One Mexican company is looking to interconnect their already established services to the City of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and also extend into the United States into the Gateway City by offering their extensive infrastructure of fiber networks that extends more than 3,300 kms.
Neutral Networks is a Mexican company focusing on fiber network interconnectivity by creating a neutral infrastructure unit in which clients can come and get their services in efforts to connect better carriers and operators of telecommunications between both countries while the service providers themselves choose how much they charge consumers.
A forum was led by Neutral Networks CEO Gabriel Navarro, CTO Noe Garza and Leonardo Antopia, who provided expertise on the security aspects of the fiber network in which they provided details of their business and investment plan.
“As a company, we have to comply with regulations just as there is regulatory committees in Mexico like the Federal Commission of Telecommunications, there is also regulatory committees in the United States like the Federal Communications Commission, so we already underwent a long process to get this transnational permission that required for us to first get a license — the 214 license with the FCC — in efforts to operate and do businesses in the United States when it comes to issues of telecommunications,” Navarro said.
Garza states that the way their fiber network will be able to cross the border from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo will be that the fiber networks will be implemented below the Rio Grande. He believes that this provides some feasibility in efforts for the fiber lines to get to the community.
Garza states that in efforts to get the permissions and licenses to operate under the Rio Grande, they got the permission from the corresponding water authorities of Mexico with the Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas, or the International Commision of Limits and Water, and the International Boundary and Water Commission with the United States.
“The license we got is one of a marine cable from the corresponding American authorities,” Navarro said.
Currently, Neutral Networks is in their first phase of creating the fiber network connecting the two Laredos, however, they already have an estimation as to how much their service will cost in total.
“This first phase of the fiber network from Monterrey to Laredo had an investment of $250 million of pesos (roughly $12,500,000 million in U.S. dollars) which is already operational since this week, and the total investment for the project we estimate that it would be about $1,250 million of pesos (or $62,500,000 million),” Navarro said.
Navarro states that Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the project will most likely be constructed and created by the end of the year so that the fiber network can be fully operational in about 18 to 24 months. Navarro states that more planning for these phases are needed in efforts to know what route and road are the best to take in efforts to interconnect their services, as they could input their fiber networks through the Monterrey-Coahuila road or other roads or look at plans at facilitating the creation of a new road where the fiber network could be implemented.
Navarro states that they started the idea behind this building with the philosophy of “build it and they will come” to showcase that the investment money they get is not from one just single company but rather the investment dollars of various companies wanting to become part of the extensive network of fiber networks they plan to implement.
“The reason why we decided to invest in these route of fiber interconnectivity in the northwest is because it is an investment that will at least triple as estimates of the market show that by 2025 this type of business will have a market value of $200 million,” Navarro said. “One of the main reasons why this investment will pay off is because many of these companies that will also be coming to Mexico and will be needing this infrastructure and use it.”
At the moment, they are looking at an alternative that would allow them to not use a major highway in the country of Mexico but rather would allow them to travel all throughout the state of Nuevo Leon and through small rural areas.
Antopia states that people would not have to worry about these areas where the fiber networks will be implemented to have large cables hanging from land posts and other areas, as the cable networks will be all implemented below the ground. He also added that the cables will be well underground, as this will not cause for the cables to break or for any major disruptions to be caused because of a cable breaking.
For safety reasons, he also states that the cable networks will also be monitored to ensure there is no disruptions or service becomes disconnected.
“We will also have a database area in the city of Monterrey where we will not only have the main facets related to whether the system is working properly but have all the equipment necessary in efforts to monitor and react to any events that might affect the service and restore them as soon as possible,” Antopia said. “Additionally, in terms of security, the information that can be transmitted through these fibers will have an encrypted level to ensure the security between the various connective points that the fiber networks connect.”
As for prices that service providers will charge consumers, the Neutral Networks personnel do not know as they will only offer their infrastructure but not be in the process to decide what is the price that service providers should charge as it is up to them.
“We are a neutral company, so we will be providing our systems and frameworks to the providers of these interconnective providers, and these providers will then dictate what is the price they want to charge based on their services,” Garza said. “The fact that we will be able to offer an infrastructure that can be shared while being neutral helps the costs and investments of these service providers to not be much, and then in turn they will not need to charge the creation of these infrastructure to the consumers. Thus, this will allow them to offer better commercial services to consumers as this facilitates things for service providers to better provide their services to consumers.”
Navarro states that their clients will be mainly international service providers, as they hope to help these companies provide their services on both sides of the border through the infrastructure they are developing.
jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
