Adventures in Cambodian overhead cabling

Apologies, vestigial mega-uber value readers, for my ongoing lack of output. As usual, I'm involved in some very interesting stuff, which I can't really talk about. What I can share is that I've been doing some consultancy work with a company in Cambodia, and I've observed and photographed the most surreal cabling "solutions" I've ever seen. I wish I'd taken more photos to share with you, but after a couple of days there, the massive snarls of (mostly) fiber overhead become a commonplace sight, and my eye is drawn to all the other amazing sights in this fascinating place.

If you look closely at some of these photos, you'll see PON splitter enclosures, which almost certainly serve customers of one of Phnom Penh's FTTH operators. Yes, you heard me right, FTTH in Phnom Penh, capital of a country where many people earn less than $100 per month. It's a niche product, however, targeted at affluent locals and the burgeoning ex-pat community. How do you fancy paying $225 per month for 4Mbps? Not a power user? How about $115 for 2Mbps? Granted, IP transit is expensive in Cambodia, because of the absence of an undersea cable landing (though that's going to change, and it will be interesting to see how pricing/demand moves in the aftermath), but I think we can guess what the margins must be on these products with pricing like that. This is an interesting conundrum, wherein a superior technology is throttled back to keep opex low, and also to avoid taking the market beyond where it is "ready" to go. I don't mean that Cambodians wouldn't love 1Gbps connections today, but if 512k/1Mbps is the current benchmark, then I assume the commercial guys would question why an operator should force things to evolve dramatically faster than the market really demands?

Pimp my panel

Folks, eComm Europe is coming up fast, October 28 - 30 in Amsterdam, and you'll hate yourself if you miss it. I honestly think the speaker list is unparalleled anywhere, and the format ensures a rich flow of sharp and challenging talks on a wide range of topics of critical interest to those of us linked in the communications value chain. So look into my eyes, look deep into my eyes, and now go and register. I will be giving a talk on day one, and also moderating a panel on day two. The panel format is still being tweaked, but I have submitted the following summary, and I'd be interested to hear your feedback and input in the interest of making it as representative as possible:

Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World

The world has been through huge financial stress in the past two years, and despite the repeated sightings of "green shoots" by the more optimistic factions on Wall Street, many respected forecasters predict even more dire developments to come: the death of the dollar as a reserve currency, persistent high unemployment and social displacement, drastic cuts in public sector spending, runaway inflation, social unrest, the death of capitalism. While many of these outcomes represent worst case scenarios, we must accept that the "recovery," whenever it arrives, is not going to be a "reversion to business as usual," as the term is commonly defined. Consumers will behave differently and have different definitions of value, businesses will transact differently, entire industries will emerge smaller if indeed they survive at all. Add to this the increasing pressures of urbanization, migration, aging society, and climate change, and the picture becomes even more challenging. What influence will the telecom value chain exert in this new world? What opportunities do the challenges of The New Normal offer investors, and how should they position themselves?