FirstPath will lay two lengths of submarine cable across Sydney Harbour containing 720 fibre cores, the densest underwater cable ever laid in Australia. This reflects growing demand for FirstPath's services. For manufacturer Prysmian, it is the second landmark high-density cable project in recent weeks. The project involves planning permits and crews to lay the cable after peak ferry hours to avoid interference. It demonstrates FirstPath's expansion from initial Sydney infrastructure to considering expansion along Australia's east coast.

1. COMMUNICATIONS DAY
3 June 2015 Daily telecom news & analysis since 1994 ISSUE 4908
TELSYTE: Big outsourcing opportunity in big data
OPTUS: Forges CDN link with Level 3
TELSTRA: New Komatsu deal includes M2M component
FirstPath to drop densest underwater fibre
optic cables across Sydney Harbour
Wholesale access operator FirstPath will tomorrow lay two lengths of high-capacity submarine cable
across Sydney Harbour, at a cost of between A$500,000 and A$750,000 – according to manufacturer
Prysmian, the densest underwater cable ever laid in Australia at 720 fibre cores.
For FirstPath, it’s something of a coming-of-
age that reflects rapidly ramping demand. And
for Prysmian, it’s the second landmark cable in a
matter of weeks using the firm’s Flextube and
BendBright design innovations, after it supplied
a record-density terrestrial 1,728-fibre cable to
Vocus last month.
As first revealed by CommsDay, FirstPath
started operations in 2010 but rapidly built up
fibre and VDSL access infrastructure, initially in
the Sydney CBD and then more broadly in New
South Wales; it is mulling an expansion along
the east coast of Australia and has broadened its
scope from business to include residential supply
as well. CEO Stephen Carter told CommsDay
that, while his firm had been building infrastruc-
ture on both sides of Sydney Harbour, it had pre-
viously been using fibre links running through
the cross-harbour tunnel via fibre swap arrange-
ments – making for a longer link, and presenting
significant challenges for cable upgrades.
“The harbour’s not easy either, but it’s a lot
easier!” he said. “We’re not the only people who’ve ever done it, but [ours is] a bigger cable. And it’s
sort of a coming of age for us, now that we need to run so much more fibre.”
One of the two new lengths will run from Dawes Point to Blues Point, while the other will run
almost directly beneath the Harbour Bridge; the combination of the two will give FirstPath a total of
1,440 fibres and significant diversity. According to Carter, the project has been around six months in
the planning, including obtaining all necessary permits and bringing in diving crews, laying crews and
tugs. The cable itself will be laid tomorrow after peak hour. “They’ve got to do it after peak hour, so
we don’t interfere with the ferries; the ferries can’t run while we’re doing it, so we’re basically closing
that section of the harbour while we complete it for safety reasons. It’s quite a massive thing – you’ve
got to liaise with ports, roads, Sydney Foreshore Authority.”
It’s FirstPath’s first foray into the underwater cable space but if a similar project should be neces-
sary elsewhere as the firm expands, it’s ready to do so. “We dig up roads and stuff all the time, so we
understand civils – but submarine is new territory!” said Carter. “[But] now that we’ve done it once,
we wouldn’t shy away from it again.”
SPARK
Plans to compete
against RBI with rural
wireless build

2. THE CABLE GUYS: For manufacturers Prysmian, which specifically designed the cable for the pro-
ject and manufactured it in its Western Sydney plant, it’s the second high-profile showcase in a short
time following the Vocus deployment.
Key to both were Prysmian’s FlextubeXS cables, containing its award-winning Bendbright fibres,
which are designed to be both fibre-dense and extremely flexible – winding around tight radii without
kinking or signal loss. The cable installed by Vocus in its Sydney datacentre had 1,728 fibres in a di-
ameter of 23mm, billed by Prysmian as the largest fibre count possible to date for a terrestrial cable in
a ‘one-shot’ datacentre install.
“Having this bend-insensitive fibre, we were able to compact more and put more fibre within the
tubes,” Prysmian telco account manager Alice Codenotti told CommsDay. “You’re combining the
latest technology in fibre glass with the latest technology in cable making.”
“Contrary to what the NBN is doing – installing larger cables, tougher and more rigid – the rest of
the market is going completely the opposite way; they need smaller cables, denser with higher capacity
fibre.”
Petroc Wilton
Spark to launch wireless challenge to RBI project
Spark New Zealand will use its 700MHz spectrum to go head-to-head with the government-backed
Rural Broadband Initiative. The carrier began nationwide trials of a new wireless broadband product
with staff this week, with customer trials to start early next week.
The NZ$300 million RBI project aims to bring broadband to 86% of rural and regional areas us-
ing a mixture of wireless and fixed line infrastructure. Vodafone NZ and Chorus won contracts to
jointly roll out the network.
But now Spark is aiming to address claims of slow takeup of the RBI service by launching a com-
peting offering that it says will offer faster speeds and hassle-free installations.
GM of wholesale and product Lindsay Cowley said Spark had deliberately held off launching a
wireless broadband product until it was confident of delivering a quality service at 4G speeds. He also
claimed a key advantage in that the service did not require a technician to install, so would not be
hampered by excessive installation costs.
“The uptake of existing Rural Broadband Initiative products has been quite low with a degree of
poor customer satisfaction voiced by consumers and industry spokespeople. Spark’s wireless broad-
band product will address these concerns and deliver speeds of up to 10 times faster than what some
customers tell us they are experiencing on the current 3G RBI product,” Cowley said.
The 4G service will use a wireless broadband modem that makes use of Spark's 700MHz spectrum.
Last year the carrier was the biggest spender at the spectrum auction, acquiring four lots for NZ$158
million – 30% more than rival Vodafone.
Cowley claimed that 700MHz was the ideal spectrum to roll out fast 4G services to rural and re-
gional cell sites across New Zealand due to its greater reach of coverage.
“We’ve been working hard and fast over the past 12-months to leverage the spectrum advantage we
have by successfully rolling out 4G to 150 cell sites across the country on 700MHz,” Cowley com-
mented. “We’re excited that this number is increasing by the day and as our coverage footprint of 4G
over 700MHz expands so does the number of customers that will likely be able to access wireless
broadband for a more affordable option to use internet services.”
The carrier has not yet announced a launch date for the new product, with Cowley explaining that
it would take on feedback from staff and customers first, making any necessary improvements to the
product and the experience ahead of its launch.
Meanwhile, the government-backed RBI project has drawn criticism from a number of quarters of
late following a decision by the government to expand it using NZ$150 million raised through the
Telecommunications Development Levy.
COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 2

3. Opposition Labour ICT spokesperson Clare Curran claimed rural New Zealanders and lobby
group InternetNZ had expressed strong concerns that the RBI wasn’t delivering quality internet and
had connected very few households. She also suggested that government officials had no idea if the
scheme was effective and had not conducted any analysis into it.
Spark was also vocal in its criticism of the expansion, particularly its use of the levy on the industry
and its customers, rather than by using government funds. It will mean that a planned reduction in
the levy from $50 million per annum to $10 million in 2016 will now be delayed.
“Now that the government has confirmed the levy will continue, rather than reduce as originally
legislated for, it has put upward pressure on future costs and we will have to pass that cost through to
our broadband and on-account mobile customers,” said Spark MD Simon Moutter.
SHARE BUYBACK: Meanwhile, Spark New Zealand also announced plans to undertake an on-
market share buyback of up to 40 million ordinary shares for an aggregate purchase price of up to
NZ$100 million during the remainder of the 2015 calendar year. The company said that following
recent divestments, including Telecom Rentals Limited and its 60% stake in Telecom Cook Islands,
Spark New Zealand’s balance sheet was now under-levered. The purpose of the on-market share buy-
back is to return gearing to a more appropriate level for the company.
Forsyth Barr telco analyst Blair Galpin said the buyback reconfirmed its view that an increased div-
idend payout ratio is unlikely from Spark for several years. “Once complete our view is special divi-
dends or a change in payout ratio are unlikely while there is uncertainty around the regulated price
for broadband and there is aggressive competition for fibre and mobile customers,” he said.
Geoff Long
Telstra boosts Komatsu ties: A$23m M2M, ICT deal
Telstra has announced an expansion of its 15-year relationship with mining and construction equip-
ment manufacturer Komatsu, bagging a three-year, A$23 million deal to underpin the firm’s ICT and
machine-to-machine strategy.
The new contract will see Telstra provide core voice, data and mobile services to Komatsu as well
as cloud and M2M tech. Most notably, it will build on a recent M2M trial in which Komatsu drew on
real-time diagnostic data from over 700 pieces of on-site equipment remotely, from its inSite Centre
in Sydney’s Fairfield. In addition, Komatsu – an early adopter of Telstra Cloud services, having
moved all of its infrastructure hosting into an earlier version of the telco’s cloud platform in 2010 –
will transition to a hybrid cloud this year, with native integration into Microsoft Azure.
“The Telstra team has been working closely with Komatsu to co-create solutions that deliver the
right service outcomes for the right investment,” said Telstra global enterprise and services chief cus-
tomer officer Martijn Blanken. “The new hybrid cloud model will give Komatsu a base platform that
aligns to its’ current workloads, but also gives them the ability to scale and grow as its’ needs change
over time.”
“From the beginning of our cloud journey with Telstra, the focus has been on giving more time
back to the business so we can innovate and adapt, and not worry about IT,” put in Komatsu CIO
Ian Harvison. “This new agreement will be an extension of our collaborative relationship and will
ensure we continue to lead our category within the mining sector.”
Petroc Wilton
Optus lines up CDN link with Level 3
Optus Wholesale and Satellite has brought on Level 3 for deep-edge caching services, helping Optus
to improve high-demand content delivery via local caching.
In the face of continual growth in demand for online video – Adobe’s most recent Video Bench-
mark Report put online TV video consumption growth at 388% between 2013 and 2014 – the deep-
edge local caching should improve both delivery speed and completion rates for Optus customers.
The deal will also allow Optus to resell Level 3’s content delivery network services across Australia, in
COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 3

4. turn expanding Level 3’s CDN capacity in-country by some 300%.
“It’s critical for Optus Wholesale and Satellite to be able to facilitate content delivery from custom-
ers to end-users efficiently and in a way that elevates the end-user experience. Through Level 3’s
CDN, we are able to improve the consumption of video, music, photo and data content over the In-
ternet, not just locally within Australia, but also across the globe,” said Optus Wholesale and Satellite
MD Rob Parcell. “Broadcasting customers and website owners with rich media content will benefit
from the deployment of this CDN network.”
“The explosion of over-the-top and other internet video content can put a lot of strain on a net-
work, creating issues in picture quality, speed and reliability,” said Level 3 North America and Asia
regional president John Blount. “By putting our CDN servers on Optus’ network, we are enabling a
better streaming video experience to Australian consumers, as well as creating a way for enterprises to
leverage our CDN network for their content needs.”
Petroc Wilton
Telstra pumps cash into Neto e-commerce platform
Telstra has announced an undisclosed investment into Australian e-commerce platform Neto, based
in Brisbane. Launched in 2011, Neto’s core offering is a cloud-based e-commerce service pitched at
small- to medium-sized retailers and wholesalers, designed to enable them to quickly build an end-to-
end online store. Customers include the Spotlight Group and Anaconda; Neto also has a strong inte-
gration and relationship with eBay, with a majority of its customers also having a presence on the
massive online auction site.
While Telstra would not be drawn on the quantum of investment, business GMD Will Irving said
the move was a logical answer for the changing technology needs of the telco’s business customers.
“We estimate that by 2020, 82% of SMEs will have a web presence, rising from 58% today,” he
said. “The role of e-commerce will only become more important in the competitive retail environ-
ment. The Neto platform allows businesses to meet the needs of customers at their convenience:
where they want and when they want. Neto is a truly innovative Australian company and our invest-
ment will represent a great opportunity to deliver value to our customers.”
Neto founding director Ryan Murtagh said the Telstra cash injection would allow Neto to expand
more quickly and help Australian retailers compete on a global scale.
Petroc Wilton
NSW expects $20M in annual
savings from new outsourcing deals
The NSW state government has signed contracts with Unisys and Infosys to outsource the functions
of shared service provider ServiceFirst. The arrangement is expected to save the government around
$20 million per annum.
The two companies will use a new hybrid delivery model from on-shore and off-shore locations
that will see a new specialist delivery centre established in Western Sydney. The move will also involve
a transition to the NSW government data centres, in line with the NSW ICT Strategy.
Initial services to be moved to the model are in back office and transactional services, including IT
services, payroll, recruitment and accounts. The government said that over 6,000 public servants
would have access to the latest technology tools, improved customer service, 24/7 support and faster
turnaround times.
NSW state finance minister Dominic Perrottet said the previous model with agency ServiceFirst
was inefficient, expensive, based on outdated technology and designed for a 9 to 5 world that no long-
er existed.
The new system will also provide support for employees to use their own mobile and desktop de-
vices in the work environment and out of office access to the desktop to enable flexible work options.
It will shift to an ‘as a service’ model where agencies will be charged for what they use rather than an-
COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 4

5. nual billing.
ServiceFirst currently supports agencies including the Department of Finance, Services & Innova-
tion, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Planning and Environment, Treasury, Ser-
vice NSW and the Public Service Commission. The transition to the new delivery model is expected
to be completed by December 2015.
Geoff Long
Tomizone, Kordia combine
to meet Australian Wi-Fi demand
Auckland-based Tomizone will increase its presence in the Australian market following a supply deal
for its products and services with Kordia Australia.
Kordia Australia CEO Ken Benson said the company has recently experienced increased demand
for complete Wi-Fi solutions that build on its expertise in design and deployment as a tier 1 systems
integrator.
“WiFi services are becoming more important for our customers and our team can now offer a full
service solution that is scalable and reliable.” Benson said, noting that the two companies had recent-
ly started their first projects together.
Steve Simms, CEO of Tomizone, said the agreement with Kordia opens Tomizone to a key Aus-
tralian enterprise channel supporting its one-to-many sales strategy.
“Both companies will now be better equipped to address the market demand for full service Wi-
Fi,” Simms said. “Kordia Australia’s national footprint combined with its large team of networking
solutions experts explains why the business is a preferred provider for carriers, corporates and govern-
ment customers.”
Tomizone this week joined the Australian Securities Exchange as part of a backdoor listing
through Perth-based PHW Consolidated.
Geoff Long
Big data skills shortage
presents service opportunity: Telsyte
New research from Telsyte suggests that there are still many barriers to big data analytics adoption in
Australia, notably the ongoing skills shortage as well as infrastructure and data integration challenges.
As a result, many companies are looking to external service providers to overcome the barriers.
According to its study, more than 70% of large Australian organisations will become data-driven
by the year 2019, up from around a third of large businesses today. These are mainly found in the
retail, manufacturing and government sectors.
The report highlighted that, on average, two thirds of organisations investigating big data solutions
are also looking to increase technology opex spending in the next 12 months, creating opportunities
for vendors and service provider alike.
Telsyte found that as well as the major vendors of big data infrastructure and software, a range of
new entrants is taking the challenge to the traditional data management vendors.
“The new entrants are an important part of the landscape because they bring a more flexible ap-
proach that can lower the barriers to entry, such as subscriptions and pay per use,” said Telsyte senior
analyst Shayum Rahim.
According to Telsyte, if the CEO of a company is not a data scientist themselves, the organisation
will certainly have one on the executive team within the next few years. “The data-driven CEO uses
numerous sources of data to make decisions with precision, which is now essential in being able to
report to the board and ultimately shareholders,” said Rahim.
Geoff Long
COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 5

6. COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 6
Cisco to revamp top brass, including CTO
Cisco is set to replace several of its top management as it transitions to a new era under incoming
CEO Chuck Robbins, who is set to replace the firm’s long-time CEO John Chambers on 26 July.
According to a Cisco blog post authored by Robbins himself, Cisco presidents Rob Lloyd, who is
technically Robbins’ boss at the moment, and Gary Moore will leave the company at the end of its
fiscal year – ending the day before Robbins takes office. Lloyd is currently responsible for Cisco’s de-
velopment and sales efforts, while Moore currently serves as chief operating officer.
Both men were seen as contenders for the top job at Cisco, which Chambers gave to Robbins.
“Going forward, we will move to a flatter leadership team designed for the speed, innovation and
execution that is required of us over the next decade,” Robbins wrote in his blog post. “Looking
ahead, I will announce my next generation organisational structure and my leadership team within
two weeks. This simplified structure will allow us to move with speed to accelerate our innovation
and help our customers transform in the digital age.”
Meanwhile, the transition could involve another high profile member of Cisco’s top management:
CTO Padmasree Warrior.
According to a report in Re/code, Warrior is also set to leave the firm on 25 July, with an official
announcement due in a couple of weeks. Warrior has already interviewed for another job, which she
turned down, and is currently considering offers to be board members at various companies as well as
CEO and management partner at a venture capital firm, Re/code reported citing sources.
Cisco in Asia decline to comment on the report, noting “we don’t comment on speculation.”
Tony Chan
ZTE launches ZXDNA network analysis tool for 4G
ZTE has unveiled a “deep network traffic analysis tool” dubbed ZXDNA.
According to ZTE, ZXDNA extracts information from data collected by the network management
systems and presents it to network administrators in “diverse report forms.” The solution allows users
to set automatic alarms on thresholds, set reporting schedules, including notifications via email or
messaging, in order to track network usage trends and identified problems such as congestion points.
ZXDNA will target primarily mobile network environments, address the need for operators to
scale up their infrastructure to meet traffic growth demands from the roll out of 4G, ZTE said.
“At present, LTE network construction adheres to a gradually evolving, stage-by-stage model.
Through the reinforcement of the strength of O&M software, the performing of all-round network
traffic monitoring and the timely optimisation of resource and network structures, operators can fully
exploit network potential and effectively improve productivity and market competitiveness,” added
the firm.
Tony Chan
Qualcomm expands Wi-Fi portfolio
Qualcomm’s subsidiary Atheros has boosted its portfolio of solutions that expand and extend the ca-
pabilities of new, higher speed Wi-Fi networks.
As part of a set of announcements, Atheros introduced an upgraded version of its multi-user multi-
input/multi-output system that now supports 160MHz channels and 4x4 antenna configurations, de-
livering “three times faster 802.11ac connections in today’s increasingly crowded environments.”
The two solutions – QCA9984 for home routers and QCA9994 for enterprise access points – now
offer support for four simultaneous streams, as well as wider 160MHz contiguous and 80+80MHz
non-contiguous 802.11ac channels (doubling existing 80MHz channels).
“Since launching the industry’s first MU-MIMO solutions more than a year ago, Qualcomm Ath-
eros continues to gain traction with the world’s leading manufacturers,” Qualcomm said. “To date,
more than 10 networking customers, and an increasing number of mobile and computing customers,

7. COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 June 2015 Page 7
are already designing and launching products based on Qualcomm Atheros’ first generation MU-
MIMO solutions.”
Network equipment vendors already deploying Qualcomm’s 802.11ac solution include Amped
Wireless, Aruba Networks, Hitron Technologies and Linksys. On the compute and mobile side, Acer,
Dell, Samsung, Nubia, and Xiaomi have implemented Qualcomm’s MU-MIMO technology.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm also unveiled a reference design for combining HomePlug AV2 technolo-
gy with Powerline to extend the range of 802.11ac Wi-Fi networks. The hybrid wireless extender de-
sign combines Qualcomm Atheros’ HomePlug AV2 chipset – QCA7500 – and its 802.11ac system-
on-chip solutions.
The end result is a dual-band, dual concurrent wireless hotspot that uses the electrical cabling in a
building as backhaul.
Tony Chan
Calix puts G.fast into multi-dwelling environments
Calix is putting G.fast into three new products targeting multi-dwelling units, multi-tenant units, and
high-density single-family unit dwellings.
According to Calix, the multi dwelling unit solutions are designed to bring gigabit speeds to the
residential markets which have been “bypassed by gigabit initiatives in the past.”Many service provid-
ers struggle with the logistics and economic challenge of deploying fiber within MDU environments
because of difficult access and notoriously high churn,” said Broadbandtrends founder and principal,
Teresa Mastrangelo. “G.fast has emerged as an ideal technology for bridging this gap by matching the
ability to deliver near gigabit speeds over the short copper loops found in most MDU environments
with the reality that overlaying the twisted copper pair infrastructure in these buildings can be diffi-
cult and expensive. Many think of MDUs as a niche market, but they actually represent the majority
of subscribers worldwide.”
The Calix solutions are specially designed for multi-unit environments, including hardened casing
for protection, while supporting fibre-fed configuration using gigabit passive optical networking. Each
node supports up to 16 G.fast ports with the flexibility to deliver each subscriber close to 1 Gbps of
aggregate bandwidth, Calix said.
The Calix solutions also support powerful persistent management agent and persistent manage-
ment agent aggregation software that leverage the flexibility of software defined networking and net-
work functions virtualization to facilitate the provisioning, configuration, and management of Calix
products into existing back-office and management systems in addition to Calix E7 platforms.
“G.fast provides an opportunity for service providers to extend their gigabit footprints into build-
ings that couldn’t economically or easily be served by traditional fiber access, and we believe our new
solutions have hit the mark in making these environments not only viable but also lucrative,” said
Calix SVP of systems products Michel Langlois.
Tony Chan
ON THIS DAY 10 YEARS AGO: FROM THE COMMSDAY 2005 ARCHIVES
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a gloomy prognosis on telecom
trends, suggesting that pricing trends in the fixed access segment were heading up... Telstra was ac-
cused of trying to intimidate smaller rivals by forcing the ACCC to hand over complaints it had re-
ceived about the incumbent telco... an IDC research report found that Australia’s cellular penetration
had just passed ‘natural saturation’, with every Australian who could be using a mobile phone already
using one.