Highway’s right-of-way (ROW) for
open-access optical fiber transmission networks.
– Highways are preferred ROW for long distance telecoms.
• Each country’s road authorities will own the fiber.
– State-ownership and open-access guaranteed. No
payment is required for ROW.
• Only the licensed operators will have access to it.
– No regulatory disruption.

20. Way forward
Internal activities
1. Conduct route survey of
Asian Information
Superhighway.
2. Design the network. Assess
the costs of C&M.
3. AH members endorse the
concept of Asian Info
Superhighway and approve
the C&M Agreement.
4. Finalize C&MA and award
the project.
External activities
1. Get engaged with partners
(World Bank, ADB, ITU,
APT, SATRC, BIMSTEC etc.)
2. Make the long distance
telecoms carriers on
board.
3. Update the people by
effectively disseminating
the status of Asian
Information Superhighway.