In This Issue: Financing a Submarine Cable System Increasing Focus on Submarine Cable Operations Under Foreign Corrupt Practice Act ISSN No
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62 M A r Voice 2012 of the ISSN 1948-3031 Industry Finance & Legal Edition In This Issue: Financing A Submarine Cable System Increasing Focus on Submarine Cable Operations Under Foreign Corrupt Practice Act ISSN No. 1948-3031 PUBLISHER: Wayne Nielsen MANAGING EDITOR: Kevin G. Summers elcome to the 62nd issue of spring and the abundance of the summer Submarine Telecoms Forum, beyond. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Stewart Ash, Kent our Finance & Legal issue. Bressie, Derek Cassidy, Madeleine Findley, Jim W In this world of economic and geo-political Lemberg, Andrew D. Lipman, Keith Schofield, Christian von der Ropp March Madness is once again upon us. stress I take solace in the thought of all that is yet to come this year, and the promise Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine is To anyone outside of the USA, or even UK of spring. As William Shakespeare wrote published bimonthly by Submarine Telecoms Prime Minister David Cameron’s inner in Richard III: “Now is the Winter of our Forum, Inc., and is an independent commercial circle, this may mean little. But to us here publication, serving as a freely accessible Discontent; Made glorious summer by this forum for professionals in industries connected in the Commonwealth of Virginia or the sun of York…” with submarine optical fiber technologies and people in the other 49 American states, it is techniques. Submarine Telecoms Forum may a month of heroes, upsets and trepidation. Maybe the madness and promise that is not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of Stories of David versus Goliath or March will indeed bring a more interesting the publishers. basketball behemoths versus regional and productive time to the year ahead. wonders abound. Descriptions, such as Liability: while every care is taken in “epic” or “stunning” or “apocalyptic” are preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of commonplace. We compare “brackets;” the information herein, or any errors which even our President has a “bracket.” may occur in advertising or editorial content, And then we read that not only does or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions, and the editor reserves the right March Madness cause lifetime gambling to edit any advertising or editorial material problems, but also a drop of business submitted for publication. productivity on the order of $70M! Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to It must be March. the Managing Editor at [email protected]. March has also brought new, green shoots Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. 21495 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 201 of flowers and grass to the browned Sterling, Virginia 20166, USA landscape. Soon, what was a relatively subtelforum.com mild winter will be completely gone, and in its place will be the sights and smells of 2 Copyright © 2012 Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. In This Issue... Exordium 2 Increasing Focus on 21 Back Reflection 44 Wayne Nielsen Submarine Cable Operations Stewart Ash Under Foreign Corrupt News Now 4 Practice Act Conferences 47 Andrew D. Lipman Financing A Submarine Cable 7 Advertiser Index 48 System Jim Lemberg Remote South Atlantic 29 Island Lobbies For Coda 49 Submarine Cable Landing Coping With India’s New 15 Kevin G. Summers Telecom Equipment Security Christian von der Ropp Requirements And Indigenous Innovation Policies The Search for Submarine 34 Kent Bressie & Telegraph Communications Madeleine Findley Derek Cassidy Submarine Cable Maintenance 38 from Mess to Mesh? Keith Schofield 3 News Now Ancotel in Frankfurt Selected by Cable&Wireless Worldwide Cross River Fiber Completes the Construction of an Express to be one of three EPEG Terrestrial Landing Stations in Fiber Route Between Carteret and Newark New Jersey Western Europe DeepOcean Group Holding AS Names Frank Eggink as CFO ASSC-1 Announce Perth to Singapore Submarine Cable Djibouti’s IP hub guarantees access to the Global Internet System to Operators and Service Providers in East Africa despite Australia Japan Cable Upgrades Submarine Link with Ciena recent triple submarine cables outage 40G Coherent WaveLogic Technology Du undersea cable cut Axin and Huawei Marine Finalize Survey Agreement for E-marine expands its Salalah Storage Facility to match rising Optikor Network customer demand Bezeq International and Alcatel-Lucent turn up ‘JONAH’ EASSY Cable Repairs to Take 2 Weeks Billionaire Ambani Said to Plan $1.5 Billion IPO of Submarine Cable Unit EASSy downtime may last for days Cable&Wireless Worldwide Selects Infinera CAT diagrams East Africa undersea cable outage enters third week its backhaul overhaul Emerald Networks Signs A System Supply Contract For Ciena Widens Leadership in High Speed Optics with New Generation Trans-Atlantic Fibre Optic Cable System Innovative WaveLogic 3 Technology EPEG - New submarine cable to link Oman with Europe EUROPA and ALEXANDROS to enhance connectivity Polatis 192x192 Optical Switch Enhances Availability of between Middle East and Europe High-Performance Terrestrial and Undersea Networks First Israeli-owned high-speed cable system goes live Rwanda: Govt Intervenes to Address Internet Disruptions GBI lands submarine cable in Iraq SAex cable plans on track: eFive CEO GlobeNet And TE SubCom Begin Construction Of Bermuda- Scripps Researchers, Noaa And TE SubCom To Implement US (Segment 5) Replacement Science Ports On Transoceanic Fiber Optic Cable Lines Gulf Bridge International And TE Subcom Achieve Status Of Seaborn Networks To Deploy First Submarine Cable With Ready For Service For The GBI Undersea Cable System Direct Route Between US And Sao Paulo, Brazil Huawei Marine Launches BDM Cable System Solution SEACOM Signs Capacity Agreement with Mozambican Ministry of Sscience and Technology Italian Cable Co’s Patents Make Their Way To Google Southern Cross Capacity Up and Price Down - Again Lighthouse R & D Enterprises, Inc. 4000-m-rated physical oceanographic monitoring system reaches two-year SubOptic supports internationally significant Porthcurno milestone Telegraph Museum LION2 submarine cable goes live in Kenya in April TE Subcom Marks Crucial Milestone Toward Delivering World’s First Ultra-High Capacity, 100g-Based, New Main One builds own network infrastructure Undersea Cable System Pacific Fibre And TE Subcom Complete Permitting Study When undersea cables linked England to India For Trans-Pacific Subsea Cable System Yenista Optics Releases Ultra-Narrow Tunable Filter with 4 Pacnet Expands 10G IP Transit Service GHz Bandwidth PLN to lay $2b submarine cable from Sumatra to Java 6 Financing A Submarine Cable System 7Jim Lemberg am acquainted with the general We’ve all been there, in one way or another. financing, the mix of equity and debt manager of a service provider who tells Should we do the project? Should we stand financing, and the assessment of risk. Ian interesting tale: His company makes pat? One group sees it as an opportunity for Much more can and should be said about up about 1% of the parent corporation’s huge success. Another bunch is convinced this subject, but time and space limit what total revenues, but because his unit is nothing but disaster waits around the we put our hands to at the moment. high-tech, he sits on some senior groups corner. And the judgments are rarely one- within the corporation. He recently helped hundred percent objective. The group that Sources Of Financing evaluate technologies for another unit’s thinks the project is bound to succeed in Before we actually get started on this project and subsequently participated in the a big way will have to hire 25 new staff if quest, remember that, in most cases, we analysis of that project’s likely cashflfow. the project moves forward. The group that are not looking simply for tens of millions His own professional assessment was that absolutely knows the project is doomed of dollars. We will most likely need the project had equal chances of losing or from Day 1 will become an after-thought hundreds of millions, and those funds may making money. In his words, “Nobody in the larger company picture if the project need to come from more than one source can tell for sure which way certain trends is pursued. and arrive at different times in the project. will turn, and the models show that small So, we will very possibly need to assemble changes in those trends have huge impacts So, how do some of the dynamics play out a team of folks to chase down this pot of on the cashflows. It’s basically a blind bet.” as the dollars and cents of submarine cable gold, with each member having a network Some of his colleagues shared his views systems get studied? Who asks what kind of professional and personal contacts to and opposed the project. Others, mostly of questions and why do they ask those get us in the door of one or two particular within the group that “owned” the project, questions? And how well do the risks of funding sources. were convinced that the project would these projects get measured? Let’s roll bring in a pile of cash and position the up our sleeves and try to dig in for some The first pool of potential project investors corporation as a forward-thinking leader answers. is the world’s communications services within the marketplace. providers. In point of fact, the service I understand that you have a submarine providers used to be the underlying owners cable project in mind and think that I can and operators of submarine cable systems. help assemble finance. Please tell me what Today, however, things have become a bit you’re thinking. Why should I decide to more… varied. To a significant extent, the help you out? What makes this a worthy ownership and operation of these systems effort? Well, with whom might I speak on has become a bit of a niche, in many cases your behalf? To whom might I present your at least one step removed from the true project as deserving financial support? communications service provider.