An international forum for the expression of ideas and opinions pertaining to the submarine telecoms industry Issue 11 November 2003 Second 1 Issue Anniversary Contents Editor’s Exordium 3 Tracking the Cableships 38 Emails to the Editor 4 Letter to a Friend Jean Devos 41 NewsNow A brief synopsis of current news items 5 Upcoming Conferences 42 Maintenance News 8 SubOptic goes from strength to strength Advertisers John Horne 11 C&W GOES 5,6,40 New life discovered in the Caribbean OFS 7 Julian Rawle 14 Global Marine 8,9,10 SubOptic 2004 13 Reliability by design Great Eastern 19 In practice and in the field Dr Barbara Dean and Dr Jeff Gardner 20 Tyco Telecommunications 24 STF Reprints 25 A unique event PTC 2004 26 The PTC 2004: New Times - New Strategies Fugro 29 Richard Nickelson 27 CTC 30 Lloyds Register 30 Those other submarine utilities Caldwell Marine 32 Bill Wall 31 STF Marketplace 34 It’s not all a bed of roses Nexans 37 Scott Griffith 35 WFN Strategies 40 2 Submarine Telecoms Forum is published quarterly by WFN Strategies, L.L.C. The publication may not be reproduced ExordiumExordiumExordium or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the November’s issue marks the second anniversary of Submarine Telecoms Forum, and permission of the publishers. Liability: while every care is what a ride it has been, not only for us your humble editors, but the industry taken in preparation of this publication, the publishers as a whole. cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the In our first issue, we set out a few principles, which we have tried to hold information herein, or any errors which may occur in firm. advertising or editorial content, or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions. Submarine Telecoms Forum was dedicated to providing an international medium for the communication of ideas and opinions pertaining to the dynamics and Submarine Telecoms Forum is an independent technologies of the submarine telecom industry. We envisioned Submarine Telecoms commercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum Forum as being a platform for discourse on submarine telecom cable and network for professionals in industries connected with submarine operations where industry professionals can provide guest commentary and optical fibre technologies and techniques. The publisher cannot be held responsible for any views expressed by information on system and service provision. contributors, and the editor reserves the right to edit any We promised then, and continue to promise you, our readers: advertising or editorial material submitted for publication. · That we will provide a wide range of ideas and issues; © WFN Strategies L.L.C., 2003 · That we will seek to incite, entertain and provoke in a positive manner. Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the It’s not a perfect medium, and we have surely made our share of mistakes, but Managing Editor: Wayne F. Nielsen, WFN Strategies, we hope in the long run that we have supported our industry in a small way 19471 Youngs Cliff Road, Suite 100, Potomac Falls, through some rather troubling times. We do appreciate that such times are not Virginia 20165, USA. entirely behind us, and that we must continue to fight the good fight. Tel: +[1] 703 444-2527, Fax:+[1] 703 444-3047. And in a year from now when we are all sitting around fat and Email: [email protected] happy, we can look back at these times with some amusement, and General Advertising congratulate ourselves for our prowess and fortitude - at least Tel: +[1] 703 444 2527 let’s hope we can. Email: [email protected] Bon appetit Advertising - Europe/ME/Africa - Hildegard Peltier Tel: +[33] 1 47 82 61 74 Email: [email protected] Wayne Designed and produced by Ted Breeze BJ Marketing Communications, Colchester, UK.. 3 Thank you for producing yet another Emails to the Editor interesting and thought provoking issue of Submarine Telecoms Forum. It is a crucial link in keeping information flowing in a highly Thanks and great issue! Good article on it sometime in the disrupted environment. stuff. future, as it fits with some recent My attention was drawn particularly Sara L. Pratt articles you have done about by the list of round table subjects Tyco Telecommunications getting better use and availability listed in the SubOptic survey, .................................... from existing assets. which showed cable-laying analysis This seems particularly relevant at the head of the list. This has I just saw, yet again, another to your readers when large long been a subject of interest great issue. organisations such as ACMA seem to me, and one in which I have participated and attempted to Elaine Stafford to be moving towards just improve over a number of years. The David Ross Group penalising suppliers for failure, instead of running a balanced If you have any further information .................................... scorecard, which can reward or from the survey regarding the Excellent magazine, which I have penalise in direct relationship nature and level of the interest used a lot to research something to the way in which they improve in this subject it would be useful I am doing at present. or worsen the fortunes of their to me in considering future ways customers. to address the issues to assist Coming back into the industry in meeting industry performance after a long break, it surprises I guess the other area of concern objectives. me that one area that you and the I have found in the example I have Alan Jordan rest of the industry have covered been looking at is that, whilst Spectral Solutions Limited in parts but not as a whole is planners may do an availability business continuity. Whilst it and contingency management study is a well-developed tool for on prior to implementation, these may [While we don’t have further land networks, it seems relatively not be monitored regularly to industry survey details about the new to sub cables, although it assess whether in practice changes subject, one can make direct should not be as we roughly used and upgrades need to be made. contact with the secretary to the the principles years ago. I have SubOptic Executive Committee, John only found one reference to it John Pockett Horne, at [email protected], who and wonder if you should run an Pockettbook Associates Ltd would welcome all good ideas.] 4 A brief synopsis of current news items from NewsNow, the weekly news feed available on the Submarine Telecoms Forum website. Asia Netcom Migrates Indonesian ISPs Demand for submarine cable rising in FLAG Telecom Sold to Indian Company Traffic Caribbean and Latin American countries FLAG Telecom Group Limited has entered into an Asia Netcom has announced that PT Dyviacom There is already a requirement for new submarine Agreement with Reliance Gateway Net Private Lim- Intrabumi has completed migration of its Internet capacity within the Caribbean region and a lack of ited, a subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm Limited. connection to Asia Netcom’s global IP network. capacity designed to handle intra-regional Latin Reliance Gateway will acquire 100% of the compa- American traffic, say Pioneer Consulting. ny’s common shares on a fully diluted basis for an www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ aggregate purchase price of $207 million. 21_september_2003.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 26_october_2003.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ Carrier Survey Indicates Spending 19_october_2003.htm Upswing Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia Units France Telecom Expands in Pacific to Collaborate Telecom carrier responses to KMI’s 2003 Optical France Telecom has opened a point of presence at Networking Equipment Survey indicate that carri- International Carrier Sales and Solutions, and Equinix’s Singapore Internet Business Exchange to ers plan on increasing their optical-networking Telecom Italia Sparkle SpA, a subsidiary of Telecom improve connectivity for carriers and ISPs in Asia- equipment spending in 2004 and beyond. Italia SpA, have agreed to collaborate. Pacific and for customers on its global network. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 28_september_2003.htm 21_september_2003.htm 12_october_2003.htm From business case to operation, from satellite networks to submarine, from Alaska to Bahrain to New Zealand 5 Sri Lanka allows SEA-ME-WE-3 purchase Pursuant to the investigation by the Telecoms Regu- latory Commission of Sri Lanka all operators per- mitted their own international transmission infra- structure could now purchase IRUs in the cable ca- pacity of the SEA-ME-WE-3. Global Crossing Announces First Trans- North American Telecom Market www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ European 10 GigE Connection Showed Continued Stability 2_november_2003.htm Global Crossing is supporting the first trans-Euro- According to RHK, the North American telecom mar- pean 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection between the ket continued to show stability in the third quarter of SWIFT Picks Sprint for IPLs Dutch national research network (SURFnet) in and 2003, with revenue 2% over the second quarter. Sprint has renewed its 10-year relationship with the European Organization for Nuclear Research. www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ SWIFT, the cooperative providing secure messaging www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ 9_november_2003.htm services for 7,500 financial institutions worldwide. 2_november_2003.htm www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/ Singapore Technologies, Global Crossing 21_september_2003.htm Level 3 Announces New Services Deal Approved by FCC Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced that Global Crossing and Singapore Technologies Trans-Tasman IP VPN Service Launched it has leveraged its award-winning ONTAP(SM) Telemedia have announced that the Federal Com- Telstra and TelstraClear have launched a joint Internet system to launch a new wholesale private line serv- munications Commission has approved Global‘s Protocol Virtual Private Network service, Trans- ice in the U.S. and Europe.