Former Telecom executives face off over Sydney-Singapore link

Friday 25th May 2001

By Francis Till

A group of former Telecom veterans running little-known company Nava Networks are already planning to lay cable over the same route as Telecom's proposed Sydney to Singapore broadband cable.

On May 15, the same day Telecom announced its intention to partner with SingTel and Cable & Wireless Optus to study the possibility of a Sydney to Singapore broadband cable, NavaNetworks announced a deal with PowerTel to develop a portion of the terrestrial component of its own link - Nava 1 -- over the exact same route.

The Telecom announcement - released simultaneously by all three partners, with virtually identical language - took much of the focus away from the Powertel/NavaNetworks advance and came out of the blue, according to many industry insiders, some of whom termed it "sabre rattling."

NavaNetworks certainly did not expect it but perhaps they should have.

The NavaNetworks top office resumes read like a Telecom/Optus honour roll: the chief executive, Charles Jarvie, for example, was head of business development for the international division of Telecom with special management responsibilities for the Southern Cross Cable project before coming over to direct Nava.

Nava's founding CEO, John Humphries, has become director of project development since Mr Jarvie came on board and is another senior veteran of Telecom - which he originally left to become country manager for Cable & Wireless Optus in New Zealand, a job he held for six years. If anyone knows how Telecom plays, it would be the Nava team, many of whom were deeply involved in the Southern Cross project.

Now well advanced in development, Nava 1 is engaged in forward-selling bandwidth, a crucial funding phase.

The Telecom announcement threw uncertainty into the equation, by indicating a potential glut of bandwidth may be coming available between Australia and the crucial Asian markets.

Left on its own, the Nava network could seal the deal - and potentially usurp much of what Telecom and its proposed partners already have in place.

Still, Nava 1 executives can be heartened by the fact the Telecom announcement proves there is a need for the cable.

On April 25, Nava signed landing agreements in Jakarta in partnership with PT Indosat, the largest international carrier in Indonesia.

The capacity deals struck on May 15 with Powertel also give Nava 1 a substantial head-start on the Telecom phantom cable, which will apparently rely on Optus' existing limited capacity terrestrial components to connect the undersea cable to the east coast.

The Nava 1 cable is a true "next generation" leap over Telecom's existing Southern Cross connection.

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