Ever since the last submarine fibre optic cable construction boom came to an end in 2001, the transatlantic market has been notorious for overcapacity and plummeting bandwidth prices. Equally, the regional ?Europe Atlantic? submarine fibre optic market at the eastern end of the transatlantic cables saw many new operators build cables only to find that their business plans had underestimated the effect of competition on bandwidth prices and had overestimated growth in demand.

Four years on and the industry mantra remains the same : ?The transatlantic market is dead, don?t go there.? However, Pioneer?s preliminary analysis shows that the broadband revolution upon which those earlier business plans were predicated is now finally becoming a reality in Europe. Bandwidth demand growth is robust, bandwidth price decline has slowed and may even have stabilised on certain routes, and there are rumours in the industry of carriers secretly forming consortia to forward purchase transatlantic IRU?s. Furthermore, Pioneer?s analysis shows that there are many first and second generation fibre optic cables in the Europe Atlantic region which must be reaching full capacity and proving expensive to maintain.

For these reasons, Pioneer Consulting is now using its tried and tested proprietary methodology to reveal what the real demand-supply situation is in these markets and to forecast how quickly they are likely to come back to equilibrium.

The results of this analysis will be included in a new report, ?New Business Models For The Transatlantic & Europe Atlantic Submarine Cable Industry 2005? which will be published by the end of 2005. In addition to forecasts of supply and demand, the report will also profile all existing, planned, and proposed submarine fibre optic systems in these markets and provide an assessment of carrier competitor market shares.

This report will complement previous Pioneer market studies of the Transpacific, Asia Pacific, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Caribbean, and Latin American markets and will be followed by the publication of a similar analysis of the African continent and Mediterranean region in early 2006.