Maltese international internet gateway providers have welcomed new regulations on international connectivity published a few days ago, in the wake of two major blackouts experienced last year. These regulations require every operator of an international gateway to ensure continuity in international connectivity at all times.
Last August and December Go's submarine data cable linking Malta to Sicily via Telecom Italia suffered damage by third parties and left thousands of internet and telephony users without communication services for several hours. However, after the first blackout on August 6, the Malta Communication Authority took steps to implement, contingency plans in the eventuality of such events. When the second blackout took place on December 18, plans and agreements between Go and Vodafone were already in place with the result that the disruption was on a smaller scale than the previous August. On that day several submarine data cables in the Mediterranean were cut. The exact cause has still not been established.
The new regulations oblige an international gateway operator, to adopt appropriate measures to safeguard the integrity and resiliency of the network at all times; to secure the availability of capacity, or have in place alternative measures, sufficient to ensure an adequate level of uninterrupted international connectivity; not unreasonably refuse the provision of capacity to another international gateway operator for these purposes; to periodically submit contingency plans to the MCA, and to submit information regarding the plans and measures that it has put in place. Service providers must also inform their clients of the level of redundancy.
The regulations give the Authority the power to periodically issue guidelines, audit the contingency plans submitted by the operators and ask for other information as deemed necessary. It has the discretion to determine if an operator acted "unreasonably" in refusing capacity, according to the specific circumstances of the case.
Currently, there are two international gateway operators, Go and Vodafone. Go has two submarine data cables, the new one commissioned a few weeks ago, while Vodafone has one and is considering installing a second. Melita is working on the installation of its own cable to be commissioned later on this year. The three companies were involved in the consultation process during the drafting of these regulations.
A Go spokesman told i-Tech that "it has already taken the necessary steps to ensure resiliency, by investing in its second submarine fibre-optic cable to Europe which is up and running, as well as agreeing with Vodafone on a contingency plan. Go is in the enviable position of being the only local communications company owning and operating two international submarine cables - one via Interoute and the other via Telecom Italia - apart from the contingency backup via Vodafone's network. This gives Go customers, local and international, the necessary resilience and redundancy for all bandwidth/ IP-related services."
Even before the regulations were published, the contingency plans and redundancy agreement between Go and Vodafone proved invaluable when another emergency was faced on December 18.
When the situation returned to normal, and Go's cable was repaired, Vodafone benefitted from the bilateral redundancy agreement when it was its turn to take care of its cable this week, in the wake of the December 18 cable cuts in the Mediterranean. Go went as far as giving more bandwidth than it was stipulated in the agreement.
"Vodafone decided to inspect its own cable in January. It is currently carrying out the said inspection as preventative maintenance," a company spokesman revealed to i-Tech. Such maintenance would have resulted in a complete stoppage of service to Vodafone and Melita internet users if there was no agreement for support with Go.
"Vodafone agreed with Go to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in order to minimise any service disruption to its customers during the preventative maintenance and possible repairs which may take place on Vodafone's submarine cable."
Industry observers have suggested that the way Malta has responded to the December emergency is a blessing in disguise as submarine data cables are cut quite frequently in the Mediterranean, and Malta has shown it can handle such events quite well.
"Melita has always promoted a comprehensive redundancy solution," said Stephen Wright, the company's chief operations officer. "We have been in contact with both providers for several months to find a solution. Hopefully these regulations will change this situation as the country and the industry cannot face more outages similar to those experienced during 2008. Melita's submarine fibre link will be the biggest one in terms of capacity, when compared to other cables currently operated by the other operators."
However, relations between Melita and Go have not mirrored the good working relationship between Go and Vodafone.
The Sunday Times had reported how Melita had turned down a request by Go to help the operator face the emergency of December 18. i-Tech is informed that Melita came forward to help by offering a portion of the bandwidth it buys from Vodafone as it does not have its own cable. Melita wanted to assign 200Mbits and in return asked for Go's commitment to a comprehensive redundancy solution.
However, according to Melita, Go made an unreasonable request for 500 Mbits of bandwidth which, according to a Melita spokesman, was impossible to assign, as it would have resulted in severe adverse effects on its customers' experience.
Melita also revealed that before taking the decision to install its own submarine cable, it had proposed to Go to invest jointly in a new cable to Sicily. However Go refused and Melita was left with no other choice than to go for it alone.
Go confirmed that it has requested assistance from Melita on December 19. "Go made a request to Melita to share a minimum of 500MB of dedicated IP bandwidth, which was rejected by Melita. Instead, Melita offered 200MB in return for a long term agreement to guarantee full back-up if a similar incident affects Melita in the future. Go believes that in those circumstances, Melita's counter-proposal went beyond the scope of the urgency of that moment."
Today, the Maltese economy has become increasingly dependent on electronic communications services, particularly the i-gaming industry that consumes approximately 50 percent of internet bandwidth, according to the government.
The reliance on international bandwidth is expected to increase further as the government has already announced it will start trials of fiber-optic connections directly to homes. This will facilitate faster internet access speeds and serve next-generation bandwidth hungry internet services.
Last August and December Go's submarine data cable linking Malta to Sicily via Telecom Italia suffered damage by third parties and left thousands of internet and telephony users without communication services for several hours. However, after the first blackout on August 6, the Malta Communication Authority took steps to implement, contingency plans in the eventuality of such events. When the second blackout took place on December 18, plans and agreements between Go and Vodafone were already in place with the result that the disruption was on a smaller scale than the previous August. On that day several submarine data cables in the Mediterranean were cut. The exact cause has still not been established.
The new regulations oblige an international gateway operator, to adopt appropriate measures to safeguard the integrity and resiliency of the network at all times; to secure the availability of capacity, or have in place alternative measures, sufficient to ensure an adequate level of uninterrupted international connectivity; not unreasonably refuse the provision of capacity to another international gateway operator for these purposes; to periodically submit contingency plans to the MCA, and to submit information regarding the plans and measures that it has put in place. Service providers must also inform their clients of the level of redundancy.
The regulations give the Authority the power to periodically issue guidelines, audit the contingency plans submitted by the operators and ask for other information as deemed necessary. It has the discretion to determine if an operator acted "unreasonably" in refusing capacity, according to the specific circumstances of the case.
Currently, there are two international gateway operators, Go and Vodafone. Go has two submarine data cables, the new one commissioned a few weeks ago, while Vodafone has one and is considering installing a second. Melita is working on the installation of its own cable to be commissioned later on this year. The three companies were involved in the consultation process during the drafting of these regulations.
A Go spokesman told i-Tech that "it has already taken the necessary steps to ensure resiliency, by investing in its second submarine fibre-optic cable to Europe which is up and running, as well as agreeing with Vodafone on a contingency plan. Go is in the enviable position of being the only local communications company owning and operating two international submarine cables - one via Interoute and the other via Telecom Italia - apart from the contingency backup via Vodafone's network. This gives Go customers, local and international, the necessary resilience and redundancy for all bandwidth/ IP-related services."
Even before the regulations were published, the contingency plans and redundancy agreement between Go and Vodafone proved invaluable when another emergency was faced on December 18.
When the situation returned to normal, and Go's cable was repaired, Vodafone benefitted from the bilateral redundancy agreement when it was its turn to take care of its cable this week, in the wake of the December 18 cable cuts in the Mediterranean. Go went as far as giving more bandwidth than it was stipulated in the agreement.
"Vodafone decided to inspect its own cable in January. It is currently carrying out the said inspection as preventative maintenance," a company spokesman revealed to i-Tech. Such maintenance would have resulted in a complete stoppage of service to Vodafone and Melita internet users if there was no agreement for support with Go.
"Vodafone agreed with Go to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in order to minimise any service disruption to its customers during the preventative maintenance and possible repairs which may take place on Vodafone's submarine cable."
Industry observers have suggested that the way Malta has responded to the December emergency is a blessing in disguise as submarine data cables are cut quite frequently in the Mediterranean, and Malta has shown it can handle such events quite well.
"Melita has always promoted a comprehensive redundancy solution," said Stephen Wright, the company's chief operations officer. "We have been in contact with both providers for several months to find a solution. Hopefully these regulations will change this situation as the country and the industry cannot face more outages similar to those experienced during 2008. Melita's submarine fibre link will be the biggest one in terms of capacity, when compared to other cables currently operated by the other operators."
However, relations between Melita and Go have not mirrored the good working relationship between Go and Vodafone.
The Sunday Times had reported how Melita had turned down a request by Go to help the operator face the emergency of December 18. i-Tech is informed that Melita came forward to help by offering a portion of the bandwidth it buys from Vodafone as it does not have its own cable. Melita wanted to assign 200Mbits and in return asked for Go's commitment to a comprehensive redundancy solution.
However, according to Melita, Go made an unreasonable request for 500 Mbits of bandwidth which, according to a Melita spokesman, was impossible to assign, as it would have resulted in severe adverse effects on its customers' experience.
Melita also revealed that before taking the decision to install its own submarine cable, it had proposed to Go to invest jointly in a new cable to Sicily. However Go refused and Melita was left with no other choice than to go for it alone.
Go confirmed that it has requested assistance from Melita on December 19. "Go made a request to Melita to share a minimum of 500MB of dedicated IP bandwidth, which was rejected by Melita. Instead, Melita offered 200MB in return for a long term agreement to guarantee full back-up if a similar incident affects Melita in the future. Go believes that in those circumstances, Melita's counter-proposal went beyond the scope of the urgency of that moment."
Today, the Maltese economy has become increasingly dependent on electronic communications services, particularly the i-gaming industry that consumes approximately 50 percent of internet bandwidth, according to the government.
The reliance on international bandwidth is expected to increase further as the government has already announced it will start trials of fiber-optic connections directly to homes. This will facilitate faster internet access speeds and serve next-generation bandwidth hungry internet services.