SubmarineTelecomsFORUM

REGIONAL SYSTEMS An international forum for the expression of ideas and opinions Issue 20 Issue 17 pertaining to the submarine telecoms industry May 2005 January 2005 1 Submarine Telecoms Forum is published bi-monthly by WFN Strategies, L.L.C. The publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publishers. ExordiumWelcome to the 20th edition of Submarine Telecoms Forum, our Regional Systems issue. S u b m a r i n e Te l e c o m s F o r u m i s a n i n d e p e n d e n t c o m - We are approximately 14 months from the previous SubOptic and only 24 months from the mercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum for next! Whether that latter fact produces an air of excitement is certainly debatable, but I look professionals in industries connected with submarine optical forward to the next conference with far less trepidation than the last. fibre technologies and techniques. Liability: while every care is taken in preparation of this As I discussed with a GIS colleague recently, it is really nice to be drawing lines on a chart publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the again; even short lines are better than none of late. And while it’s still not time to cash in one’s stock, it is time to work again on some real projects. And those, even small, are a start. accuracy of the information herein, or any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions. This issue brings some exciting articles together for your consideration. The publisher cannot be held responsible for any views Brian Crawford of Trans Caribbean Cable Company gives his view of the world in this issue’s expressed by contributors, and the editor reserves the right installment of Executive Forum. John Manock discusses regional system trends, coupled to e d i t a n y a d ve rti si n g o r e d i to ri a l ma te ri a l su b mi tte d fo r with Rogan Hollis explaining his vantage of regional reality. Andy Bax reveals the rise of publication. regional networks while Rolf Boe suggests an interesting rise in offshore communication needs. Virginia Hoffman raises concerns of shore-end installations, as Jim Bishop explains © WFN Strategies L.L.C., 2005 the EU’s waste regulations and submarine cables. Doug Stroud presents record deepwater cable successes, and we will tempt all with a foretaste of SubOptic Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the 2007. We conclude the multi-part serialization of From Elektron to ‘E’ Commerce. Jean Devos returns with his ever-insightful observations, Managing Editor: Wayne F. Nielsen, WFN Strategies, and of course, our ever popular “where in the world are all those 19471 Youngs Cliff Road, Suite 100, Potomac Falls, pesky cableships” is included as well. Virginia 20165, USA. Tel: +[1] 703 444-2527, Fax:+[1] 703 444-3047. Good reading, and in the meantime, keep those certificates Email: [email protected] firmly papered to your bathroom walls – just in case. General Advertising Les Valentine Good reading. Tel: +[1] 281 531 7417 Email: [email protected]

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2 Issue No 20 Editors Exordium 2 Global Marine 21 ContentsNewsNow 4-6 Great Easter n Group 14 May 2005 Executive For um Brian Crawford 7 Lloyd’s Register 31 Nexans 24 Back to the Future: John Manock 9 STF Reprints 17 Suboptic 2007 12 STF Adver tising 8 Regional Reality Rogan Hollis 16 STF Cable Map 30 The Rise of Regional Submarine Networks Andy Bax 19 Tyco Telecommunications 4,6,15 Off-Shore Communications by Rolf Boe 22 WFN Strategies 34 Histor y of the industr y Par t 4 - Stewar t Ash 32 Submarine Communications 20th 19 The Forgotten Mile Virginia Hoffman 25 Letter to a Friend Jean Devos 43 Is Submarine Cable WEEE Jim Bishop 27 Record Successes in Deepwater Cable Doug Stroud 29 The Cableships 35 Diar y 44

3 A sia Netcom Touts the Philippines for BPO DCre u r i sn t g Com a m m e d u i na icationsb r i e f i n g ,Urges B i l l B FCC a r n eto y, Re A s ject i a N Tyco e t c o m ’s PBid r e s to i d e Se n t l lan Fi d b eCO r to O VSNL , ou t l i n e d th e im p o r t a n c e of in - ternationalCiting signifi cant telecoms homeland solutions security concerns, in facilitating Crest the coun- t rCommunications y ’ s em e r g i n g Corp. ro l e urged as a the pr Federal o v i d e rCommunications of bu s i n e s s pr o c - Commission to reject Tyco Telecommunication's application A synopsisA synopsis of ofcurrent current news news items items from from NewsNow, NewsNow, the the weekly weekly news news feed feed available available on on the the essto sell outsourcing its global fi ber network(BPO). to VSNL Telecommunications, a SubmarineSubmarine Telecoms Telecoms Forum Forum website. website. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/company owned by the Indian government and the Tata Group, India's largest civilian defense contractor. 26_september_2004.htm Alcate l Anno u nces Contract fo r Alge r ia-Fr ance BT Exte n d s Re ac h i n Asia Pac i fic Re g ion www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/10_april_2005 AfricanC a b le Power Venture to Have International AlcatelBT has announced Wins Contracts further investment from VNPT in Asia Pacific of Asia Pacific Carriers Form Coalition Fiber Network Alcatelapproximately has announcedUS$48 million. that it has been awarded two Alcatel has announced that it would be deploying a new, turnkey GlobalDMC S Comcarriers p le te operating d in Asia Pacific have formed Fsubmarine i v e A f r i c cable a n s network t a t e s l afor u nOrascom c h e d a Telecom, p r o j e c the t t o largest p u t a n e w multi-million www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/20_march_200 dollar contracts by Vietnam5 Posts and GSM network operator in the Middle East, Africa and South a telecommunications carriers group focused on 3Asia. , 5 0 0Scheduled M W p o for w e service r s t a t iin o nthe o second n t h e mhalf i g of h t2005, y C o the n g new o r i v e r Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT). promotingNEC successfully open completed market Dumai policies Melaka and Cable best Sysmem practice (DMCS) on 18 December 2004 and handed it over to PT asubmarine n d r u n p cable o w e network r l i n e s willt h rconnect o u g h AMarseille n g o l a ina nFrance d N a mto i b i a t o regulatory frameworks throughout Asia Pacific. Algiers and Annaba in Algeria spanning nearly 1,300 km and www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk and Telekom Malaysia Berhad. headfurther off improving looming the connectivity shortages between and spurAlgeria, development. European 24_october_2004.htmCo l u m b u s Com m u n ications Buys New Wo r l d www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/27_march_2005 and international networks. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ Ne two r k 19_september_2004.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/10_april_2005 Antilles Crossing Plans Cable System 31_october_2004.htm Columbus Communications Ltd. and New World Network AntillesInternational, Crossing Ltd. have has announced received that they landing have signed approvals a AT&T Will Slash 7,400 Jobs and $11 Billion in Assets letter of intent for Columbus to purchase New World Network, a FLAG Hos t s Ce le b r ation to Kic k Off FALCON Alcatel Outlines User-Centric Vision for Asia-Pacific f rleading o m t h provider e G o v eof r advanced, n m e n ts ohigh-speed f B a r b a dclear o s , channelSt . L u and c i a IPa n d AT & T C o r p . i s c u t t i n g a t l e a s t 7 , 5 0 0 m o r e j o b s a n d FLAG Telecom recently hosted an offi cial celebration of the A Alcate l c a t e l h l to a s Upga n n r o ade u n c SE e d A-ME-WE-3 t h a t i t i s o f f i c i a l l y l a u n c h i n g t hservices e U n i tin e dthe Sta Caribbean t e s t o regionb u i l d ,and o w the n , principala n d o powner e r a t eof athe n e w s l a s h i n g t h e b o o k v a l u e o f i t s a s s e ts b y $ 11 . 4 b i l - Americas Region Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS). FALCON submarine cable in the system's hub city of Muscat, i tAlcatel s v i s i ohas n oannounced f U s e r - C that e n tit r has i c B been r o a dawarded b a n d sa emulti-million r v i c e s i n t h e s u b m a r i n e f i b e r o p t i c c a b l e b e t w e e n St . C r o i x a n d lion,Oman. drastic moves prompted by the company’s plan US dollar turnkey contract to deploy an integrated submarine Barbados www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/10_april_2005 with a spur connection to St. Lucia. Asia-Pacific region. to www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/17_april_200 retreat from the consumer telephone5 business. and terrestrial optical solution for the 10 Gbps upgrade of the www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/SEA-ME-WE-3 submarine cable network. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 24_october_2004.htm 24_october_2004.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/20_march_2005 24_october_2004.htm

41 APa sia rtners Netcom h i p Touts to Se rvethe Offs Philippines hor e Ener for g yBPO Mar ke t DGlobal u r i n g Marine a m eSystems d i a b r i eLimited f i n g , andB i l lSMIT B a r nHeavy e y, A Lift s i aEurope N e t c o m ’s B.V., a division of SMIT International, have announced their Pintention r e s i d e to nt cooperate an d CO to O meet , ou the t l i n needs e d th of e theim pgrowing o r t a n c e of in - ternationalrenewable energy telecoms market. solutions in facilitating the coun- t r www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_may_2005 y ’ s em e r g i n g ro l e as a pr o v i d e r of bu s i n e s s pr o c - A synopsis of current news items from NewsNow, the weekly news feed available on the ess outsourcing (BPO). FLAG Te lecom Prov id i ng C i r cu it s to T-Sys te m s Manage ment Changes at Ca b le Bahamas Submarine Telecoms Forum website. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ FLAG Telecom has announced the delivery of protected STM- Cable Bahamas Ltd. has announced the appointment of 26_september_2004.htmQte l Sign s Ag r ee ment for FALCON L and i ng 16 (2.5 Gbps) circuits for T-Systems International GmbH. The Brendan Paddick as Chairman to the Board of Directors and St ation i n Q ata r circuits, between T-Systems' locations in Tokyo and Hong Kong, Chief Executive Officer. This appointment coincided with the Africanwill be used Power to deliver Venture advanced to networkHave Internationalservices and support Alcatelresignations Wins of PhilipContracts Keeping from as Chairman VNPT and Richard Pardy AsiaQtel, PacificQatar’s national Carriers telecom Form operator, Coalition has confirmed a enterprise and wholesale customers. as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Keeping will remain with the Fiber Network Alcatel has announced that it has been awarded two multi-million dollar investment in the country’s communications company as a member of the board of directors. Globalinfrastructure carriers with the operating official signing in Asia of historic Pacific agreements have formed F www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_may_2005 i v e A f r i c a n s t a t e s l a u n c h e d a p r o j e c t t o p u t a n e w multi-million dollar contracts by Vietnam Posts and athat telecommunications provides a full landing station carriers for FLAG group Telecom’s focused FALCON on www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/17_april_2005 Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT). cable system in Doha and purchase of capacity on the new 3 , 5 0 0 M W p o w e r s t a t i o n o n t h e m i g h t y C o n g o r i v e r promotingregional terabit/s open cable market system. policies and best practice a n d r u n p o w e r l i n e s t h r o u g h A n g o l a a n d N a m i b i a t o www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ regulatory frameworks throughout Asia Pacific. G l o b al Mar i ne Wi n s S o uther n Cr oss Mai nte nance www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/24_april_2005 head off looming shortages and spur development. 24_october_2004.htm Contract Nexans Awar de d Contract fo r Ener g y Project www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 19_september_2004.htm Nexans has been awarded a project worth around 22 million Southern Cross Cables Limited has announced it will renew 31_october_2004.htm AntillesEuros for Crossingtrenching services, Plans Cableby Hydro System as operator for the Ormen and extend its undersea cable maintenance agreement with SE A-ME-WE-4 C a b le L ay i ng Beg i n s Lange licence group, for two MEG (Mono Ethylene Glycol) Global Marine Systems Limited (Global Marine) for the Antilles Crossing has received landing approvals AT&T Will Slash 7,400 Jobs and $11 Billion in Assets pipelines and two umbilical cables serving the undersea gas fi eld northern portion of the 30,000 km USA-Australasia Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) reports that the cable Alcatel Outlines User-Centric Vision for Asia-Pacific f ron o mthe t hcontinental e G o v e rshelf n m earound n ts o 120 f B akm r b off a d the o s coast , St . ofL uNorway. c i a a n d Southern Cross Cable Network to December 2010. ATlaying & T operation C o r p . i sof cSEA-ME-WE-4 u t t i n g a t l e asubmarine s t 7 , 5 0 0cable m o linking r e j ob s a n d France to Singapore -- with Mumbai, India, as a landing point for A l c a t e l h a s a n n o u n c e d t h a t i t i s o f f i c i a l l y l a u n c h i n g t h e U n i t e d Sta t e s t o b u i l d , o w n , a n d o p e r a t e a n e w s l a s h i n g t h e b o o k v a l u e o f i t s a s s e ts b y $ 11 . 4 b i l - www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/1_may_2005 VSNL -- commenced on February 24, 2005. i t s v i s i o n o f U s e r - C e n t r i c B r o a d b a n d s e r v i c e s i n t h e swww.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/27_march_200 u b m a r i n e f i b e r o p t i c c a b l e b e t w e e n 5St . C r o i x a n d lion, drastic moves prompted by the company’s plan Asia-Pacific region. Barbados with a spur connection to St. Lucia. towww.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/20_march_20 retreat from the consumer telephone05 business. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ G uade l o u p e Numér iq ue Project to Ex p an d Nexans Deve l o ps Innovati ve D r e dge r Sys te m 24_october_2004.htm 24_october_2004.htm 24_october_2004.htm The "Guadeloupe Numérique" cable is a public initiative carried Nexans has developed an innovative terrain dredger/sub-sea out by the Guadeloupe Regional Council, with the support of the intervention system, called the Spider. The Spider is the only European Commission (European Regional Development Fund); technology capable of leveling the seabed in steep areas. this cable, which is in the process of being installed, will directly connect Saint Martin and Guadeloupe to the Internet backbone www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/8_may_2005 in San Juan (Puerto Rico).

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/27_march_2005

51 A sia Netcom Touts the Philippines for BPO DVSNL u r i n g Gai a m n s e All d i a US b r iGove e f i n g r , nB ment i l l B a rApp n e y, r oval A s i a s toN e t c o m ’s PAcq r e s u i d i re e n TGN t an d CO O , ou t l i n e d th e im p o r t a n c e of in - ternationalVidesh Sanchar telecoms Nigam Limited solutions (VSNL), inIndia's facilitating leading provider the coun- t rof y ’international s em e r g i ntelecommunications g ro l e as a pr o vand i d einternet r of bu services, s i n e s shas pr o c - announced that the Federal Communications Commission ess outsourcing (BPO). TeA le gsynopsis l o b e to Prov of ide current NORDUnet news W ith items High -from NewsNow,Te l s tr a, the PCCW weekly Det ai l newsNew RE feed ACH Oavailable p e r ational on the (FCC) in the United States approved its application on April 29th, Submarine Telecoms Forum website. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/2005 to transfer the Tyco Global Network (TGN) landing station Speed Con necti v ity on CANTAT-3 Mode l licenses from Tyco to VSNL. 26_september_2004.htm Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. has announced that the Following REACH's announcement earlier this year on data www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/8_may_2005 company has extended its agreement with NORDUnet and capacity and third party business (see TSA NewsFeed for Africandoubled capacityPower to Venture provide high-speed to Have Internet International connectivity AlcatelJanuary Wins11, 2005), Contracts Telstra has from announced VNPT further REACH Asia Pacific Carriers Form Coalition Fiberbetween Network NORDUnet and the Icelandic research and education Alcateloperational has model announced improvements. that it has been awarded two community. GlobalWFN Str carriers ate g ies operating E s t a b l i s hes in Asia Aus tr Pacific al ian Str have ate gformed ic F i v e A f r i c a n s t a t e s l a u n c h e d a p r o j e c t t o p u t a n e w multi-million www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/24_april_2005 dollar contracts by Vietnam Posts and a telecommunications carriers group focused on www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/24_april_2005 All iance 3 , 5 0 0 M W p o w e r s t a t i o n o n t h e m i g h t y C o n g o r i v e r Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT). promoting open market policies and best practice a n d r u n p o w e r l i n e s t h r o u g h A n g o l a a n d N a m i b i a t o regulatoryWFN Strategies frameworks recently announced throughout that it has Asia established Pacific. a www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ strategic alliance in Australia with Walker, Newman & Associates head off looming shortages and spur development. TYCO G l o b al Ne two r k Str e ng t hen s Lin x’s 24_october_2004.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/for the purpose of expanding business opportunities in the oil & Te le g l o b e, Vi rte l a Anno u nce Ag r ee ment Wo r l d w ide Lin ks Pro g r am me With D i r ect Tr an s- gas and telecoms arena. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 19_september_2004.htm Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. and Virtela have At l antic Con necti v ity And G l o b al Ether net 31_october_2004.htm Antilles Crossing Plans Cable System www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/27_march_2005 announced that the companies have established an agreement S e rv ices for Teleglobe to provide Virtela's global managed network Antilles Crossing has received landing approvals AT&T Will Slash 7,400 Jobs and $11 Billion in Assets services to Teleglobe's regional ISP clients enabling them Alcatel Outlines User-Centric Vision for Asia-Pacific f rTyco o m Telecommunications,t h e G o v e r n m e n tsa leadingo f B a rprovider b a d o s of , Stinternational . L u c i a a n d AT & T C o r p . i s c u t t i n g a t l e a s t 7 , 5 0 0 m o r e j o b s a n d www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/8_may_2005 wholesale capacity and colocation services on the Tyco Global A l c a t e l h a s a n n o u n c e d t h a t i t i s o f f i c i a l l y l a u n c h i n g t hNetwork e U n i t(TGN), e d Sta has t e joined s t o b the u i lPartnership d , o w n , a Programme n d o p e r a of t e the a n e w s l a s h i n g t h e b o o k v a l u e o f i t s a s s e ts b y $ 11 . 4 b i l - i t s v i s i o n o f U s e r - C e n t r i c B r o a d b a n d s e r v i c e s i n t h e sLondon u b m a rInternet i n e f i b Exchange e r o p t i c (LINX), c a b l e Europe’s b e t w e elargest n St .Internet C r o i x a n d lion, drastic moves prompted by the company’s plan exchange, and will provide LINX members in New York City Asia-Pacific region. Barbadosand Miami with with direct a spuraccess connection to TGN’s connectivity to St. andLucia. Global to retreat from the consumer telephone business. Ethernet Services. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 24_october_2004.htm 24_october_2004.htmwww.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/10_april_2005 24_october_2004.htm

61 more diffi cult for the others to cover their costs, Are business conditions improving or getting forcing additional rounds of bankruptcies, worse, and are you optimistic or pessimistic restructurings, and further reductions in the EXECUTIVE about the future? rates of leases and IRUs. In particular, the IRU, which was originally conceived as method to Conditions are improving in general and we transfer network capacity among consortium are optimistic about the future. operators prior to the introduction of upgrade FORUM technologies, will continue to lose popularity Do you see any signs of recovery in the much the same way that an IRU loses its value undersea cable industry in the short term or in market where prices continue to fall. the long term? We understand that there were two There are certainly signs of recovery as licenses awarded at the end of 2004 by the evidenced by the growth of the TCCN government for the construction of new cable consortium to more than 50 operators, but systems into Jamaica, one to Fibralink and one there are still plenty of under-utilized cables to TCCN. Do you think that Jamaica really out there that need to fi nd long-term users. needs two cable systems? If not, then why do Without the stable support of long-term users, you think that you will be successful versus the future of such under-utilized cables will the competition? Brian Crawford, President, Trans-Caribbean remain questionable at best. In any case, there Cable Company seems to be signifi cant demand for capacity I agree with the reports published Pioneer that remains unsatisfi ed by the capacity reseller Consulting and other analysts which all seem model, soon to result in some new consortium- to indicate that the entire market demand for With 13 years in the undersea cable industry, owned cables in our view. Jamaica will be less than 10 Gbps during the Mr. Crawford has worked on more than 15 next fi ve years. Obviously, based on such different undersea cable projects around the What are your views on the future of the reports, two cable systems are not required, world, gaining experience in all aspects of undersea cable capacity market? Will but both could still be successfully built. After undersea cable network design, planning, capacity lease rates stabilize or continue to that, it then becomes a question of long-term decline? What about the IRU? survival. The consortium typically takes a construction, operations and maintenance. long-term, low risk approach whereas a private Formerly with AT&T Submarine Systems (now In the long-term, I truly believe that all developer may accept a short-term, higher risk Tyco Telecom), AT&T Communications, Pacifi c undersea cable operators are doomed to approach. Gateway Exchange, and New World Network, fail if their business models are completely Mr. Crawford now serves as the President of dependant on the wholesale capacity market. You have indicated before that the TCCN TCCC. As certain networks begin to capture more consortium was considering the purchase of and more long-term users, it will become even New World Network, the majority owner of

7 ARCOS, but now Columbus Communications has announced its plans to buy New World. What happened? How does this impact TCCN and what do you think will happen next?

Myself and many others were surprised at the news, especially considering that the bulk of New World’s customers are represented within the TCCN consortium. As for the TCCN consortium, this news basically clears the way for progress on alternative plans that do not ince 2001, Submarine Telecoms Website Banners depend on ARCOS. In the short term, I suspect Forum has been the platform for Post your web linked banner to the home that MAYA will now move forward with an Sdiscourse on sub marine telecom page, as well as News-Now sections of the upgrade plan and that some new initiatives cable and network operations. Industry Submarine Telecoms Forum website, where will emerge for Colombia to challenge New professionals provide editorial content some 5000+ readers can come as often as World’s semi-exclusive position in that from their own niche and focus. every week to view the latest news feed, or particular market. Current development/ Each bi-monthly edition includes our bi-monthly magazine. implementation plans for TCCN are normally commentary and information on system available at www.trans-caribbeancable.com. and service provision, and issues critical Rates US$ 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months to the industry. Home Page 540 900 1,440 The following map shows the most recent development plan under consideration by the NEWS-NOW PAGE 810 1,350 2,160 TCCN consortium: Advertising Rates Both 1,216 2,026 3,240 Magazine pages Rates US$ 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x Feature Section Sponsorship Page 1613 1564 1516 1468 1419 1371 Available at full-page advertisement rate, section sponsors 2/3 page 1189 1154 1118 1082 1047 1011 are identifi ed with a banner (link) at the beginning and end 1/3 page 768 744 721 698 675 652 of the featured section. All advertising rates as at December 2003.

Advertising enquiries Tel: [+1] (281) 531 7417 Fax: [+1] (281) 531 7456 [email protected] Submarine TelecomsFORUM 8 One year ago, in SubTelForum’s issue on Regional Cable under construction. Tata Indicom’s India-Singapore was Systems, we wrote about the future of the industry and the longest at a little more than 3,000 kilometers, but the Back to the the opportunities presented by regional systems. In this remainder were quite small – less than 500 kilometers. article, we will look at what has happened in the past The industry, however, was looking ahead to several large year and where the regional systems market stands. regional systems that showed promise. These systems included SEA-ME-WE-4, FALCON and EASSy. The Future Again: The most striking development in the past year in the promise has begun to materialize as all three have made submarine cable industry is the number of “real” systems great strides in the past year. that are under development. By “real” we mean projects that have a good chance of being built in the short term; Regional systems can be grouped into two categories. The Current not the long-term dreams or wishful thinking that seemed Large regional systems under development range from to fl oat around constantly during the darkest days of the 8,000 to 20,000 kilometers in length and usually have recent slump. many landing points. Smaller “The second major area of regional systems are up to 3,000 The defi nition of a “real” system kilometers long and are more often State of the development in the Caribbean is point-to-point. is, of course, subjective. For the purposes of this article, we are in the islands of the Lesser Antilles. defi ning “real” as those systems Recently, the SMITCOM cable There are four large systems for that have awarded a supply linking Puerto Rico and St. Maarten which supply contracts have Regional been awarded or will be awarded contract, those that we have entered service, but that was just reason to believe will be going soon. These are SEA-ME-WE-4, to bid this year, or those that the beginning of efforts to improve FALCON, EASSy and Globacom’s have made substantial progress connectivity to the islands. “ Nigeria-UK cable. All four point Systems Market to two geographic regions that are over the past year. The latter includes the raising of money, seeing rapid growth in telecom and acquisition of licenses, agreements with incumbent Internet demand – Africa and the Indian Ocean. operators and other developments that indicate an Purchasers? actively developing project. At this time last year, supply contracts had just been awarded to the largest of all the planned regional systems, Under this defi nition, there are more than a dozen SEA-ME-WE-4. At 20,000 kilometers, SEA-ME-WE-4 projects underway, totaling more than 50,000 kilometers will connect Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, of submarine cable. Of this total, more than 60% is now India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi under contract. Another 35% could be under contract Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France. The by the end of this year. Considering that the industry supply contracts were awarded to Alcatel and Fujitsu in installed less than 50,000 kilometers in new construction April 2004. Installation is well underway in both the during the period from 2002-2004, the systems currently Mediterranean Sea and India Ocean. underway represent a sizable growth spurt. The next largest system is FLAG Telecom’s FALCON, a And all of this growth is coming from regional systems. 10,000-kilometer system. FALCON will have multiple landings throughout the Gulf region, with submarine At this time last year, there were a few cable systems links initially stretching to India in the east and to Egypt in the west. Alcatel was awarded the supply contract in

by John Manock 9 February 2005 and FLAG Telecom and its partners, which support of the European Commission (European Regional include Omantel and Qtel, recently held a celebration As a result, two new cable systems will be built, one by Development Fund). It is an 800-kilometer system linking kicking off the project. Initial service on FALCON is Jamaica FibraLink and another by the Trans Caribbean Guadeloupe, St. Martin and Puerto Rico. Martinique scheduled to commence by the end of 2005. Cable Network (TCCN) consortium. Numerique is a 200-kilometer extension to Martinique. Further extensions are possible. Supply contracts have EASSy, the East African cable system, is an 8,400- Jamaica FibraLink will be a 2,600-kilometer ring network been awarded. kilometer network linking South Africa, Mozambique, between Jamaica and the Bahamas. From the Bahamas, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti. The it will connect to the United States using the Bahamas Antilles Crossing Limited, a joint venture between supply contract is expected to be put out to bids soon, Internet Cable System, which is owned by FibraLink’s Leucadia National Corporation and Barbados Light & with a supplier to be chosen by the end of 2005. The parent, Cable Bahamas. TCCN will be a single link Power Holdings Limited, will construct a state-of-the-art network is scheduled to enter service at the end of 2007. between Jamaica and the Dominican Republic in the 40 gigabit per second network from Needham’s Point, short term and will be about 800-kilometers long. TCCN Barbados, to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where The fourth large regional system is planned by Nigeria’s also proposes similar additional incremental builds it will interconnect with Global Crossing’s world-wide second carrier, Globacom. This project has an interesting throughout the Caribbean to supplement mostly existing telecommunications network. The 938-kilometer network history. After it was licensed in 2002, Globacom tried to infrastructure which would be integrated into a broader will also land in St. Lucia. join the SAT-3 consortium so it could acquire capacity at regional network. the same price as its competitor, Nitel. The consortium The owners of Antilles Crossing say that the project is effectively blocked Globacom’s efforts for more than two The second major area of development in the Caribbean fully funded. Supply contracts may be awarded soon. years, forcing the carrier to make plans for its own cable, is in the islands of the Lesser Antilles. Recently, the Eventually, the owners envision a “fi gure-8” network from which it announced last August. Alcatel was awarded the SMITCOM cable linking Puerto Rico and St. Maarten St. Croix to Trinidad, adding nearly 2,000 kilometers of supply contract in February 2005. An RFS date has not entered service, but that was just the beginning of efforts additional cable. been announced, however. to improve connectivity to the islands. Island Fibre’s Eastern Caribbean 1 (EC-1) will also run Of the smaller regional systems, under 3,000 kilometers Three other projects are under development – from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Trinidad. The 1,872- in length, there is greater variety in geography, as well as Guadeloupe/Martinique Numerique, Antilles Crossing kilometer system will include at least one ring. Island ingenuity in ownership structure. and Eastern Caribbean-1 (EC-1). Fibre has obtained dark fi ber on another submarine cable to connect this network to Puerto Rico. The company The Caribbean is the hottest region for this size network Guadeloupe/Martinique Numerique is well underway also has gained landing licenses on several islands and is – at least fi ve major systems are being actively developed, and is perhaps unique in the way it is funded. A common in discussions with others as they open their markets to while others are being discussed. Within the Caribbean, dilemma with regional networks is the inability to new players. the main focus is on Jamaica and the Lesser Antilles. raise money to build into small market countries. The Numerique concept uses public funding to pay for the As we have noted, all of the systems discussed so far The activity surrounding Jamaica stems from the decision cable system. The reasoning behind this is that Internet serve the three regions – the Indian Ocean, Africa, the late last year by the Jamaican government to license two access is a service that not only can aid a country’s Caribbean -- that are seeing strong telecom and Internet companies to build new submarine cables serving the economic development, but is actually vital for the health growth, as well as needing large amounts of affordable country. The need for these cables was clear. Jamaica and welfare of the nation. Whereas this may be obvious capacity. Opportunities can arise almost anywhere, is currently served only by the ancient TCS-1 cable to us in the industry, it is a concept that has only recently however, and developers are moving quickly to meet and a pre-DWDM Cable & Wireless system to the taken hold in the world’s agencies that are concerned them. Cayman Islands. The lack of affordable bandwidth was with funding essential services in developing countries. hampering economic development in the country and One new player that has made a splash in recent months the government took fi rm steps to address the problem by The Guadeloupe Numérique cable is a public initiative is Egypt’s Orascom. A mobile operator active in the issuing the new licenses. carried out by the Guadeloupe Regional Council, with the Middle East and Africa, Orascom is now involved in two

10 major regional submarine cables supporting its mobile competition is allowed. phone operations. Both Orascom cables also include branching units. The cable linking Algeria and France will have one for a future John Manock The first of these new systems will link Algeria with is the Director France. The 1,300-kilometer system was awarded to extension to Tunisia, while TWA-1 has one branching unit of Information Alcatel. Orascom is a major player in the Algerian market for a potential link into Muscat, Oman. Services at T Soja – both the mobile and the liberalizing fixed-line markets. As we pointed out a year ago, there are many factors that & Associates, Inc. Orascom’s second submarine cable project is through a drive the regional systems market – access to developing He is responsible joint venture in Pakistan. This cable will link Karachi with markets by new players, the ability to raise funding for creating and the United Arab Emirates. A 1,200-kilometer cable, this from traditional and non-traditional sources, late mover maintaining TSA’s system is known as TWA-1. Orascom is working with advantage, the continued need for consortium systems in databases on fiber Tyco on the project. certain regions, and many others. optic submarine cable systems. He is also the editor of TSA Other significant systems worth noting are: This variety is what is needed for a healthy market for NewsFeed, a daily information services regional submarine cable systems and this is just what is exclusively for TSA clients focusing on news • An Indonesian domestic network for which a happening now. There is a wide variety in the justification for new regional networks and an even wider variety of and events affecting the submarine cable supplier will be chosen soon, industry. • A Vietnam-Hong Kong cable that may go to funding mechanisms. These include: bid by the end of this year, Mr. Manock specializes in the development • A domestic festoon in Vietnam and a South • Traditional consortium systems (SEA-ME-WE-4, Pacific link that may go to bid next year, and EASSy) of information services for carriers, • A Greece-Libya cable in the early planning • Variations to the consortium structure (Trans developers, and suppliers. He has over stages, the concept of which has been Caribbean Cable Network virtual consortium) 18 years of experience in the fiber optics approved by both governments • Competitive private responses to consortium and telecommunications consulting systems (Globacom’s Nigeria-UK cable) business during which he has participated Another small but notable market for new cables is the • Late-mover advantages (Antilles Crossing, EC-1) in numerous studies on submarine cable expansion possibility presented by regional systems. As • First-mover advantages (FibraLink Jamaica) systems. He has also published numerous • noted, the Guadeloupe Numerique project has already Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) type agreements articles for the industry and is a frequent (Vietnam-Hong Kong) been expanded to Martinique and can be expanded contributor to industry publications • Publicly funded systems (Guadeloupe/ further using a branching unit installed between including SubTelForum and Soundings Guadeloupe and St. Martin. Martinique Numerique) • Domestic systems (Indonesia, Vietnam) Magazine. All of the other Caribbean projects that we have discussed Mr. Manock received a master’s degree in have the potential to be expanded as well. This is largely As a result, the submarine cable industry is seeing its being driven by liberalization in the region. As more of strongest growth in years, all of it thanks to the regional Library and Information Studies from the the island nations of the Eastern Caribbean open their cable market. University of Rhode Island and bachelor’s markets to competition, more opportunities arise for and master’s degrees from Providence expansion. This is also true of West Africa, where few College. countries have opened their submarine cable markets to competition and opportunities are sure to arise when such

11 Introduction which will be exclusively dedicated to SubOptic Throughout the modern-day era of undersea for the entire duration of the convention. Since the telecommunications, SubOptic has been conference sessions, the exhibition area, hospitality SUBOPTIC recognized as the organization to objectively suites, meeting rooms, refreshment areas and promote the technologies, products, services and rooming accommodations are all provided in one business practices for the industry as a whole. As facility, attendees will enjoy an ambience and the undersea telecommunications industry faces opportunity for networking thereby enhancing the st 2007 the opportunities and challenges of the 21 century, value and experience for attendees. so too does SubOptic as we look forward and caste the die for our next international convention Program structure Enabling Global - SubOptic 2007. More importantly, an additional change to SubOptic 2007 is with regards to the structure Communications The SubOptic 2007 International of the convention program itself. A couple of Telecommunications Convention is the premier the key objectives which are being considered conference and networking event for the as the SubOptic 2007 theme and program tracks undersea telecommunications industry, and will are established, is the need to communicate th be held on May 14-17 , 2007 at the lively and the value and importance of the undersea picturesque Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, telecommunications industry to a broader USA. The Convention will be proudly hosted audience. by Tyco Telecommunications, on behalf of the SubOptic Executive Committee. The SubOptic In contrast to previous events which were Executive Committee, which is comprised of 14 more focused on issues and topics that were of leading members of the industry including Tyco interest primarily to members of the undersea Telecommunications, provides strategic direction telecommunications industry, SubOptic 2007 is and acts as the supervisory board for the event. designed with the broader global telecom industry in mind. Telecom Carriers, Project Developers, Tyco Telecommunications, a leading Financial Institutions, Legal and Regulatory fi rms, supplier of undersea systems and marine and as well as related industries that can benefi t (Oil & maintenance services, has been an active part Gas, National Security, etc) will all fi nd a need to of the SubOptic community since the SubOptic be a part of SubOptic 2007. series of conventions started in 1986. Tyco Telecommunications’ ability to consistently provide As we look at undersea technology today, we leadership and innovation to the industry qualifi es recognize that the industry has matured to the them to not only host SubOptic 2007, but also to point where undersea networks have become provide the stewardship necessary to ensure the an integral and seamless part of the broader success of the overall event. global communications network. As such, undersea networks and technology play a vital Location and irreplaceable role in the telecom spectrum. The entire convention will be held in a single To ensure that the program design and topics premier hotel, the Baltimore Marriot Waterfront

12 promote interest and value to this broader telecom prominent fi gures from various areas of the global a picturesque waterfront area with a plethora audience, the SubOptic 2007 planning team has telecommunications community and associated of restaurants, retail stores as well as dozens of formed a marketing strategy team. users and opinion formers as Keynote and cultural and historic attractions. The Inner Harbor Plenary Speakers. These visible and infl uential is one of America's oldest seaports, and is quickly Strategic Marketing Group individuals will be of direct interest and provide becoming one of the newest and increasingly Led by Tyco Telecommunications’ and SubOptic’s value to the numerous segments within the global popular travel destinations for people from all own marketing resources, this strategy team will telecommunications industry. corners of the globe. Since the 17th Century, leverage the insight of leaders from various facets Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has been welcoming of the industry. These will include the infl uential The Program Committee will also take particular people, ships and goods from all over the world. Its and insightful Senior Industry Advisors Wayne care to design a Poster and Networking Session as waterways have been a passage for ships carrying Nielsen (of WFN Strategies and SubTel Forum) a highlight of the Convention. This session was a commercial cargo and new citizens, and it lies and Tom Soja (of Tom Soja & Associates) plus tremendous success at SubOptic 2004. Attendees farther west than any other major Atlantic port, a members who have a broader perspective of the rated this session highly, appreciating that it was point that endeared its harbor to shippers. More market we are attempting to reach. The formation a prestigious event in its own right, providing than 30 million tons of cargo passes through the of this externally focused strategy team is one of a unique networking opportunity for authors, port of Baltimore every year, which emphasizes the the initiatives that the SubOptic planning team is colleagues and customers to interact on a one-on- maritime signifi cance of this historic international putting in place to ensure that SubOptic2007 will one basis. Many felt that this offered more value harbor. provide interest and value to the global telecom than a short oral presentation with its limited community. opportunity for interaction between the author and Charming historic neighborhoods surround the the audience. Inner Harbor, each offering their own character, SubOptic 2007 will promote the inherent benefi ts history and cuisine. Little Italy is a pasta lover's that undersea telecommunications provide to the paradise with outdoor movies on summer broader global communications community. In Baltimore and the Inner Harbor weekends, festivals of San Gabriel and St. Anthony, essence, the technical sophistication, incredible Choosing the venue for SubOptic 2007 was no and two bocce ball courts. Fells Point is the oldest reliability and seamless integration with other easy task. The location needed to be an attractive section of Baltimore and still has the feel of an old telecom protocols have truly allowed the undersea international destination that provides culture, English neighborhood with cobblestone streets, telecommunications industry to be a valuable history and entertainment to a global audience and unique shops and plentiful pubs and restaurants. enabler of global communications. it must have strong maritime presence and history. And, there's Harbor East, a bustling waterfront Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is just that venue….. stop with its own attractions, retail shops, and Program Committee restaurants. The Program Committee, led by Chairman David Baltimore, a high-spirited, energetic city built on Robles from Tyco Telecommunications, is currently tradition and civic pride, is an American success Baltimore has restaurants to satisfy nearly every being formed and will have the task of crafting story. Since the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor craving. Dining options include elegant gourmet an appropriate program. The program design will in the late 1970s, Baltimore has set the standard cuisine, ethnic foods from around the world include topics that will be of interest and value to for urban renewal and is now a major travel and plenty of fresh seafood from Maryland's both the core undersea network community as well destination welcoming over 11 million business Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is known for its as the broader global telecommunications industry. and leisure visitors each year. fabulous crabs, and dining at one of the city's many seafood restaurants or crab houses is a must for all Furthermore, the program will also include The crown jewel of Baltimore is the Inner Harbor, who visit.

13 China Telecom to transmit traffic directly between the US and China. This has enabled China Telecom to boost its business while reducing theAs carrier’s we now look international forward with anticipation operating to SubOptic 2007 planning has begun in earnest. The costs. venue selection of the Inner Harbor, Baltimore and China theNetcom choice isof alsothe Marriot becoming Waterfront more Hotel and refl ects the changing scale of the industry and will provide more international.an unparalled opportunity to network. The design We haveof the not Program attempted will refl ect to the evaluate changing scopethe of the industry, as it is now an integral and seamless differential partgrowth of the muchin demand broader global on thecommunications three routes that wenetwork. examined. In general terms we would expectThe websitea continuation for SubOptic 2007of very (www.suboptic. high growth in ortrafficg), which thatis set to is go relativelylive in the next coupleRTD of months, will provide a wealth of information tolerant. relatedBetween to the SubOpticAsia and 2007 Europe event, and the the deploymentbroader of systems telecom thatindustry. are The less design tolerant of the website will current not only provide the guest with to RTD is alsoany informationlikely to relatedincrease to the rapidly event, but and will also this shouldprovide allow a way the to suggestlow RTDideas, askroute questions, to view industry articles of interest and even learn more continue toabout command Baltimore’s a Innerpremium, Harbor andassuming surrounding that the in-servicearea. Any performance information about proves the event to can be always be obtained by sending email to suboptic- exemplary. [email protected] . In order to maintain a premium price the “high quality” route needs to be high quality as perceived by the users. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries our forefathers founded the “silk routes” and “spice routes” between East and West. In the twenty-first century, carriers have to find the most profitable “routes” between Europe and Asia. There is a choice of course. Like the explorers of old we can go West or East. We 14 have to decide what is the absolute right fit for our customers.

32 15 et me start with a couple of questions: how can no longer employed in our industry). Carriers are Lan island with a population of around 300,000, in business to make money, believe it or not, and REGIONAL and a GDP of $10,000 or less, justify having three the idea of investing massive sums in infrastructure international submarine cables? In a competitive en- is only realistic when there is a realistic chance of vironment, where telecommunications providers are making your money back. struggling for every dollar, where does the money come from to justify building even one international Before Tom Soja and the like leap on my back and REALITY cable? shout that I am advocating a return to the “regu- - a pragmatic look at the lated” days, let me say clearly that I am a believer in Frankly, some islands might consider themselves the benefi ts of competition and liberalisation. I’m a fortunate to have had submarine cable connectivity consumer like everyone else and like everyone else I gap between expectations in the past, because trust me, not all cables were jus- tend to use something more if it is cheap. The issue tifi ed on economic grounds. Rather than pounding I see is one of balance. There needs to be enough and economics the incumbent – always a fun and easy sport – per- profi t in a service for a company to justify providing haps people ought to recognise that there were some it. When this simple truth is extended to regional By benefi ts to being in an environment where compa- submarine cable systems, it means that there needs nies felt secure in building expensive infrastructure to be enough return to justify a major investment. Rogan Hollis that required a long term commitment to achieve We can argue all we like that system costs are payback. The demographics of many islands could cheaper due to the pressure on suppliers. We can never have justifi ed such major investment at the all argue that the benefi ts of competition to the con- same time as demanding competition, and it is my sumer are lower prices and better service. How do personal view that far from all island economies can we square the circle that less revenue justifi es more justify it in the future. There just isn’t enough money investment ? to go round to make it worth the while for the phone companies. The problem for some of the islands is This is where the classical argument comes in that that there are unrealistic expectations out there. In competition will lead to lower prices but more take- the case of regional systems, these expectations are up, thereby increasing the overall market size or the that there is a divine right to have cheaper calls, and pie that the phone companies take their living from. more bandwidth, and at higher speeds. It is this bigger pie that we are supposed to believe will provide the incentive to companies to risk Forgive me now for making an obvious statement, investing in the infrastructure. How big a pie can but it is one that I believe the many proponents of 300,000 people make? How much bigger can it get regional systems as our industry saviour need to just because they can each afford a little bigger slice acknowledge: submarine cables cost a lot of money. ? How much pie can they afford with a GDP of less The next statement is perhaps less obvious to some than $10,000 ? but no less true: telecommunications providers are not working as charities (for proof of this we need only look at the numbers of our colleagues that are

16 above 3 options. If, for example, RTD is of opti- on those segments of the route than there was MiddleGovernments East around the world are trumpeting the unless they are charity projects. The good news for tralia needs to be able to get to the US to deliver the Thebenefi oldest ts of liberalisation and traditional and competition. fiber optic These route are is mumother islandsimportance is that theto driversthe buyer, of today then and the tomor- new twomajority or three of what years its broadband ago. customers are de- viapolitical the Middlerealities thatEast, governments using the cannotsystems afford of Flagto additionalrow exist to justifyoption investment of routing in them. via Russia,As always one in manding.The It’slikely the sametrend for in any prices other of island, capacity includ- on Euroignore Asia if they or want SEA-ME-WE-3. to be voted in. They are also very wouldlife, there assume, will be willwinners be ofand great losers. interest. theing theroute UK. via What’s Russia interesting and Mongolia to me is isthe very amount hard true benefi ts in many scenarios, where scale justifi es of capacity that the broadband drive is consuming. These two submarine systems were im- Future price movements, by nature, are of to predict. There are relatively few suppliers ca- them. Everyone in the whole telecommunications Enough of the dark side. As we are dealing in optics There’s an island in the Caribbean that right now has menselyindustry believes, significant I suspect, developments in the benefi at ts their of being time coursehere, let’s very look difficult on the brightto predict. side. IfThe my USDfriends 35 and 000 pableabout 6of STM-1’s provisioning of international end-to-end capacity, circuits and little and ofconnected construction. to the international They are essentially network, including branched representscolleagues ina Southernsmall reduction Cross, Australia on prices and overNew the thereforeserious broadband the intensity activity. of They competition are in the processis not as systemsthe world designedwide web. to I don’t provide have toconnectivity list all of the to pastZealand 12 months.will forgive Price me, reductionlet’s look at inSX the as a last kind year of greatof launching as either broadband, of the other and routes.the international The existence (i.e. largepossibilities numbers because of countries they will been familiar route. toRing you pro-all; has“hyper-regional” been small system.compared I hope with they the will annual all forgive re- ofUS) the capacity other requirements routes nevertheless to meet their should projected con- things like e-learning, e-medicine and the like could me because I am using them as an example of suc- demand within the next three years is ten times what tected submarine systems in other oceans of the duction of circa 50 % p.a. that has been recorded tinue to act as a downward pressure on prices have inestimable social benefi ts especially to outly- cess and because the English can be popular Down they have now ! And this is still at relatively low worlding island were communities. developed laterBut please and neither notice, IFlag slipped nor overUnder previous as we lose years. at so We many can sports. but hope The thatApril prices onbroadband the shortest speeds, route. compared to other countries. SMW-3in the word are, “social” in themselves, there just beforering systems. benefi ts. Resto- Busi- acrossNewsletter the ofAtlantic, Southern across Cross continentaltalks about the USA growth and PeopleThe in Paris growth have of8 mbitpredicted broadband traffic now; to in China the rationness people of Flag tend and to distinguishSMW-3 has between to be what’screated good us- acrossof Australasian the Pacific Broadband have now as a stabilised. driver for increased As regards overUK you the can coming easily getyears 4 mbit; is well and Iknown. gather in Indeedparts ingfor society support and of what’s capacity good onebusiness. from Itthe would other be or theactivation trends rates in prices on their on cable. the route If you via look the at Middlethe Chinaof Asia (SouthTelecom Korea is pro-activefor example) in they being are upa part to of great, for instance, to connect up all of the islands in chart they have you can see spectacular growth gbits to the home. Imagine how much international from other, less immense systems which paral- East, the prices of Europe-Asia capacity follow- this business, launching plans to develop busi- the Pacifi c – but who’s going to pay for it ? since the middle of last year, which they are fore- capacity these speeds can drive, if accompanied by lel some of the route. ingcasting that to routecontinue have into declined the foreseeable less dramatically future. All nessscale inin theEurope number by ofopening consumers, a new and officethen remem- in the These Theissues RTD – balancing is circa 230the demandsms. Prices of arecompeti- quoted overright, theit’s notprevious quite the five level years of growthyet we thatcan MCIsee noth- used UK.ber that The this company, stuff can’t gowhich over satellitehas already – what anmade bytion various and economic suppliers, returns, offering balancing a range the social of prices and ingto predict, to cause but upwardI guess Bernie pressure has aon more prices foreseeable on that similaropportunity moves for undersea into the cable North ! American mar- normallythe business at benefi least ts, double balancing those good via old USA/trans- supply and route.future now …. ket, is believed to be tracking corporate custom- demand – are the issues that ultimately will decide There is the potential, I believe, that some broad- ers with bases in Europe and China. Pacificthe fate of option. regional submarine systems. The bad UnfortunatelyIndeed, forwith those new of uscables that can opening spell, the up vast be- band operators will go the same way as some of news forIt issome obviously islands willapparent be that theythat reallythe buyer’s can’t tweenmajority India of internet and Singapore content is stilland produced onward into theEast- the earlyChina ISP’s Telecom… in their wasrush togranted get into anthe marketoperat- criteriajustify a willsingle decide new cable, which never route mind to twouse orfrom three, the ernUS. Asia,That means there thatis now an island a lot / regionmore competitionlike Aus- ingthey licencewill simply in undercutthe US two each years other. ago, This enablingkind of

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Rogan Hollis has competition will initially be good for the consumer English is native, to consider that they should have but in the medium run it could be unsustainable and an advantage in attracting US-based offshore jobs. been involved in we will see broadband suppliers start to fall in the Less and shorter travel times from the US should also the submarine same way as ISP’s (and subsea cable companies) fell. benefi t the Caribbean, further enhancing the need cable industry for What will this mean to the cable owner that sold for international capacity. the broadband provider his international capacity ? almost 15 years, Where will that cable owner recover his money from Although on the face of it this type of traffi c growth including stints ? And if the cable operator can’t see a stable income does not correlate with population size, and so with BT (Marine) fl ow, why would he re-invest in new infrastructure? would seem to avoid my fi rst question, actually in Limited and Cable the end the population will matter as there will only Broadband will not be the only driver of internation- be so many workers to go round. The GDP will mat- & Wireless Ma- al capacity growth in the next few years, although ter because of the amount of education these people rine. He started it will be the major one. Another factor will be the can afford. And with all of the islands fi ghting each in the bidding team for BTM and progressed increasing practice of “off-shoring” jobs – in other other for these jobs, the question of scale will come words, outsourcing jobs to lower cost countries. back to haunt them, and thus the prospective under- to be International Sales Manager for CWM Already a political hot potato in the US and parts of sea cable builders. before moving on to C&W plc. Amongst his Europe, this practice is set to continue and grow over key achievements at Cable & Wireless (Ma- the next few years, but again many people don’t yet In summary, my view (not a Cable & Wireless view) realise that it is dependent upon reliable, cost-effec- is that those people in our industry that believe re- rine) was negotiating the creation of the Joint tive international capacity. Saving money on staff sat gional systems are our salvation are overly optimis- Venture company with NTT, NTT WE Marine in India or the Caribbean is a quick false economy if tic. Liberalisation and competition will lead more Limited. In 1999 Rogan moved to Cable & your Customers can’t get through to buy their goods people to consider building regional systems, but Wireless plc where he was Head of Mainte- from you … and I think that the entrepreneurs have these same factors will scare off as many businesses realised this ahead of some of us telecommunica- as they excite. No doubt there will be those that are nance for the Cable & Wireless network. This tions companies. So as this practice grows there will willing to take the risk, but truly sensible business- gave him experience as a network operator be more demand into the so-called regional econo- men would not build multiple cables to islands with and purchaser of maintenance services, which mies, which in turn will justify cable builds; but small populations and low GDP’s, however much there is a fi nite number of countries that will be able governments and social imperatives would suggest he continues to use in his role today guiding to take on this kind of work. India is already well otherwise. Scale will remain vital to the case for a the Cable & Wireless wet maintenance strat- supplied, if not over-supplied, with subsea cables. submarine cable investment. There may be a case egy and network development. In addition to I would look for growth in places where there is a to build perhaps one new cable to some places, as his maintenance responsibilities Rogan leads highly educated and hideously cheap workforce, much for diversity as for new capacity, but the eco- such as Vietnam, or looking slightly further ahead nomic justifi cation needs to be robust and in many the commercial team within C&W looking at in time to Cuba, where the same conditions exist cases it can’t be whilst governments are pursuing op- new submarine cable builds. Rogan is also but the island is signifi cantly closer to the US. Of posing paths of additional investment and increased the C&W representative for SubOptic 2007. course, neither of these places speak English as a competition. primary language, so there should be an opportu- nity for a number of islands in the Caribbean, where

18 power the signal amplifi cation in the submerged repeaters. deregulating markets Clearly regional systems are as diverse in their technology • Supporting the international tourist industry The Rise of as their owners are in their business models. in their wish to take their offi ce with them on vacation Various defi nitions have been given as to what constitutes • Replacement of low-capacity networks that are a regional submarine network. Generally it is regarded as uneconomic to maintain following the collapse of having a subsea route length of below 4000km and not capacity pricing Regional needing the transmission ‘tweaks’ of an oceanic system in • Secure or dedicated government networks terms of dispersion, gain, tilt and other factors. • Alternatives to terrestrial new build as price per km of construction is lower and implementation times The market drivers for regional submarine capacity are as faster. Submarine varied as the solutions. The reduction in system pricing has fuelled lower-capacity applications previously considered The single, unifying factor between these diverse customers uneconomic for submarine cable solutions. Looking at is their fundamental need for regional connectivity that is the source of regional network contracts over the last two cheap to implement, and reliable; and simple and cheap years shows that 56 percent were purchased by traditional to operate and upgrade as their capacity needs grow. Networks customers (new and old style carriers), 7 percent were from Bandwidth demand is growing, at a conservative rate of By diversifi ed energy companies, 34 percent from companies 5-10 percent per annum.. However, this growth is not not associated with fi xed line provision, and 3 percent from being refl ected in bandwidth pricing, in fact the reverse can Andy Bax alternative carriers in newly deregulated markets. still apply. Thus typically for every 1 percent that a carrier loses in revenue due to capacity price erosion they need to recover 150m Euro in operational cost savings. The price The demand for regional submarine networks dominates Irrespective of the type of customer who buys them, and time pressures in this market are substantial. our current market environment, although it has regional submarine networks meet one or a combination of frequently been in the shadow of the longer, trans-oceanic the following business needs: The mismatch between the needs of the new regional systems. The industry has, however traditionally focused system operator and the traditional submarine system on the challenges presented by the more glamorous • Relief of a regional capacity bottleneck for solutions already mentioned deserves closer inspection. trans-oceanic, high capacity requirements. This has led to traditional carriers The fi rst commercial challenge is the formulation and the what many operators say is a mismatch in what they need • Demand for higher capacity data links between fi nancing of the business plan. Regional networks, with for their network, compared to what the supply industry, offshore oil and gas platforms to support de- their more modest capital requirements, regionally-driven offers them. Andy Bax, Head of Submarine Network manning and new applications such as 4-D demand and faster implementation, are generally easier Systems at Global Marine, considers what is being done to seismic to fund than trans-oceanic systems. However, fi nanciers address this gap. • The long awaited ‘killer applications’ including still require extremely robust risk analyses, sustainable HDTV, 3G, Mobile TV, Secure media on demand operational business plan and short payback periods before Regional systems are the side roads to the submarine distribution networks they are convinced to allow access to their Venture Capital trans-oceanic highways. They allow more countries to gain • International backhaul for mobile networks. money mountain. advantage by accessing cheap transcontinental submarine • Carriers emerging from Chapter 11 with delayed bandwidth gluts. Thirty-eight percent of the world’s CAPEX plans who need to implement targeted Another challenge is to minimise operation and population lives within 100km of a coast line and so the new system build in response to new regional maintenance (O&M) costs. With the majority of marine impact of these regional builds are disproportionate to their capacity sales. maintenance agreements operating on a capacity- size, for both the developed and developing worlds. • Requirements to support new technology and ‘off independent per km charge structure, lower capacity shoring’ industries in lesser-developed countries regional networks incur a much higher O&M charge per For systems below 350-400km they often do not require with limited bandwidth infrastructure bit than “trans-oceanic systems. This is further complicated any sub-sea signal amplifi cation and are termed ‘un- • High-reliability links for supporting critical for a regional repeatered systems that require different repeatered’. Beyond this, ‘repeatered systems’ require a operations such as satellite telemetry techniques and equipment to maintain compared to the powered cable, and land-based power feed equipment to • International connectivity for alternative carriers in terrestrial network.

19 Some lip service has been paid to this with simplifying There is a major commercial challenge in that the cable repeaters and re-packaging the same transmission owner can only meet its long-term business directives if equipment design in a smaller footprint. They are, however, Andy Bax leads it can sell and provision additional capacity at a profi t. still distinct from the terrestrial systems that they feed in However traditional repeatered systems capacity is technical approach, cost base, and O&M solutions. the team respon- added only in large bandwidth steps and is expensive sible for provid- and time-consuming to provision. Furthermore, they are Even the two submarine conferences of 2004 were often the sole domain of the original supplier to price and still dominated with papers describing 10 Gbps by ing turnkey re- implement, reducing competitive pressures.. 128 wavelengths, 7000km type solutions - technically interesting but not what operators need. One customer gional submarine The fi nal challenge occurs when the length of the regional compared this to being forced to listen to presentations networks on a network is just too long to be achievable by un-repeatered on the features of rambling mansion houses when all they technology. Then it requires more expensive cable, wanted was a cheap to run bungalow! global scale. He submerged amplifi ers and associated power feeding and has spent the past 10 years in test equipment. It also needs an approach to the operation Regional operators, like all carriers, want connectivity that and control of the repeatered equipment that is different to meets the 4S of telecoms: Super-Cost Effective, Simple, the submarine telecommunica- their terrestrial network. On that basis, a system that is only Secure and Scalable. a few kilometres beyond the un-repeatered limit will incur tions industry as both an engi- total costs that are typically 60 to 100 percent higher than Regional submarine networks offer the potential to meet neering and operations leader if it had been achieved using a terrestrial un-repeatered these needs and be the core business of our industry for the solution. foreseeable future. However, the great variation in regional in the organisations where he system requirements needs commercial and technical The commercial challenges are therefore closely related to solutions that are much more fl exible than those designed has worked. Andy has a proven the solution of the technical mismatch challenges. to meet the needs of trans-oceanic systems. The alternative track record in deploying sub- satellite solutions, although lower in capacity and The fi rst technical challenge is to make the un-repeatered availability, offer quick and cheap to implement solutions, marine and terrestrial technol- system stretch as far a possible. Just over a decade ago a although the ongoing operational costs can be prohibitive typical un-repeatered span limit was 150km at an STM- for larger bandwidths.. ogy in order to get the most out 1 (155MBps)3-level. Modern un-repeatered systems of an expensive network infra- have developed many techniques since to increase both For repeatered systems the solution to the commercial capacity and system length. Many of the suppliers of and technical challenges is much more fundamental than structure. terrestrial optical equipment such as Cienna, Huawei, value-engineering the traditional submarine solution. Lucent, Marconi, Nortel, Siemens, ZTE, offer features that The customer needs to be offered the advantages of the can be used by system integrators to provide not only a un-repeatered system in terms of ‘look and feel’ of the cheap solution (as the high volume of the terrestrial market terrestrial network and fast and simple upgrade paths for all allows lower equipment costs) but one that is operationally regional networks, irrespective of their length. elegant as it matches the rest of the customer’s network in terms of operation and support requirements. The supply industry must rise to these mismatch challenges. Global Marine is no exception, only through minimising Although the recent pricing levels of repeatered systems the cost of our Guardian O&M solutions and working have decreased signifi cantly, this has been principally due closely with our partners to sustain the cost and operational to inventory stock ‘fi re sales’ rather than any fundamental advantages of our Regional Submarine Network product value engineering exercise that is sustainable. can we expect the regional operators to chose submarine over satellite solutions to their connectivity needs. Regional systems need fundamentally different solutions than just offering trans-oceanic equipment with less cable!

20 Take a fresh look at Global Marine

The demand for Regional Submarine Networks dominates our current market environment.

To find out what we’re doing and the services we can offer - get in touch.

contact: Andy Bax on +44 1245 702035 email: [email protected]

www.globalmarinesystems.com

21 platforms, examples are the cable in GOM (without onshore communication due to cable breaks (fi sh- ing)) and several cables in the North Sea. In the North Sea a typical off shore broadband capacity for a fi eld is 155 Mbit/s. After 3 to 5 years the fi eld re- OFFSHORE quirements for capacity have grown beyond that and more capacity is ordered from the network. COMMUNICATIONS Th e fi bre optical networks provide an almost un- limited capacity to the users, there is only some advanced DWDM equipment (off the shelf) that – A FUTURE REQUIREMENT! needs to be installed. By Cost savings Th ere is a lot of potential cost saving areas in operat- Rolf Bøe ing platforms from the shore, de-manning as result of automation, more remotely operated equipment, improved technology and others. Th e savings are most signifi cant on new platforms, where all processes and functions can be evalu- ated and implemented in the design phase of the n off shore platform without communication is platform. Th e reduction of people required on the Aimpossible today, and in the future many instal- platform will reduce the number of beds and size lation managers will say: We need broadband to of accommodation facilities etc. In addition is the operate the platform! reduced cost of the low initial manning. Always communication On existing platforms the manning also provides Previously the communication has been there for savings due to remote operations. As examples two necessary logistic information like people on/off , fi elds in the North Sea can be mentioned: Ekofi sk supply information etc. Today it’s getting more and (ConocoPhillips) has for several years operated some more important with communication for control/ of the platforms from the fi eld centre and so has the aid/production purposes from the shore. Th e devel- Brent fi eld (Shell). Th e reductions in operating cost opment is turning into more and more remote op- for these platforms are signifi cant. When workers are erations, and in all off shore oil and gas areas there is re-located from off shore to onshore the savings are a focus on how to implement the new technologies. signifi cant, and in some cases the positions are com- Th e communication has previously been on narrow pletely replaced by automated processes. Th is kind capacities, via simple troposcatter or satellite sys- of reduction in operating cost will be very important tems. Today the fi bre optical systems are necessary to provide the required bandwidth for remote opera- tion of off shore platforms; some short distances are covered by line of sight communication via Radio Links. Th ere have been installed several long subsea fi bre optical cable systems that are tied in to off shore

22 when end of life for a field (tail-end production) buried into the seabed. A full seismic shooting/sur vey shall be decided. lasts for about 15 days and require a transfer of about • Union conflicts - renegotiation of work agree - 7 terrabytes to be stored for the advanced calculations to be carried out. This equals an average data transfer ments The major players in the Nor th Sea are building up rate at 43 Mbit/s (Ref. http://www.ameinfo.com/47176. • Reduction in number of employees Onshore Operations Centres (OOC), and according html http://www.oilonline.com/news/features/oe/20030711. to press releases the investments have shor t payback. Seismic_.11875.asp ). ConocoPhillips and BP have both platforms con- The main challenge will be to get the oil companies nected to the fibre optical network in the Nor th Sea. on to the arena, how long can theynot build up BP has reported that the LoFS system provides better the communication networks? Do they need more The Ekofisk field and the Valhall field are both con- seismic data than ever before. They are planning to nected to the NorSea Com cable (installed by Nex- information? How much are they willing to spend ans in 1998/1999), and have a protected ring str uc- shoot seismic much more frequently than in the past. on expensive operations (as today), when savings in ture of communication when onshore/other offshore This will improve their stability in production and operations can be significant? cables are used for the backup connection. Before a enhance the drilling processes, and BP has calculated remote operation can be operative the requirements for ring (or mesh) str uctures in communication have that the new technologies will provide about 60 mil- to be fulfilled. Without such backup the system can lion barrels extra production from the Valhall field. not be trusted, but only be used for testing or non critical operations. There are a lot of developments in the offshore R&D ROLF BOE Broadband applications departments worldwide, and there will be other ap- As described above OOC is one of the first steps to plications for broadband connections as well. Master of Science 1986, NTH Trondheim. He took use the broadband communication, and typical values are 10 – 30 Mbit/s, in addition to this is video confer- part in the build up of Fibre Optical Communica- ence of high quality, sur veillance video cameras and Challenges in the future tion in the two main networks in Norway, i.e. Tel- some data traffic. The challenges for the offshore industr y are to provide enor and Bane Tele (former Enitel). He has been secure communication with protective ring or mesh There are more and more applications for remote an instrument in creation and implementation of operations that are being developed; one of the most structures, providing back up capacities. In addition new telecommunications services in ISDN and interesting ones in the North Sea is the LoFS (Life of new areas should take part in the technological devel- the Transport Network in Norway. He took part Field Seismic) system that BP has installed at the Val- opments taking place where the fibre optical cables hall field. This system covers 35 sqr.km in total 120 in the Planning of the fibre optical infrastructure km seismic cable with 10000 sensors permanently are, i.e. new cables should be installed to offshore in the North Sea. He was in the Project Manage- platforms as the savings are significant. ment team of the NorSea Com system, 730 km of fibre optical submarine cable from Norway to UK Some people are critical to introduce remote opera- via 5 oil/gas platforms in the North Sea, including tion of platforms, but there are more pros than cons transmission equipment. From 2002 he has been a for performing this change: part of the planning and installation management • Safety: 90% of accidents are caused by per - for LoFS (Life of Field seismic) at the Valhall field, sonnel both subsea and topside. From spring 2005 he is • Average age on platform workers are high a part of Nexans Norway, Building and Telecom • Platform Environment is not recommended Cables Division. for workers, onshore is more healthy

23 500 m

At submarine depths, goes deeper

Nexans was the first For further information, contact: Nexans Norway AS to manufacture and Telecom: P.O Box 6450 Etterstad, Vegard Larsen N-0605, Oslo Norway install 384 fiber Tel: + 47 22 88 62 21 Tel: + 47 22 88 61 00 submarine cable.Nexans E-mail: vegard-briggar . Fax: + 47 22 88 61 01 has qualified and [email protected] US Contact: installed their URC-1 Oil & Gas: Les Valentine Jon Seip Tel. +1 281 578 6900 cable family for fiber Tel: +47 22 88 66 22 Fax: +1 281 578 6991 counts up to 384 fibers. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

1500 m exans Global expert in cables and cabling systems

4124 Over the past several years, large, long distance trans- direct lay operation. This pre-lay would then lead to the ocean cable systems have led the way to the linking and necessity of hiring on a smaller cable handling vessel, development of smaller, more decentralized regional thereby adding in additional cost and risk to the overall systems. Point-to-point systems, characteristic of the landing procedure. The addition to the design team of analog era and early fi ber optic designs have all but personnel experienced in shore end operations would Th e disappeared. The allowance of branching unit designs give visibility to this issue early on and highlight either and the ever increasing capacity made possible in the the additional cost or infl uence the choice of cable ship. Fiber Optic Power systems and other confi gurations such Conversely, the draft requirement may also infl uence the as self healing rings and repeaterless festoons have given landing area choice and then this impacts the terrestrial another dimension to the shore end segment. Gener- segment. At a minimum, experienced personnel would ally, with large trans-ocean systems, the submarine cable be available for discussion of options at the beginning came ashore at one or two locations - the beginning of the procedure and not solely at the actual installation and end of the system - with the shore end cost and risk phase with a possible greater and unanticipated cost. Forgotten budget comprising a small percent of the overall system Another example might be that of a bore pipe location total. Regional systems, comprised of shorter distances exit point. Typically, the exit point is located outside of between landings and sometimes multiple landing sites, the surf zone, and the bore pipe is drilled well before the have now signifi cantly increased shore end installation actual shore end operation. The actual distance offshore cost percentages with respect to the overall installation of the exit point may become an issue as perhaps local or project budget. This cost percentage increase then assets such as small boats or dive teams are not available becomes of critical importance in accurately estimating to support these operations and assets must be brought and budgeting total system cost and risk. The “forgotten in from other locations. Adding some length to the bore Mile mile” phrase is used in addressing the area of installa- pipe would bring the exit point further offshore and al- tion between the main lay vessel and the beach manhole low local assets to support the landing operation. This otherwise known as the shore end or beach landing may or may not have a contributory effect on the overall – the increased area. This installation area or distance, if not planned cost and risk budget, but the addition of installation properly, can result in substantial cost increases, prob- team personnel in the design concept phase would at able risk increase, and possibly result in environmental least allow the discussion of options and cost tradeoffs. importance of the beach mitigation procedures. Experienced installation personnel would also be able To alleviate or mitigate the risk associated with working to assist in correctly interpreting the desk top study in the surf environment and subsequently reduce the information, or in some cases, insuffi cient or incom- landing operation in cost percentage for shore ending operations, it would plete information. Typically, a desk top study consists of seem that the addition of an experienced submarine collecting data for the entire route including the shore cable installer familiar with all aspects of the shore end- portion. Most times this study is subcontracted out to regional systems ing operation to the overall system design team would companies that are not involved in the system design bring a practical approach to the integration of both phase or who do not have a vested in interest in the in- the terrestrial and submarine segments. This addition stallation procedure –they just the collect and assemble of fi nal installation expertise would highlight and bring the information and present it in a pre-agreed format. In under discussion factors that, with smaller distance some cases the data may not be available due to local By regional systems, have greater fi nancial impact. For ex- weather conditions, and surf or reef structures may mask ample, the draft of the main lay cable ship in the shallow correct bathymetry or obstructions. Sometimes the desk Virginia Hoff man water area of the shore end may require it to stand off top study is done months prior to the actual installation further, subsequently requiring a longer cable distance and that may also limit its value in that it is not available offshore for the shore end operation. And that same as real time data, subject to discussion and revision by draft, by requiring the cable ship to stand off a greater the installer. In the Caribbean, severe weather pat- distance, may then require a pre-lay operation and not a terns may add another element to data – for example,

25 there were four named storms during 2004 that affected erly pull the cable without damage. Additionally, some Virginia Hoffman is coastline morphology. Adding an installer to the overall sand beaches are narrow and do not allow the cable to President/CEO of design team effort will bring to the table a solution to be pulled by bights down the beach itself, but require Great Eastern Group, problems of data interpretation for items such as coast additional equipment for handling. Some shore ending Inc., a marine engi- line morphology changes and local weather patterns. locations are parking lots with asphalt coverings and More importantly, it would allow the discussion of op- some landing points are situated in very remote loca- neering group based tions with respect to fi nal installation techniques prior to tions and the transport of heavy equipment into the area in Fort Lauderdale, personnel appearing on site for the actual installation. is not possible. And in many parts of the world, the area Florida. GEG is a small of operation is considered environmentally sensitive and business with person- Addition of installation personnel to the design team extreme care must be taken during shore end operations. nel experienced in would also serve to assist in the overall system physical Other factors such as rapidly changing local political plant design. While issues of back haul lengths, permit- situations may also impact the overall beach installation design, management ting and location of terminal stations can traditionally be procedures. Again, the addition of experienced shore and implementation of ocean construction, located under the heading of terrestrial concerns, there end installers in the initial planning phase allows dis- fi ber and power cable shore end installation may also be cost savings in including the submarine cussion and planning of options, cost tradeoffs and risk and repair, and marine research and develop- installer as part of the initial discussions. Permitting or mitigation. ment projects. closed access areas with respect to submarine operations – for example current State of Florida legislation regard- Finally, the appropriate cable protection in the ap- ing availability of shore end installation points – may proaches to the beach landing can be addressed in She received a BS degree in Physical Chemis- dictate the geographical positioning of terminal station realistic details, making use of the most appropriate try from Stockton State College in 1976 and a locations and thus impact other terrestrial issues. The tools and equipment thereby insuring that the shore BS degree in Ocean Engineering from Florida ability to intelligently discuss options may substantially end section(s) is immune to damages from current, Atlantic University in 1978. She joined the serve to mitigate risk thereby decreasing cost factors. surf action and other local causes of faults, man made Additionally, while adding cable distance to accommo- or otherwise. These issues may impact severely upon Naval Underwater Systems Center, Atlantic date shore end requirements may at fi rst appear to add system integrity throughout its life, and in most cases, an Undersea Testing and Evaluation Division sup- overall cost to the system, the added value of decreasing experienced shore end installer will bring in a wealth of porting ASW and the various Navy ranges and costs due to permitting or local government issues or local knowledge which only benefi ts the cable owners in then moved to Tracor Marine in Fort Lauder- lessen back haul distances and associated right of way the short term and in the long run. He will also keep in dale where she worked on different ship, sal- issues, may actually decrease overall system costs. mind that some of the records of other existing systems in the area of interest may or may not be as accurate as vage, and ocean construction projects. Since Typically, during a direct or pre lay shore end operation, indicated on charts and indeed the installer may have leaving Tracor, she has worked with several a messenger line is passed from the beach to the cable participated in installation of other local systems and be companies involved in marine engineering ship, then attached to the cable, and pulled ashore by aware of and respect the limits of the corridor in which and most recently before starting GEG, with the shore end team. To pull in the weight of the cable he will be asked to operate. Global Marine (Federal) as the Offshore Liai- and the messenger line requires the assistance of heavy equipment such as a back hoe, bulldozer or truck placed Within a regional system design, the forgotten mile dis- son and Government Sales Representative. strategically on the beach. Placement requires knowl- tance can no longer be considered a subpart of the over- edge of the local coastal morphology, weather patterns, all marine/terrestrial installation, but must be factored Since its inception, GEG has supported the cable parameters, and the heavy duty equipment. Physi- in as a separate entity. Due to the many aspects of the shore end repair of the Taino Carib cable in cally, the placement of this equipment necessary to han- environment, governmental agency requirements, and Miramar, San Juan Puerto Rico, the shore end dle and pull the cable ashore without exceeding bend geographical location, the unique installation challenges radius and cable loading parameters becomes critical for each shore end which need to be considered become installation of the AUFS system in Seward, for reduction of risk. Additionally, the general morphol- signifi cant cost issues. Planning, preparing, and iterating Alaska and Warrenton, Oregon and the shore ogy of the beach is also important. On some designated on the available options for the “Forgotten Mile” dis- end installation of the SMPR-1 cable in Isla shore end locations, the beaches are comprised of rocks, tance will greatly serve to highlight cost and risk factors Verde, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Great Bay, St. not sand and special techniques must be used to prop- thereby reducing overall system installation costs. Maarten and Long Bay, St. Martin.

26 A statue was recently unveiled on London’s South The WEEE directive applies a similar approach to IS Bank, called WEEE Man. The statue is made entirely the requirement for car manufacturers to recycle from waste electrical products, such as mobile cars at the end of the car’s life. In the case of the phones computers and domestic appliances. The WEEE Directive, the manufacturer must provide for statue raises awareness of a recent European Direc- recycling, reuse, repair or refurbishment and end of tive - The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equip- life disposal of electrical and electronic equipment. SUBMARINE ment Directive (2002/96/EC), commonly abbrevi- ated to WEEE. The directive is being introduced in The Directive is mainly aimed at domestic appli- parallel with a complimentary Directive, the RoHS ances, but also covers telecommunications equip- (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical ment. Within the telecommunications category and Electronic Equipment - 2002/95/EC) This direc- covered by this directive are “other products or CABLE tive restricts the use of Lead, Mercury and Cadmi- equipment for transmitting sound, images or other um and other toxic substances in electrical equip- information by telecommunications”. It further ment. Both directives are scheduled to become UK defi nes electronic or electrical equipment as that law in summer 2005 and mandatory across the which relies on voltages of up to 1,000 V AC or WEEE? community in 2006. While acknowledging the rel- 1,500 V DC for correct operation. evance of the RoHS Directive to submarine cable systems, the WEEE Directive is considered here. Based on these defi nitions, some submarine cables Considerations on Waste Electrical and would clearly be considered as electronic equip- ment, while others, such as long haul transoceanic Electronic Equipment in the EU systems operating at voltages in excess of 1.5 kV and unpowered systems, with no electrical require- ment, are beyond the scope of this directive. By New products need to be designed with consid- eration of ‘design for dismantling’ or ‘design for Jim Bishop recycling’ replacing the ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ approach of land-fi lling waste. Submarine cable is about as far out of sight as it is possible to get, and is designed specifi cally with the objective of mak- ing the cable and submerged plant as resistant to dismantling and degradation as possible.

WEEE MAN If submarine cables operating at less that 1.5 kV are considered to fall within the requirements of the It is currently estimated that the fastest growing directive, there are a number of concerns which area of waste is electrical and electronic equip- will make life diffi cult for the producer of the cable, ment, with the EU generating about 6.5 million submerged plant and terminal equipment. tones per annum alone. It is hard to argue against the need for more environmental awareness and The WEEE Directive places the responsibility for accountability and to raise the profi le of recycling. recycling on the producer of the product. Unlike The current practice of burying waste in the ground domestic appliances, which have a design life of – for future generations to sort out, is reckless and one day longer than the manufacturer’s warranty, unsustainable. submarine cables are designed for a 25 year service life.

27 of damage or distortion during and after recovery, except long haul transoceanic traffi c, which is car- The EU area of jurisdiction covers the current 20 as well as during reinstallation. Cable routes are ried on systems that operate at voltages beyond the member states. At the moment, international laws planned based upon the use of varying levels of scope of the Directive. in the area of waste electrical equipment are not armouring depending on the local sea-bed condi- seamless and unifi ed. Submarine cables between tions, fi shing and other marine activity. To reuse One thing is certain – far reaching directives and member states would be covered by the directive, such a cable, it is most likely that the lengths of the legislation, designed to completely change attitudes but a cable with only one European landing would different cable types will need a signifi cant amount and approach to the disposal of waste - not just only need to take the WEEE Directive into account of replanning and rework to suit reinstallation in a within the European Union, are putting more and for that particular part of the cable route. different environment. more onus onto the manufacturers of products for end of life, environmentally sensitive disposal. The To recover and recycle hundreds of kilometers of While it is clearly not currently practical to design time between concept of a submarine cable system cable at the end of its useful life is possible but is a cable system that harmlessly degrades in situ after and hand over of a cable system to the purchaser is time consuming and extremely expensive. A typi- a fi xed period of time, one possible solution is to such that Directives and legislation on waste elec- cal submarine cable is made up mainly of fi bre, increase the design life of the cable. Systems have trical equipment needed to be considered by cable copper, polyethylene and steel, with a liberal ap- been designed to operate for 25 years; and there is manufacturers as a matter of urgency, not immedi- plication of tar. If a manufacturer needs to include no reason why a cable could not operate for longer. ately – but several years ago. the cost of recovery and recycling in the costs of the product, it will be necessary to forecast, or Before proposing that a submarine cable system is estimate, the likely costs of chartering a cable ship capable of operating for, say, a further 20 years, ex- to carry out recovery operations in a quarter of a tensive and system by system research would need century’s time. to be carried out to determine how long each cable Jim Bishop has been could continue past the original design life. If recycling a submarine cable is the chosen meth- involved with sub- od of disposing of this waste equipment, the cost of It also means that the producer of the cable has marine cables since this operation would have to be built into the initial the even more complicated task of predicting the purchase price of the cable. recovery cost even further into the future. 1990, initially in

The well documented roller-coaster of activity in Once a cable system is retired from commercial varied engineering the submarine cable industry make it increasingly use, a further possibility is that it could be rede- capacities related to diffi cult to predict what will be happening in 1, 2 ployed in situ for scientifi c sea-bed research pur- or 5 years time. 25 years time is far over the hori- poses. cable jointing. In 1996 zon. Again, these possible options will only delay the he co founded A-2-Sea Solutions Ltd, and What is beyond doubt is that the costs incurred in producer’s responsibility for recovering the system. recovering cable from the sea bed and recycling has since established the company’s capa- will outstrip the cost of manufacturing the products. Terminal equipment upgrades offer the possibility bilities beyond its cable jointing origins to of prolonging the commercial life of a system, but By building these costs into the manufacturing the current bandwidth glut does not necessarily cover cable installation, maintenance, repair costs, new projects which are currently considered make this a viable option. just viable, may become uneconomic once the and recovery as well as the development of costs of recovery and recycling are added in. It may be that the constantly developing and evolv- ing technologies used on submarine cable networks new products in compliance with British and Redeploying a retired cable elsewhere is a diffi cult can provide the solution. As the lengths of unpow- International Standards and EC Directives. procedure. While the systems have been me- ered systems continues to increase, systems which chanically designed to cope with being recovered, operate at below 1.5 kV may not be necessary at consideration needs to be given to the possibility all, with unpowered systems carrying all traffi c

28 RECORD SUCCESSES IN DEEPWATER CABLE AND ENERGY FLOWLINE BURIAL

By Doug Stroud

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Canyon Offshore has fashioned an enviable record in deep water, deep burial of Submarine Telephone Cables, Offshore Pipelines, Control Umbilicals and complex Seismic Cable systems. Applying the deepwater ROV experience gained in Canyon’s offshore oil and gas industry projects to the Submarine Cable Market has proven very positive for Canyon Offshore. It achieved a number of major milestones in telecom cable burial during it’s heyday at the turn of the millennium, including burial to 3m using advanced jetting technology and purpose built trenchers. When the cable industry slowed down, and many players exited the market, willingly or unwillingly, Canyon Offshore adapted its proven cable trenching expertise and developed new international markets in the Offshore Energy pipeline and Seismic burial fields. In 5 yrs. Canyon Offshore, a subsidiary of Cal Dive International (CDIS) has assembled an impressive inventory of Trenching systems, DP vessels and experienced personnel while performing a wide range of successful deepwater burial projects. It now supports not only submarine telecom cable burial markets, but is a global provider of advanced Pipeline trenching to 3,000m water depth. It haburials b eprojectsen in invo thelv eUSd Gulfin b ofu Mexico,rial pr oNorthject sSea,in Africa,the US Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Africa, Egypt and Southeast Asia. Egypt and Southeast Asia. Project work scopes have included burial of products Project work scopes have included burirangingal of pfromrod lightweightucts ran andgin armoredg from Fiberligh Optictwei Telecomght an d armored Fiber Optic Telecom cables, large armored power cables, hcables,ydra ulargelic armored/ elect rpoweric co cables,ntrol hydraulicumbilic / aelectricls, c omplex 3D and 4D seismic cable assemblies, coiled tubing, flexible pipelcontrolines a umbilicals,nd rigid complexpipelin 3Des andup 4Dto seismic20 in cablech o utside diameter. RECORD assemblies, coiled tubing, fl exible pipelines and rigid pipelines up to 20 inch outside diameter. SUCCESSES IN DEEPWATER Super Trencher I-750 HP System

Canyon Offshore has fashioned an enviable record in CABLE AND deep water, deep burial of Submarine Telephone Cables, Offshore Pipelines, Control Umbilicals and complex Seismic Cable systems. Applying the deepwater ROV experience ��� �������� ������ ���� ����� �������� � gained in Canyon’s offshore oil and gas industry projects to M/V Northern Canyon with Super Trencher I the Submarine Cable Market has proven very positive for ENERGY Canyon Offshore. It achieved a number of major milestones Canyon has developed a number of major trenching systems in telecom cable burial during it’s heyday at the turn of the with advances culminating in the development of the millennium, including burial to 3m using advanced jetting Canyon Super Trencher I and Super Trencher II Systems built technology and purpose built trenchers. by Perry Slingsby Systems and delivered this year (2005). It FLOWLINE When the cable industry slowed down, and many players operates 5 trenching systems of its own: exited the market, willingly or unwillingly, Canyon Offshore adapted its proven cable trenching expertise and developed new international markets in the Offshore Energy pipeline • 3 Ea. ST200 ROV Systems-200 Hp Cable Burial BURIAL and Seismic burial fi elds. In 5 yrs. Canyon Offshore, a systems for up to 2m burial subsidiary of Cal Dive International (CDIS) has assembled an By impressive inventory of Trenching systems, DP vessels and • Super Trencher )-750 Hp System capable of 3m Doug Stroud experienced personnel while performing a wide range of Cable burial, and 2m pipeline burial for up to 24 inch successful deepwater burial projects. (60cm) OD Pipe Products. It now supports not only submarine telecom cable burial markets, but is a global provider of advanced Pipeline • Super Trencher II- 600 Hp system capable of 10 trenching to 3,000m water depth. It has been involved in ft. (3m) cable burial depth, and 6.5 ft. (2m) pipeline

29 Canyon has developed a number of major trenching systems with advances culminating in the development of the Canyon Super Trencher I and Super Trencher II Systems built by Perry Slingsby Systems and delivered this year (2005). It operates 5 trenching systems of its own: � 3 Ea. ST200 ROV Systems-200 Hp Cable Burial systems for up to 2m burial � Super Trencher )-750 Hp System capable of 3m Cable burial, and 2m pipeline burial for up to 24 inch (60cm) OD Pipe Products. � Super Trencher II- 600 Hp system capable of 10 ft. (3m) cable burial depth, and 6.5 ft. (2m) pipeline burial depth for up to 16 inch OD Pipe Products.

������ �������� ����� �������� �� ��������� ��� ��� Canyon has developed a number of major trenching systems wAithlaargdevapnacretsocfutlmheinasutincgceinssthtehadtevCealonpymonenhtaosf achieved with their Trenching programs is due to the assembling of an the Canyon Super Trencher I and Super Trencher II Systems bueixltpbeyriePnecrreydS, liinngtesbrnyaStiyosntaelmbsuarniadl doeplieveraretodrsthipsool. Scott Sparks, Vice-President for Canyon’s Trenching Operations year (2005). It operates 5 trenching systems of its own: worldwide stated that” we feel confident that no other operator can provide the depth of experience in ROV based � 3 Ea. ST200 ROV Systems-200 Hp Cable Burial syTstreemncshfionrgutphatot 2omurbpueriraslonnel offer. Machines are only as good as the operators. We provide good equipment, project planning and a great working environment for our crews. They generate the success for us and are the best salesman � Super Trencher )-750 Hp System capable of 3m CfoarbCleabnuyroianl,Oafnfsdh2omre.p”ipeline burial for up to 24 inch (60cm) OD Pipe Products. � Super Trencher II- 600 Hp system capable o���������f 10 ft. (3m) cable burial depth, and 6.5 ft. (2m) p��������������������������ipeline ��������� �������������������������� burial depth for up to 16 inch OD Pipe Products��������. ���������� �������� ���������� burial depth for up to 16����� inch OD Pipe Products. ������������������������survey support and using ����� ������������������������ � � � ����� � � � ����� ���� ������������the most experienced������ ������ ���� ������������ ������ ������ personnel has been a ���������������� ������ ��������������������������winning combination. ������� ������ ���������������� ������ �������������������������� ������� ������ ������ �����������������������Canyon operates ������� a fl eet ������ ������ ����������������������� ������� ������ ��������� ������ ��������������of DP Vessels������� with global ������ ��������� ������ �������������� ������� ������ ������������������������range and a variety��������� of� ������ ������������������������ ���������� ������ deepwater work class ROV ������������ ������� systems up to 3,000m ������������ ������� ����������������������������������������������������������depth rated. Canyon ���������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� recently moved into the ������������������������������������� ������������������ new Cal Dive House ������������������ ����������������������������� � ����������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������� � ����������������������������������������������������� ��������������������� facility in Aberdeen, Scotland as well as operating out of ��������������������� Canyon Offshore����� �Super���� Trencher���� �� �II�� �������� �� Singapore and Houston,��������������������������������������� TX. In 2002 Canyon was purchased ��������������������������������������� ��������� ��� ��� by Cal Dive International, a major US Offshore contracting �������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������� Personnel are Key �� ��������������������������������force, with signifi cant vessel and deepwater project �� �������������������������������� A large part of the success that Canyon has achieved �with ������������������������������their Trenching programs is due to the assembling of an � ������������������������������ experienced, international burial o Ape largerator spartpo ofo l.the Ssuccesscott S pthatark Canyons, Vice -hasPre sident for Ccapabilitiesanyon’s T randenc hai nnumberg Ope rofat deepwaterions vessel� assets which � � ������������������������ ������������ ����������� ������ ������ � ������������������������ ������������ ����������� ������ ������ worldwide stated that” we achievedfeel con fwithiden theirt tha Trenchingt no othe programsr operato isr cduean topr theovid e the depthCanyonof exp supportserience asin well.ROV based Trenching that our personnassemblingel offer. M ofac anhin experienced,es are only ainternationals good as tburialhe op eoperatorsrators. We p r o v id e g o o d e qu�������ipment, project ������� planning and a great workinpool.g en vScottironm Sparks,ent fo rVice-Presidentour crews.��T forh �������������������������������e yCanyon’sgenera tTrenchinge the suc cess forFullyus a Integratednd are the Vesselbest Spreadssalesma &n Services �� ������������������������������� for Canyon Offshore.” Operations worldwide stated that”� we ���������������������������� feel confi dent that Canyon Offshore����������������������������������������������������������� operates the ����������������������������������� M/V Northern Canyon which � ���������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� no other operator can provide the� depth ���������������������������� of experience in offers trenching and����������� deepwater ROV services on a global � ���������������������������� ����������� ROV based Trenching that our personnel� ������������ offer. Machines are basis. The DP 2 UT-745 design is state of the art and will � ������������ only as good as the operators. We provide good equipment, accommodate 60����������� personnel.������������������������������������ In addition Canyon currently �����������������������������������������������

project planning and a great working�� ��������������������������������� environment for our (April 2005) is operating���������������������������������������������� 5 vessel spreads involved in ROV �� ��������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������� crews. They generate the success� for ��������������������������������� us and are the best and Trenching projects around the world: � ��������������������������������� salesman for Canyon Offshore.” � �������������������� ���������������������������������������������� � �������������������� ���������������������������������������������� ◆ M/V Polar King ROV Service US Gulf of Mexico This pool of experience has allowed Canyon to ����������������������������������������������� Available electronically, the Submarine ����������������������������������������������� dominate the market for planned�������������������������������������� or call out PLIB and ROV ◆ M/V Polar Queen (Ex-CS Knight) Pipeline Trenching Services US Gulf of Mexico ��������������������������������������Telecoms Forum Global Submarine Cable cable burial, and has led to a�������������������������������������� number of major long term ◆ M/V Northern Canyon����������������������������������������������� Pipeline Trenching Egypt & North Sea ��������������������������������������Map is today’s “must Have” systems ����������������������������������������������� contracts with international cable system operators including ◆ CS Oceanic Princess Seismic Cable Trenching SE Asia ���������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ◆ M/V Binh Minh ROV Well Intervention Vietnam the management, operation �������������������������������������and support of third party ������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� clients. Canyon also provides������������������������������������� manpower for Cable Burial ◆ M/V Polar Queen Trenching������� Vessel������������������ M/V Polar King ROV Support Vessel ������������������������������������� ������������������������� ROV and Plow Systems for Tyco Submarine Systems, and ���������������������������� ���������������������������� KST in Korea. Telecom Market Reemergence Order online at www.subtelforum.com/catalog/maps_27999 Diverse, Geographic based Fleet With Canyons suite of trenching services, and current market The Canyon philosophy of integrating their trenching spreads strength, Canyon is confi dent that the Telecom Cable market 0r call +1 (703) 444-2527 into quality DP Vessels, with work class ROV systems for will return strong soon and that Canyon Offshore will be

30 Canyon has developed a number of major trenching systems with advances culminating in the development of the Canyon Super Trencher I and Super Trencher II Systems built by Perry Slingsby Systems and delivered this year (2005). It operates 5 trenching systems of its own: � 3 Ea. ST200 ROV Systems-200 Hp Cable Burial systems for up to 2m burial � Super Trencher )-750 Hp System capable of 3m Cable burial, and 2m pipeline burial for up to 24 inch (60cm) OD Pipe Products. � Super Trencher II- 600 Hp system capable of 10 ft. (3m) cable burial depth, and 6.5 ft. (2m) pipeline burial depth for up to 16 inch OD Pipe Products.

������ �������� ����� �������� �� ��������� ��� ��� A large part of the success that Canyon has achieved with their Trenching programs is due to the assembling of an experienced, international burial operators pool. Scott Sparks, Vice-President for Canyon’s Trenching Operations worldwide stated that” we feel confident that no other operator can provide the depth of experience in ROV based Trenching that our personnel offer. Machines are only as good as the operators. We provide good equipment, project planning and a great working environment for our crews. They generate the success for us and are the best salesman for Canyon Offshore.” well placed and prepared to continue to provide quality, technically innovative services to the international telecom community globally.

Doug Stroud, Canyon Offshore Corporate VP for Sales states, “even though the cable market is still Douglas Stroud slow at the moment, there Corp. Vice President-Sales and Marketing has entered into an is always opportunity in arrangement with the areas of maintenance, repair support and PLIB. We consider the cable market an important part of our growth Mr. Stroud is the Corporate Vice-President for Sales and success and will continue to evolve and improve our technology, personnel experience and customer service and Marketing at Canyon Offshore, Inc., A Cal Dive Lloyd’s Register to the international cable community, while expanding our trenching expertise and knowledge to other markets subsidiary, (CDIS). He has worked in the offshore including deepwater fl owline burial for fl ow assurance, Fairplay shallow water fl owline burial for fi shing protection, product industry since 1975, building, operating and then protection and stability and for regulatory requirements around the world”. marketing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), making available, complimentary to subscribers, comprehensive data- Canyon Offshore, Inc., a member of the Cal Dive group Deepwater Burial Systems and intervention ROV of companies (NASDAQ: CDIS), is headquartered in bases of commercial vessels services on an international basis. Mr. Stroud is a Houston, and maintains operational offi ces in Aberdeen (www.sea-web.org/), and Singapore, and a base in Vietnam. The company offers a wide range of subsea services to the oil and gas market, "Fellow" of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), a ports and companies providing ROVSV / construction vessel and ROV services to support offshore construction, drilling support, survey, member of the National Ocean Industries Associa- (www.portguide.com). engineering, inspection, backhaul repair and maintenance. Canyon Offshore also provides fl owline and umbilical tion (NOIA) Technical Policy Committee and serves trenching services in depths to 2,500 meters to the oil and In order to qualify gas market and submarine cable burial services to the on the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Submarine Telecom Cable Industry. for a free trial of these services, contact Board of Directors. [email protected].

31 occasional strong currents and mountainous seabed Cable Design profi les.

From the late 1980s, cable burial was adopted more Another factor is that the steel strength members and more frequently. This option meant that the cable in optical fi bre cables are susceptible to damage by designer had to determine the various de-trenching seawater, if exposed. If the cable is accidentally sev- forces this could entail and to take them into account ered, water can penetrate quite a long way along the in the design of the fi nished product. The cable had cable. The challenge was to come up with a material to be rugged enough to cope with being buried and that could be injected into all the interstices without then possibly drawn up to the surface for repair work. compromising the properties of the cable or the fi bre FromFrom But it required less armouring than cable laid directly but that would effectively stop water ingressing great onto the seabed. To make sure the cable delivers the distances along the cable while waiting for the arrival required performance at a realistic cost, fi bre-optic of the repair ship. Modern cables are fully water- cable designers have in fact to optimise a whole range blocked with highly effective materials that prevent ElectronElectron ttoo of parameters - mechanical, electrical and optical. this problem. Among the factors that have to be taken into consider- ation are protection against deep-sea water pressure, Another wrinkle cable designers have to deal with is conductor resistance, electrical stress, water ingress, the hydrogen generation of the cable components. E-CommerceE-Commerce hydrogen susceptibility, tensile/torsional strength, This is because glass fi bre is particularly sensitive to and resistance to wear and fatigue. No easy task! increased loss caused by the presence of hydrogen. So it is important to take into account the extent to Getting into Deeper Water which the cable components generate hydrogen both individually and in interaction with each other and to 150 Years of laying Since it is desirable that all the cables in the sys- limit hydrogen ingress into the cable from any other submarine cables tem be compatible, the ideal solution is to have the source. This means the cable designer has to review same basic cable with the same central package as many materials as possible singly and in combina- throughout, with outer layers of protection added for tion to fi nd the optimum components for the cable Serialised from the book by kind those zones that require it. In other words, varying structure. amounts of armour are needed to cater for the range permission of of hazards to cables, which range from, damage and The Problem of Dispersion Global Marine Systems Ltd. snagging by trawl nets and anchors to natural hazards such as rock abrasion or slumping of the seabed. As system bit rates increased a new problem ap- There are also a host of potential perils when the ca- peared. The problem was dispersion or spreading ble emerges onto the beach and fi nally goes overland of the light pulse. It was recognised that these new Compiled by Stewart Ash where it is routed via ducts to the terminal building to types of submarine optical fi bre systems were re- connect with the terrestrial network. quired for two main types of link. The fi rst are high bit rate (Gigabit to Terabit) transoceanic links with Cables laid in deep water can be unarmoured or repeater spacings of 50 to 100km. The second are PART IV - 1900 lightweight since the deep ocean fl oor is generally high bit rate systems (2.5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s per Today and beyond. a benign environment where they are unlikely to be wavelength) repeaterless spans up to 430km between exposed to damage from trawlers and ships’ anchors, islands, from the mainland to an island, a coastal although the cable still has to withstand the immense festoon or a close coast link. In both areas the effects pressures that exist in the ocean depths as well as

32 of dispersion wer e becoming incr easingly significant pr otection was r equir ed. Although they appear ed SEA-ME-WE-3 and many others befor e and indeed and had to be dealt with. to have common pr oblems to solve, each supplier since. These clubs issue a detailed specification and adopted a significantly differ ent design philosophy, adjudicate a lengthy, competitive tendering pr ocess. Initial attempts to develop so-called “dispersion- which pr ompted a differ ent in-house appr oach to However, the cost of running such consortia and the shifted” fibr e r esulted in an unacceptable incr ease in jointing and jointing equipment. The owners of TAT-8 bur eaucratic inertia they can pr oduce has r esulted in attenuation or loss within the fibr e. It seemed that found themselves in the position of having to buy new start-up companies acting mor e nimbly and being either low attenuation or low dispersion was possible thr ee jointing technologies to maintain their system. first to market by adopting differ ent philosophies. Be- but not both at the same time. The conundrum was This was clearly an expensive and unsatisfactory situ- ing first to market is critical wher e the system opera- initially solved by adjustment of the optical fibr e cor e ation. Ther efor e, when TAT-9 was being planned the tor is selling the capacity externally rather than using pr ofile. The r esulting dispersion-shifted fibr e was owners agr eed to fund the development of a single it for its own needs. used successfully, right at the very tail end of the technology to join all the cable designs. This r esulted twentieth century, on Rioja, TAT-12/13, TPC-5 and on in the Universal Jointing Consortium being formed One of these differ ent appr oaches is the sponsor ed Gemini, the first transatlantic single supplier opti- in 1989 to pr ovide the industry with a single jointing cable network wher e a single customer or small cus- cally amplified system. Now, the pr oblem for DWDM technology for system maintenance. The original tomer gr oup has a capacity r equir ement and works systems is not dispersion itself but the dispersion members of the consortium wer e Alcatel, AT&T and closely with the suppliers to pr ovide the desir ed ca- slope of the fibr e between differ ent wavelengths. To BT Marine with KDD-SCS joining later. This con- pacity and system configuration. This structur e was r esolve this issue, a number of new fibr e designs ar e sortium has pr ovided the industry with an essential adopted for example on PTAT, NPC, Gemini, South- being intr oduced and system design is being further service for the past 10 years and on 8th Mar ch 2000, ern Cr oss and Flag Atlantic-1. complicated by the fibr e span between two r epeaters a new, enhanced, five-year agr eement was signed. comprising mor e than one fibr e type. This appr oach The five members of this new consortium ar e Alcatel, Another appr oach is the private cable ventur e wher e a to dispersion management r equir es owners to main- Global Marine Systems Ltd, KDD SCS, Pir elli and network is put together by a gr oup of ventur e capital tain detailed fibr e maps of the system and stor e a Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd. companies or private investors. The VCs ar e moving wider range of spar e cable for r epair operations. An into new competitive systems in dir ect r esponse to inter esting new challenge for the owner, manufac- Late-Br eaking News market demand, taking over fr om the traditional plan- tur er and marine maintenance pr ovider! ning methods of the past. Examples include North- The first submarine cable system simply went fr om star, who have implemented a festoon on the west Joining Hands Acr oss the Sea - The Universal point A to point B. Many new links still do. Mor e coast of North America and Global Cr ossing (AC-1, Joint r ecently, systems have begun to evolve into complex PC-1, MAC-1, PAC-1, etc.). integrated networks. The first to follow this appr oach For TAT-8, the thr ee differ ent suppliers came up with was APCN, jointly supplied by Alcatel, AT&T SSI, and thr ee differ ent cable designs. Each design pr ovided a KDD-SCS, which consists of thr ee inter connected In the 14 years since the laying of UK-Belgium No. 5, home for the fibr es along the neutral axis of the cable. rings. A ring pr ovides instant r estoration of the traffic the cable industry has moved thr ough a tr emendous Featur es such as, tensile str ength, pr otection fr om in the event of a link failur e by r outing data the other bit rate explosion. Rocketing fr om 280Mbit/s in 1986 water pr essur e, hydr ogen and water ingr ess wer e pr o- way ar ound the loop. to 420Mbit/s in 1989, 560Mbit/s in 1990, 2.5Gbit/s in vided by water blocking and other concentric layers Cable systems used to be owned by a small gr oup 1994, 5Gbit/s in 1995 to WDM in 1998 and now the of the cable. Hydr ogen was a major concern during of big telephone companies such as AT&T, France truly astr onomical capacities of DWDM. We have the design of these optical cables once its negative ef- Telecom or British Telecom. Nowadays it could be gone fr om 1,310nm and 1,550nm fects had been established. A layer of insulation was anybody. For many years the floating of new trans- r e-generating r epeaters, to optical amplifiers and until pr ovided to pr otect the high-voltage, power-feeding oceanic cables was achieved by the forming of lar ge r ecently this was all driven by demand for transat- curr ent on the central package. In shallow water, the consortia known familiarly as “clubs”. This was lantic capacity. However, the Japan-USA system, cable was further pr otected by one or mor e layers of the ownership structur e adopted for APCN, TAT- operating at 640Gbit/s and curr ently being installed, armour wir es of varying sizes according to how much 12/13, TPC-5, China-USA, Japan-USA, TAT-14, and is pr obably the first time that the Pacific Ocean has

33 surpassed the Atlantic in terms of leading edge trans- physicalmission technology. evidence includingThe Atlantic the will damaged soon bounce cable ifThe action amount is ofdelayed. fi bre deployed If pre-action in submarine disclosure systems is back; Level 3’s Project Yellow will be commissioned with ready-for-service dates in 1999 and 2000 will sur- wfnstrategies itself.on 1st September If possible, 2000 seal and and will tag have the a designsection capac- of the apass possibility one million it fi isbre important kilometres tofor requesteach year. the These fol- cableity of 1.28 which Terabits. is removed This will be during followed repairs.in 2001 If lowing:two years will also see the activation of a number of wfnstrategies by FLAG Atlantic-1 at 2.4 Terabits. FLAG have also high-fi bre-count systems, with some regional systems analysis is required at a later stage, this will be � Log books - including deck logs, recently announced a new Pacifi c cable which will go entering service with as many as 96 fi bre pairs. a vital piece of evidence, providing clues as to navigational logs, fixing logs and into operation in 2002 and will more than double the 19471 Youngs Cliff Road. Suite 100, theexisting cause capacity of the in thedamage, region withfor ainstance mind boggling was it The capacityGlobal explosion Positioning is likely to System go on unabated records. WASHINGTON - PERTH 5.2 Terabit capacity. Meanwhile, a 96 fi bre pair cable with scientists continuing to raid the Greek language Potomac Falls, Virginia 20165, USA trawled over by a fishing vessel or dragged up � VDR - this is the equivalent of a ship’s has already been laid between the UK and Belgium, to come up with new terminology to describe the LONDONTel: +1 (703) - HOUSTON 444-2527 bythe anultimate anchor. capacity of which will only be constrained extraordinaryblack big box bang and mathematics will record of thethe latestposition, by investmentCable repairin terminal ships transmission keep very equipment detailed cable technology.course and Tomorrow’s speed of long-haul the ship, systems the radar are Fax: +1 (703) 444-3047 recordingsand technological of their development. work and these should be likely to havepicture, eight fi breconversations pairs and beyond and with radiomore than 100 wavelengths per fi bre pair, each wavelength www.wfnstrategies.comThe Folly, Haughley obtained.Satellite transmission, Request ofthat course, reports continues are toprepared play operatingtraffic at, at least on 10Gbit/s. the bridge In the which design may labora- not Stowmarket, IP14 3NS, UK detailingan important what role. repairs Satellites were deliver undertaken, total coverage when, of tories, wavelengthhave been operating appropriately at 40Gbit/s logged are already in the Tel: +44 (0) 1449 771 793 bythe whomearth’s surfaceand, where and are there ideal werefor covering several broad repair a real possibility.ship’s log. What As are a werecord going of to the do with incident, all expanses of low population density and for broadcast those Terabits? No problem at all! An exponential Fax: +44 (0) 1449 678 031 options,applications. a justification Submarine cables, for the on thecourse other of hand, action leap in high-speedit is extremely data, Internet powerful and digital evidence. video chosen.deliver secure Keep communications, all invoices from very the high repair capacity works traffi c willHowever, soon take care this of allmust that capacity be recovered and www.wfnstrategies.com asand these constant, are irreproachableevidence of expenditure. quality between zones of soon the world’squickly. long-distance VDR was cabledesigned technology as a record will high density. Inner and outer space do not compete; no doubt be upgraded well beyond even one Terabit they areKeep complementary. precise records Having of said any that, other however, loss per fi bre pair.in the There case is alreadyof a collision, talk of updating and theso, is whichin a sense, has optical resulted amplifi from cation the has damage taken over as the these Internet’sdesigned increasingly inadequate to over-record plumbing. entriesThe mayworld, also and bybe cablingrecoverable. it from top The to bottomextent andto whichfrom world’s submarineautomatically, cable industry after will a surelycertain be ready,time end to end, now it really is a wired world. as it always has over the past 150 years, to provide recovery is possible will however depend on the more thandepending adequate pipes on and the plumbers system to meetinstalled the jurisdictionThe New Future in which the claim is heard. demand. (often as little as 12 hours).

Fuelled by spiralling demand, especially from the Today’s Internet is almost entirely dependant on sub- EvidenceInternet and from corporate the datasuspect traffi c, the fi rst four or Pressuremarine cables tactics for their speed and international trans- Apartfi ve years from of thegathering new Millennium and collecting are destined evidence to be to Onceparency the and defendant thanks to the vessel highly has reliable been and accurately secure dothe withbusiest repair ever forof the ficable bre optic and cable other industry, losses, you identified,networks they establish provide, thewho Internet are the has owners spawned of an the with deployment in each year greater than any year entirely new global economy, based on e-commerce. willsince needthe advent to obtain of submarine further cables. evidence Investment from the vesselWhat would and Cyruswrite W to Field, them John informing Pender, Daniel them of vesselbetween you 1999 suspect and 2004 was is estimatedresponsible to total for $31.89the dam- theGooch incident and Charles and Tilston the actionBright thinkyou ofpropose what we to agebillion, in nearlyorder twice to strengthen the total fi bre-optic the case investment against asit. take.have done At this with stage,their dream? it would be appropriate to of year-end 1998. The fi gure for 1999 was $6.9 billion, the industry’sIn certain most jurisdictions robust year to date,it will and be all indica-possi- requestWe hope theythe wouldpre-action approve. disclosure described bletions to are require that this acceleratingdisclosure trendbefore will proceedings continue into above. have2004. started. You should consult local coun- It is important to ensure that the sel early on this point as evidence may be lost defendant has sufficient assets to meet your 34 27 THE CABLESHIPS

A global guide to the latest known locations of the world’s cableships*, as of May 2005. Information Provided by Lloyds list.

VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME

Wave Venture 5/4/05 Victoria(BC) Canada

Maersk Defender 4/17/05 Victoria(BC) Canada

United Kingdom Wave Sentinel 5/4/05 Portland(GBR)

United Kingdom Wave Sentinel 4/20/05 4/20/05 Falmouth

United Kingdom Wave Sentinel 4/12/05 4/20/05 Portland(GBR)

United Kingdom Wave Sentinel 3/29/05 4/12/05 Falmouth

United Kingdom Wave Sentinel 3/16/05 3/29/05 Portland(GBR)

United Kingdom Peter Faber 4/9/05 4/9/05 Dover Strait

United Kingdom Ocean Challenger 4/2/05 Tees

United Kingdom Normand Cutter 4/5/05 4/5/05 Dover Strait

United Kingdom Manta 4/25/05 Peterhead

United Kingdom Manta 4/21/05 4/25/05 continental shelf

* Over 1000 tons 35 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Vessel Name S hip S tatus GT S peed Group O wner Operator Arrival Date Sailed Date Port Country United Kingdom Manta 3/31/05 4/21/05 Peterhead

United Kingdom Manta 3/25/05 3/31/05 continental shelf

United Kingdom Manta 3/25/05 3/25/05 Peterhead

United Kingdom Maersk Reliance 3/29/05 3/31/05 Immingham

United Kingdom Maersk Reliance 3/12/05 3/13/05 Immingham

United Kingdom Ile de Sein 3/16/05 3/16/05 Dover Strait

United Kingdom DP Reel 3/24/05 3/24/05 Dover Strait

United Kingdom Elektron 4/12/05 4/12/05 Peterhead

United Kingdom Elektron 4/11/05 4/11/05 Tyne

United Kingdom Discovery 4/12/05 4/12/05 Dover Strait

United Kingdom Discovery 3/15/05 4/10/05 Dundee

United Kingdom Discovery 3/13/05 3/15/05 continental shelf

United Kingdom C.S.Sovereign 5/4/05 Portland(GBR)

United Kingdom C.S.Sovereign 4/25/05 4/25/05 Southend Anch.

United Kingdom C.S.Sovereign 4/17/05 4/25/05 London

United Kingdom C.S.Sovereign 3/16/05 4/17/05 Portland(GBR)

United Kingdom Agile 4/26/05 Blyth

United Kingdom Agile 4/16/05 4/26/05 Tyne

36 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Vessel Name S hip S tatus GT S peed Group O wner Operator Arrival Date Sailed Date Port Country DP Reel 3/29/05 3/29/05 Gibraltar Gibraltar

Team Oman 4/8/05 Delfzijl Netherlands

Arab Republic of Egypt Ile de Sein 3/29/05 Alexandria(EGY)

Pleijel 4/26/05 4/28/05 Turku Finland

Oceanic Viking 3/11/05 4/6/05 Fremantle Australia

Fu Hai 4/2/05 Melbourne Australia

Ile de Batz 4/4/05 4/9/05 Mumbai India

Badaro 4/3/05 Mumbai India

Pertinacia 3/26/05 Catania Italy

Teliri 4/1/05 4/1/05 Catania Italy

Teliri 3/15/05 3/17/05 Olbia Italy

Raymond Croze 3/27/05 3/27/05 Catania Italy

Raymond Croze 3/21/05 3/21/05 Catania Italy

Certamen 3/30/05 3/31/05 Catania Italy

Certamen 3/16/05 3/17/05 Catania Italy

Certamen 3/16/05 3/16/05 Augusta Italy

Certamen 3/14/05 3/16/05 Catania Italy

Tyco Dependable 3/23/05 3/31/05 Hitachi Japan

37 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME Vessel Name S hip S tatus GT S peed Group O wner Operator Arrival Date Sailed Date Port Country Kouki Maru 4/5/05 4/13/05 Osaka Japan

Kouki Maru 4/5/05 4/5/05 Tanoura Japan

KDD Pacific Link 5/9/05 Moji Japan

KDD Ocean Link 4/27/05 Yokohama Japan

KDD Ocean Link 3/12/05 4/12/05 Yokohama Japan

Giulio Verne 4/23/05 4/23/05 Yokohama Japan

Giulio Verne 4/8/05 4/22/05 Hitachi Japan

Giulio Verne 4/1/05 4/7/05 Kisarazu Japan

Republic of Korea Segero 4/12/05 4/17/05 Busan

Rene Descartes 4/11/05 Valletta Malta

Normand Cutter 4/30/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

Normand Cutter 4/24/05 4/30/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

Normand Cutter 4/13/05 4/14/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

DP Reel 4/30/05 5/1/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

DP Reel 4/29/05 4/29/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

DP Reel 4/22/05 4/28/05 Marsaxlokk Malta

Tyco Durable 4/8/05 4/10/05 Colombo Sri Lanka

Elektron 4/15/05 4/15/05 Copenhagen Denmark

38 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME

Peter Faber 4/28/05 Calais France

Peter Faber 4/12/05 4/20/05 Calais France

Peter Faber 3/11/05 4/9/05 Calais France

Ile de Brehat 4/14/05 Brest France

Pacific Guardian 3/16/05 Labuan Malaysia

Miss Clementine 4/7/05 4/8/05 Kemaman Malaysia

Miss Clementine 3/29/05 3/31/05 Kemaman Malaysia

C.S.Wave Mercury 5/4/05 Labuan Malaysia

Netherlands Antilles Maersk Responder 3/16/05 Curacao

Polar Queen 3/17/05 3/17/05 Panama Canal Panama

Ile de Batz 3/11/05 4/1/05 Karachi Pakistan

Skandi Neptune 4/1/05 4/1/05 Bergen Norway

Normand Cutter 3/16/05 4/3/05 Moss Norway

DP Reel 3/17/05 3/24/05 Kristiansand Norway

DP Reel 3/15/05 3/15/05 Kristiansand Norway

Elektron 5/6/05 5/6/05 Kristiansand Norway

Elektron 4/16/05 5/6/05 Drammen Norway

Elektron 3/17/05 4/11/05 Drammen Norway

39 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME

Elektron 3/11/05 3/12/05 Hammerfest Norway

Atlantic Guardian 5/4/05 5/4/05 Aalesund Norway

Atlantic Guardian 4/18/05 4/18/05 Haugesund Norway

Sultanate of Oman Eclipse 3/16/05 3/16/05 Port Sultan Qaboos

Wartena 3/22/05 3/22/05 Kolobrzeg Poland

Cable Retriever 3/31/05 4/26/05 Batangas Philippines

Cable Retriever 3/23/05 3/31/05 Subic Bay Philippines

Certamen 3/27/05 3/28/05 Kalamata Greece

Certamen 3/18/05 3/18/05 Kalamata Greece

Chamarel 3/22/05 3/23/05 Dakar Senegal

Republic of Singapore Tyco Dependable 4/10/05 4/14/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Cable Protector 4/28/05 4/29/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Cable Protector 4/15/05 4/28/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Cable Protector 3/20/05 4/15/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Arcos 3/31/05 4/5/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Setouchi Surveyor 4/14/05 4/20/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Oceanic Princess 4/7/05 4/14/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Oceanic Princess 3/19/05 4/4/05 Singapore

40 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME

Republic of Singapore Miss Marie 4/28/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Miss Marie 3/15/05 3/17/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Miss Clementine 4/8/05 5/4/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Sarku Santubong 3/19/05 3/26/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Sarku Santubong 3/12/05 3/15/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Trinity Supporter 4/11/05 5/4/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Trinity Supporter 3/14/05 4/11/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Asean Restorer 4/24/05 4/29/05 Singapore

Republic of Singapore Asean Restorer 3/27/05 4/7/05 Singapore

Team Oman 3/31/05 3/31/05 Cape Finisterre Spain

Normand Cutter 4/9/05 4/9/05 Tarifa Spain

Normand Cutter 4/7/05 4/7/05 Cape Finisterre Spain

Ile de Sein 3/19/05 3/19/05 Cape Finisterre Spain

DP Reel 3/27/05 3/27/05 Cape Finisterre Spain

Discovery 4/14/05 4/14/05 Cape Finisterre Spain

Baron 3/13/05 Coatzacoalcos Mexico

Bourbon Skagerrak 4/21/05 4/22/05 Forsmark Sweden

Teneo 4/27/05 4/28/05 Bizerta Tunisia

41 VESSEL NAME ARRIVAL DATE SAILED DATE PORT NAME COUNTRY NAME

Teneo 4/24/05 4/26/05 Bizerta Tunisia

Papua New Guinea Arcos 3/19/05 3/31/05 Port Moresby

United Arab Emirates Umm Al Anber 4/16/05 4/18/05 Fujairah

Lodbrog 4/12/05 4/14/05 Keelung Taiwan

Lodbrog 3/31/05 4/1/05 Keelung Taiwan

Dock Express 20 3/23/05 Cape Town South Africa

Chamarel 4/26/05 Cape Town South Africa

Chamarel 4/4/05 4/26/05 Cape Town South Africa

People’s Republic of China Maersk Defender 3/17/05 3/24/05 Hong Kong

People’s Republic of China Lodbrog 4/20/05 4/22/05 Hong Kong

People’s Republic of China KDD Ocean Link 4/12/05 4/27/05 Shanghai

People’s Republic of China Cable Retriever 4/26/05 Hong Kong

Republic of Lithuania DP Reel 3/12/05 3/15/05 Klaipeda

Chamarel 3/29/05 3/29/05 St. Helena St. Helena

Canary Islands Team Oman 3/19/05 3/25/05 Las Palmas

Canary Islands Discovery 4/19/05 4/20/05 Las Palmas

Canary Islands Agile 4/6/05 4/6/05 Las Palmas

42 terraneanWa r r i o Sea r event (Mare was Nostrum) still in and everyone’s the Atlantic memory. west It coast.i s f oWe r t hhad e s eno r eambition a s o n s a mto owalk n g oin t hthe e r sJapanese, t h a t S T C ( U K ) or the British or the American garden. In our home market,r e j e c things t e d t h were e A l cbased a t e l ‘ son s u trust, g g e s trelationship, i o n t o c o m and e w i t h a culture.j o i n t I b knew i d , t oall o the f f e rpeople a “ E u involved. r o p e a n ” A s osmall l u t i oproject n . was a fullO year n e oactivity. f t h e w i n n i n g f a c t o r s h a s b e e n t h e Letter to a friendP o r t - B o t a n y c a b l e f a c t o ry. S u c h a f a c t o ry w a s a Letter to a friend Ands t rall o n of g rthe e q usudden i r e m ethings n t f r o became m O TC “Global”; ( n o w Te the l s t rfull a ) a n d fromfrom JeanJean DevosDevos worldthe became Australian accessible. Government. Great opportunity! A project was of interestAlcatel only was by theits size! most One motivated. could not live Such with a- outf aa cglobal t o r y c project o u l d e x(Oxygen!!). p a n d i t s iOne n f l u could e n c e noti n tcontem h e P a- c i f i c plate a crossing which would be not Global (Global Crossing).Thewhere the onlythree loop other which players would makewere sensehistorically was an well“around established the world” in one this (Flag)). region, Even which Jules representsVerne hada not large predicted part of this! their market. They saw this My Dear Friend 25 years I have enjoyed this “global” life where you measure everything; you evaluate everything in com- factory as a risk for their existing facilities! parison with what you see elsewhere. Very often I had ButS uthis b O tsunami p t i c ‘ 8 7wave i n Ve has r snow a i l l ecome s c a m down, e a t tand h e rwe i g hall t t i m e . difficulty to understand the people who had a “region- retired,I t i s wrediscovering h e r e t h e A uthe s t rmerit a l i a n of t eour a m own s d i sindividual c o v e r e d t h e al”a n culture, d l’Astrolabe, a regional l a n perception. d e d i n 1 7 They 8 8 t olooked d i s c o selfish! v e r t h a t garden. When you live “regional”, you can go much My dear friend, French model, a close cooperation between My Dear Friend C a p t a i n C o o k w a s a l r e a d y a r o u n d b e a r i n g t h e deeper;A l c a tyou e l a can n d feelF T, usefule x a c t land y w important. h a t t h e y Problemsw a n t e d t o e s - My glass is small... can be apprehended and resolved. You can commu- NowB r i tthat i s h If lam a g .retired, S o B o tI a am n y closingB a y i s then o wcircle, f o r mreturning e t h e nicatet a b lwith i s h iyour n t h neighbours, e i r c o u n t ry. speaking the same lan- “Botany Bay” to being local! I rediscover the small town where I live; s y m b o l o f a d r e a m w h i c h b e c o m e s a r e a l i t y ! guage, sharingM y f r the i e n same d , t h habits i n g s a and r e c culture. h a n g e d s i n c e , b u t I rediscover the local people around, the local events, RegionalI p u b l i s hvs. e d Global: r e c e n tThis l y a ism an o d interesting e s t n o v e l ,subject. w h o s eLike t i t l e Tasman 2 has been yet another chapter one thing stays true: When you offer something, many of us I spent my childhood in a small village; the local habits, the local problems. And it seems to i s B o t a n y B a y. I t i s t h e p l a c e i n A u s t r a l i a w h e r e in this long Anglo-French competition! The t h e r e a d e r c a n s e e b e t w e e n t h e l i n e s i f y o u a r e in my case a French Flemish village near the border me now that being “regional” allows you to go deeper “My glass is small … but it is mine” between France and Belgium. ThisAlcatel region established was part of a likea w a a large r d t o oakA l c that a t e l rootsc a m esearch o u t a its s afood b i g deeper s u r p r iand s e t o o r n o t g e n u i n e l y m o t i v a t e d a n d s i n c e r e . T h e n Jean Devos the Low Netherlands before becomingsubmarine French cable under fac- deeperm a n y,in ithe n c lland. u d i n When g i n s iyou d e Alive l c abroader t e l . E v eyou ry b are o d y w a s your offer becomes really attractive and this somewhat condemned to stay superficial. The choice Louis the XIV. Many people weret o rforced y i n 1 to 9 8 leave 9 a s ptheir a r t o f n a t u r a l l y e x p e c t i n g t h e B r i t i s h t o w i n t h a t b a t - o p e n s t h e r o u t e t o “ B o t a n y B a y. ” places for reasons of religion and many of them be- is between knowing everything on a small, restricted its contract for the t l e , a n d s u c h a n e x p e c t a t i o n w a s a t t h a t t i m e Jean Devos came the first “Dutch” immigrants in America, moving subject, being a specialist, and knowing very little on very logical. brutally from “Regional” to “Global”?Ta s m a n I2 have l i n kmyself . I n t h i s everything; in other word, being a generalist. SubmarcomS e consulting e y o u s o o n . discovered the world through severals a m e bconcentric a y, w h e rwaves, e t w o There were so many difficulties and Member of Don Quixote not forgetting all the discoveriescenturies through the before Literature. the misunderstanding between Australia and The same applies to our business. From the 60’s to the Director AxiomJean Devos My very first trip to Paris happenedFrench when expedition I was already F r a n c e , t h e m a i n o n e b e i n g t h e F r e n c h p r e s e n c e Submarcom Consulting 18!! And it is in the 70 ies only, through my Market- 80’s, I have enjoyed a “regional” professional life. We “ L a P é r o u s e ” m a d e o f i n t h e P a c i f i c a r e a , t h e w o r s e b e i n g t h e n u c l e a r ing activities that I became sort of “Global”. During had our home business; in my case it was the Medi- t w o sh i p s , La Boussole bomb experiment in Tahiti! The sad Rainbow

43 44 UPCOMING CONFERENCES Diary AND EXHIBITIONS Conference Date Venue www

Submarine Communications InterContinental Pudong, 30-31 May 2005 2005 Shanghai, China www.ibc-asia.com/subcom.htm

Oceans 2005 Europe 20-23 June 2005 Brest, France www.oceans05europe.org

Oceans 2005 North America 19-23 September 2005 Washington, DC USA www.oceans2005.org

2005 PTC Mid-Year Seminar - Global Telecommunications in 21-22 September 2005 Santa Monica, California USA www.my2005.org Times of Crises and Turmoil IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland 28-30 September 2005 Gdansk, Poland www.tehoss2005.gda.pl Security and Safety

ITU Telecom Americas 2005 3-6 October 2005 Salvador da Bahia, Brazil www.itu.int/americas2005

Offshore Communications 2005 1-4 November 2005 Houston, Texas USA www.offshorecoms.com

PTC 2006 - Shift Happens: 15-18 January 2006 Honolulu, Hawaii USA www.ptc.org/conference/ptc06. Transition to IP html

44