A new global bandwidth exchange and trading platform targeting the growth in cloud-based services and leveraging a global bandwidth glut has been launched by an Australian telecommunications executive.

Globally launched earlier this month at International Telecoms Week in Chicago, Mobsource.com now has between US$10 -20 million worth of distressed cable assets to put up on its bandwidth trading platform.

Former Telstra, BT and Cable and Wireless telecoms executive Carl Gough founded the platform after seeing an opportunity for carriers and cable operators to find buyers for their excess or spare capacity. “We estimate that 70 per cent of the world’s capacity is currently unlit. This is a problem because as prices per megabit drop on most routes around the world, these assets become less valuable and distressed,” Gough said.

The Mobsource trading platform allows carriers, operators or companies the potential of turning that idle or spare capacity into revenue at a much lower overhead. It sells bandwidth in all shapes, technologies, sizes and quantities on various cable systems.

The platform also offers a Network as a Service (NaaS) product which takes idle capacity from different carriers and suppliers and onsells it as a pay as you go model.

“This the first model that we know of, where an international point to point network can be bought this way by customers,” Gough said. Under the pay as you go model, customers pay a monthly registration fee to be on the platform and they only pay for bandwidth when it is being used.

“In this economy, it is not about technology anymore, it’s about business benefits, and doing the same thing for up to 80% less, is a pretty big benefit. Our platform allows our customers to scale up the bandwidth on demand, and scale down as their business requirements demand meaning total business agility and a reduction of cost,” Gough said.

The NaaS offering is aimed at any company that needs a connection between two countries for any length of time, from one day to a year. It is also targeting disaster recovery, big data, content delivery networks, application testing or as a very low cost instant backup network.

The mobsource platform is using Equinix facilities in Sydney, USA and Singapore, three centres where it is seeing a lot of interest and of course where there is a lot of idle connectivity.

Gough said the company was currently in discussions with another large US data centere facility for imminent launch. ®