Different submarine cable capacity consumption models
When bandwidth demands were comparatively low (compared to today) in the pre-ICP days, sub-lambda services were commonly sold carried by 5Gb/s to 10Gbs wavelengths. As bandwidth demands surged with the growth of the Internet, wavelengths became the currency of network services where end-users purchased entire wavelengths typically operating at 10Gb/s or 100Gb/s rates, still commonly used today.
For end-users with massive capacity demands, such as ICPs, entire fiber pairs were purchased from wholesalers. For routes where an entire fiber pair was unavailable for purchase or for end-users needing more than a few wavelengths but less than an entire fiber pair…
