SubTel Forum Magazine #127 - Data Centers and New Technologies

Featuring PTC ’23 Conference Preview

EXORIDUM FROM THE PUBLISHER

WELCOME TO ISSUE 127, OUR DATACENTERS & NEW TECHNOLOGY, PTC ’23 PREVIEW AND 21ST ANNIVERSARY EDITION!

SUBTEL FORUM 21ST ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

The first, second and third articles in the very first edition of Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine in No vember 2001 were written by Tom Soja, Jean Devos, and Paul Polishuk, and both Tom and Jean have recently au thored modern day observations of their reprised pieces, providing a contemplative examination of just how far our industry has come in the last twenty-one years. In reaching out to these folks I was sorry to have learned that Paul had passed some years ago, but his former colleagues, Clif ford R. Holliday and Dr. Hui Pan, volun tarily penned a lovely homage to him and his work, which is included herein, and I feel truly honored to be publishing the result.

When Ted Breeze and I established our little maga zine in 2001, our hope was to get enough interest to keep it going for a while. We were building on our previous successes of “Soundings” and “Real Time” from BT Marine and SAIC, respectively, and we realized that the industry that had sustained us was headed into a dark time; it would need a place to express itself like never before.

So, we kicked around a few ideas, talked with a few trusted industry friends, and took a BIG chance. And in November 2001, just after 9/11 and the start of our largest industry downturn, and with a budget consisting of the bal ance of a severance package from me and some “borrowed” software and pics from him, we published our first issue, which consisted of eight articles and seven complimentary advertisements. Ted unfortunately passed some years later.

In our now 21st year, we’ve upped our game in ways nev er originally imagined, tried novel approaches to businesses new to us, and restate our mission statement for all to see:

“To provide a freely accessible forum for the illumination and education of professionals in industries connected with

submarine optical fiber technologies and techniques.” Time marches on…

PTC ’23 CONFERENCE PREVIEW

We are pleased as ever to be supporting PTC ’23 again this year. PTC is a wonderful conference, and the associa tion has provided some excellent articles to better describe their submarine cable content we can all enjoy in January.

INDUSTRY REPORT

In October, SubTel Forum published our 11th edition of the annual Submarine Telecoms Industry Report (https://sub telforum.com/products/submarine-telecoms-industry-report/), which was authored by our analysts. The Industry Report can be read online or downloaded for browsing elsewhere. As such we have attempted to make a significant, encompassing view of the submarine fiber industry available to you – our readers.

PRINTED CABLE MAP

We are printing anew our annual Submarine Cable Map for 2023, which showcases every major international

submarine cable system. The Submarine Cable Map will be distributed at the PTC ‘23 Conference, as well as mailed later to industry movers and shakers, and we are pretty excited with how it looks so far.

SUBOPTIC ’23 PRINTED ALMANAC

Looking ahead, we are gearing up for SubOptic next year and will be printing again a Submarine Cable Almanac for attendees. The Almanac will feature each major international system on its own page, along with a system map, landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other valuable data. This limited-edition hard copy will be available in the conference bags at SubOptic ’23 in Bangkok in March 2023.

THANK YOU

Thank you to the more than 100+ Spon sors and 630+ Authors who have contrib uted to SubTel Forum over the last 21 years! Thanks also for their support to this issue’s advertisers: PTC, Southern Cross, and WFN Strategies. Of course, our ever popular “where in the world are all those pesky cableships” is included as well.

We continue to publish SubTel Forum with two key founding principles always in mind, which annually I reaffirm to you, our readers:

• That we will provide a wide range of ideas and issues;

• That we will seek to incite, entertain, and provoke in a positive manner.

So, here’s to you, our readers, and sup porters, thank you as always for honoring us with your interest.

See you at PTC in January and save me a seat at the Mai Tai Bar. STF

A Publication of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com | ISSN No. 1948-3031

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER: Wayne Nielsen | wnielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-2527

VICE PRESIDENT: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845

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PROJECT ENGINEER: Rebecca Spence | rspence@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 268-9285

EDITOR: Stephen Nielsen | snielsen@subtelforum.com

ANALYTICS: Kieran Clark | kclark@subtelforum.com | [+1] (540) 533-6965

SALES: sales@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845

DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Weswen Design | wendy@weswendesign.com

DEPARTMENT WRITERS: Anjali Sugadev, George Ramírez, Philip Pilgrim, Rebecca Spence, Sorcha Ffrench, and Wayne Nielsen

FEATURE WRITERS: Brian Moon, Clifford R. Holliday, David Kiddoo, Douglas Burnett, Dr. Hui Pan, Glenn Hovermale, Jason O’Rourke, Jean Devos, Paul McCann, Paul Polishuk, Rebecca Dippel, Stephen Nielsen, and Tom Soja

NEXT ISSUE: JANUARY 2023 – Global Outlook, featuring SubOptic ’23 Conference Preview

AUTHOR & ARTICLE INDEX: www.subtelforum.com/onlineindex

Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/corporate-information

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Margaret Nielsen, Wayne Nielsen and Kristian Nielsen

SubTel Forum Continuing Education, Division of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/education

CONTINUING EDUCATION DIRECTOR: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845

Contributions are welcomed and should be forwarded to: pressroom@subtelforum.com.

Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine is published bimonthly by Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc., and is an independent commercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fiber technologies and techniques. Submarine Telecoms Forum may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publishers.

Liability: While every care is taken in preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held

responsible for the 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, and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication.

New Subscriptions, Enquiries and Changes of Address: 21495 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 201, Sterling, Virginia 20166, USA, or call [+1] (703) 444-0845, fax [+1] (703) 349-5562, or visit www.subtelforum.com.

Copyright © 2022 Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.

Wayne Nielsen, Publisher

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SUBTELFORUM.COM READERS

TOP STORIES OF 2019

The most popular articles, Q&As of 2019. Find out what you missed!

NEWS NOW RSS FEED

a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum. This reference tool gives details on cable systems including a system map, landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other valuable data.

Keep on top of our world of coverage with our free News Now daily industry update. News Now is a daily RSS feed of news applicable to the submarine cable industry, high lighting Cable Faults & Maintenance, Conferences & As sociations, Current Systems, Data Centers, Future Systems, Offshore Energy, State of the Industry and Technology & Upgrades.

NEWS NOW RSS FEED

Keep on top of our world of coverage with our free News Now daily industry update. News Now is a daily RSS feed of news applicable to the submarine cable industry, highlighting Cable Faults & Maintenance, Conferences & Associations, Current Systems, Data Centers, Future Systems, Offshore Energy, State of the Industry and Technology & Upgrades.

PUBLICATIONS

mapping efforts by the analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics, a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum. This reference tool gives details on cable systems including a system map, landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other valuable data.

Submarine Telecoms Industry Report is an annual free publication with analysis of data collected by the analysts of SubTel Forum Analytics, including system capacity analy sis, as well as the actual productivity and outlook of current and planned systems and the companies that service them.

CABLE MAP

Submarine Telecoms Industry Report is an annual free publication with analysis of data collected by the analysts of SubTel Forum Analytics, including system capacity analy sis, as well as the actual productivity and outlook of current and planned systems and the companies that service them.

CABLE MAP

PUBLICATIONS

Submarine Cable Almanac is a free quarterly publica tion made available through diligent data gathering and

Submarine Cable Almanac is a free quarterly publica tion made available through diligent data gathering and mapping efforts by the analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics,

The online SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database. It tracks the progress of some 450+ current and planned cable systems, more than 1,200 landing points, over 1,700 data centers, 37 cable ships

The online SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database. It tracks the progress of

as well as mobile subscriptions and internet accessibility data for 254 countries. Systems are also linked to SubTel Forum's News Now Feed, allowing viewing of current and archived news details.

The printed Cable Map is an annual publication show casing the world's submarine fiber systems beautifully drawn on a large format map and mailed to SubTel Forum Readership and/or distributed during Pacific Telecommu nications Conference in January each year.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

SubTel Forum designs educational courses and master classes that can then appear at industry conferences around the world. Classes are presented on a variety of topics dealing with key industry technical, business, or commercial issues. See what classes SubTel Forum is accrediting in support of the next generation of leaders in our industry.

AUTHORS INDEX

The Authors Index is a reference source to help readers locate magazine articles and authors on various subjects.

SUBTEL FORUM BESPOKE REPORTS

SubTel Forum provides industry analyses focused on a variety of topics. Our individualized reporting can provide industry insight for a perspective sale, business expansion or simply to assist in making solid business decisions and industry projections. We strive to make reporting easy to understand and keep the industry jargon to a minimum as we know not everyone who will see them are experts in submarine telecoms.

In the past we have provided analyses pertaining to a number of topics and are not limited to those listed below. Reach out to info@subtelforum.com to learn more about our bespoke reports.

DATA CENTER & OTT PROVIDERS: Details the increasingly shrinking divide between the cable landing station and the backhaul to interconnection services in order to maximize network efficiency throughout, bringing once disparate infrastructure into a single facility.

If you are interested in the world of Data Centers and its impact on Submarine Cables, this reporting is for you.

GLOBAL CAPACITY PRICING: Details historic and current capacity pricing for regional routes (Transatlantic, Transpacific, Americas, Intra-Asia and EMEA), delivering a comprehensive look at the global capacity pricing status of the submarine fiber industry.

Capacity pricing trends and forecasting simplified.

GLOBAL OUTLOOK: Dive into the health and wellness of the global submarine telecoms market, with regional analysis and forecasting. This reporting gives an overview of planned systems, CIF and project completion rates, state of supplier activity and potential disruptive factors facing the market.

OFFSHORE ENERGY: Provides a detailed overview of the offshore oil & gas sector of the submarine fiber industry and covers system owners, system suppliers and various market trends. This reporting details how the indus try is focusing on trends and new technologies to increase efficiency and automation as a key strategy to reduce cost and maintain margins, and its impact on the demand for new offshore fiber systems.

REGIONAL SYSTEMS: Drill down into the Regional Systems market, including focused analysis on the Trans atlantic, Transpacific, EMEA, AustralAsia, Indian Ocean Pan-East Asian and Arctic regions. This reporting details the impact of increasing capacity demands on regional routes and contrasts potential overbuild concerns with the rapid pace of system development and the factors driving development demand.

SUBMARINE CABLE DATASET: Details more than 450 fiber optic cable systems, including physical aspects, cost, owners, suppliers, landings, financiers, component manufacturers, marine contractors, etc. STF

DATA CENTER MARKET: DRIVERS AND

BY KIERAN CLARK [REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM 2022/2023 SUBMARINE INDUSTRY REPORT]

Hyperscalers are an increasingly integral part of the submarine cable system development process. Amazon, Facebook, Google and to a lesser extent Microsoft have moved from capacity purchasers to cable owners. Not only are these Hyperscalers now driving where cables are going, they are helping to push along new innovations inside of the cable systems themselves. New transmission technology to manage higher capacity wavelengths, increased fiber counts for more overall system capacity and streamlined network management, and the push for open systems leading to shared system architecture are just a small sampling of new technologies and ideas these providers are backing.

AND INFLUENCERS

During the pandemic, the amount of cloud adoption across a variety of industries skyrocketed as companies were forced to find ways for their employees to continue being productive in their homes and other unconven tional working conditions. Companies found themselves spending more than ever before on Software as a Ser vice (SaaS) products like Microsoft 365, DocuSign, and Dropbox as well as private cloud options. (Flexera, 2022)

Another major change Hyperscalers have brought to global networks is shifting the focus from city-tocity connections to data center-to-data center con nections. Unlike traditional cable owners, companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft do not necessarily need to build infrastructure in loca tions with a variety of interconnect options. Instead, they favor locations that provide economic and cost saving benefits to reduce the operational expenditure impact of their data center facilities. The arrival of a major Hyperscaler provider not only brings new telecoms infrastructure to a region but also the cloud services that the company provides.

CURRENT SYSTEMS IMPACTED

A new paradigm emerged in 2016, with Hyper scalers stepping into the world of submarine cable ownership. Many of these companies have such large and complex infrastructure requirements that it is more valuable for them to own their own cable systems rather than buy capacity from a carrier.

The dramatic growth in ca pacity demand has created sig nificant challenges for telecom munications companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and Hyperscalers. The top segment of many markets is becoming dominated by large Hyper scaler players, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Face book – who have become key stakeholders and require large amounts of bandwidth between their data centers on various continents.

Hyperscalers were the driving force behind 20.4 percent of

systems that went into service for the period 2018 to 2022 – which is up slightly from 20 percent a year ago. (Figure 1) In 2022 alone, Hyperscaler driven systems account for 35 percent of all new system builds.

Several factors led to these companies making the deci sion to build their own infrastructure. One of the biggest eye-openers was Hurricane Sandy hitting New Jersey, USA – a major cable landing hub – in 2012. This storm wiped out critical infrastructure, flooded cable ducts and caused a

FIGURE 1: SYSTEMS DRIVEN BY HYPERSCALERS 2018-2022

Figure 1: Systems Driven by Hyperscalers, 2018-2022

FIGURE 2: SYSTEMS IMPACTED BY HYPERSCALERS 2018-2022

Figure 2: Systems Impacted by Hyperscalers, 2018-2022

ANALYTICS

huge loss of connectivity to Europe for several days – resulting in millions of dollars in lost business. The aftermath of this storm highlighted the need for increased route diversity and more direct control over critical infrastructure. This will help to spur on the surge of Hyperscaler backed submarine cable systems. (Figure 6)

Additionally, major Hyperscalers are growing at such a rapid pace that their need for additional bandwidth outpaced their ability to purchase it in a timely manner. Building their own infrastructure provides both greater control over assets and re moves the need to “compete” against other carriers and businesses also trying to buy capacity circuits. As a result of owning and operating their own critical infrastructure, Hyperscalers can now turn on additional capacity in a matter of days instead of weeks or months as when buying circuits from a traditional carrier.

While transoceanic cable systems are expensive –well over $100 million just to get across the Atlan tic – these assets represent business potential in the billions of dollars for major Hyperscalers. Even the annual operations expenditure to manage and main tain the cable is a fraction of potential revenue.

FUTURE SYSTEMS IMPACTED

For the period 2022 to 2025, 21 percent of planned systems are being driven by Hyperscalers, a decrease of 2 percent from last year. (Figure 4) This slight reduction in Hyperscaler activity could be due to several factors such as the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or the po tential layoffs and cost cutting measures this year from Facebook – which may cut as much as 10% of its staff (Erb, 2022) – and Google – which is aiming to improve efficiency by 20 percent (Elias, 2022). Additionally, the chip shortage since 2020 has hampered overall technology development across multiple industries but will likely be re solved by the end of this year. (J.P. Morgan, 2022)

However, as systems driven by major Hyperscalers have a much greater chance of being implemented –due to the high financing threshold of these compa nies – expect this percentage to continue to increase as new cables are announced, and other projects die off. Without these kinds of backers, future systems will have a much harder time proving their business case and securing funding.

While the top tier Hyperscalers are continuing to de velop new systems, there are numerous other companies in this part of the Information Technology sector. A second wave of these companies – especially those that provide remote work services – may decide they need similar infra structure plans and follow in the footsteps of their respec tive market leaders. This could trigger a second wave of Hyperscaler driven systems and allow the submarine fiber market to continue enjoying its current level of activity even after the top tier providers begin to reach the end of their infrastructure buildout plans. However, no new Hyperscal ers have officially or publicly expressed interest in building submarine cable infrastructure.

Of the $13.2 billion investment for planned systems over the next several years, 30 percent of that amount is tied up in Hyperscaler backed systems. Again, while these companies are not sole owners on every cable system, they are a part of, this still represents a significant dollar value that would very likely not exist without their involvement. (Figure 5)

While only 52 percent of announced cable systems end

up entering service (Clark, 2019), Hyperscaler backed sys tems have thus far proven largely immune to this trend as they generally do not announce a system until it is already CIF. It is therefore probable that up to half of non- Hyper scaler driven systems will not achieve the CIF milestone and further highlight the dominance of the Hyperscalers on the submarine fiber industry.

DATA CENTERS

Data center providers have become an increasingly integral part of the submarine telecommunications ecosystem over the last several years. As a result, one of the biggest dynamic changes has been to place data center and colocation facilities closer to cable landing stations to maximize interconnection and network services. Building these facilities next to – or even as part of – the cable landing station reduces network latency and stream lines infrastructure.

Figure 67: Global Data Center Clusters

This type of configuration is especially attractive for cable landing stations that house mul tiple cable systems as they provide access to a much wider array of customers and interconnection opportunities. For instance, the cable landing facilities in Mar seille, France, house thirteen international submarine cables and provide access to dozens of potential customers needing both interconnection and onward back haul connectivity. (SubTel Forum Analytics Division of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc., 2020)

CLOUD ADOPTION

Cloud adoption is at an all-time high as companies continue to shift towards both cloud storage and cloud computing to drive their business. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services lead the way in enterprise adoption with no sign of slowing down. These cloud services are global in nature and inevitably their traffic will end up traveling over submarine telecom munications cables. As a result, data center providers have become more involved with the submarine fiber industry, especially around ca ble landing stations where they can capitalize on interconnection and colocation opportunities – espe cially in those areas where multiple cables come ashore to a single location. (Figure 6)

In late 2021, Flexera surveyed 753 technical professionals about their cloud computing adoption. Of these survey responders, 63 percent are con sidered heavy users running more than 25 percent of their workload in the cloud, 23 percent are considered moder ate and just 14 percent label their company usage of cloud services as light. Spending on enterprise cloud continues to be prevalent as 37 percent of enterprise respondents report their annual cloud expenditure is more than $12 million annually (Flexera, 2022)

Figure 6: Enterprise Public Cloud Provider Usage, 2022 (Flexera, 2022)

Figure 7: Enterprise Public Cloud Provider Adoption Rate, 2020-2021 (Flexera, 2022)

These numbers show that the cloud computing market continues to accelerate overall. As this market grows, so will data center providers and the need to provide robust telecommunications networks that allow enterprise cus tomers to efficiently manage their traffic anywhere in the world. A key part of this will be the integration of data centers with cable landing stations to efficiently provide more backhaul and interconnection opportunities on in ternational telecommunications routes. (Figure 7)

DATA CENTER MARKET EXPANSION AND INTEGRATION

The cost for implementing a new data center can be steep. Depending on overall size and location, building a new data center can cost anywhere from $7 to $12 million per megawatt (MW). (Zhang, 2022) Google has invested $9.5 billion in the United States alone for new data center infrastructure this year. (Pichai, 2022) Further, research firm Gartner projected $226 billion in data center expenditures for 2022 – up 11.4 percent from the year before. (Haranas, 2022) These numbers paint a clear picture that data center growth is only continuing to rise.

Non-Hyperscaler data centers such as Equinix or Dig ital Realty Trust will continue to benefit from submarine cable construction activity as proximity to a cable landing station can provide numerous interconnection opportuni ties that can help make the high cost of a new data center build worth it. While these non-Hyperscaler data centers do benefit from submarine cable infrastructure, they are not driving new builds and are strictly interested in the

interconnection opportunities that being involved with cable landing stations provides. For Equinix and other carrier-neutral providers, locations with only a single cable system are not attractive growth options.

Expect data center providers to continue integrating more closely with submarine cables. Bridging the gap between terrestrial and submarine traffic is one of the most critical components of international connectivity. Traditionally, submarine fiber systems would come ashore at a cable landing station, negotiate deals for backhaul connectivity to a data center – which was not always close by – and from there negotiate interconnection services to other carriers and providers. This would add network la tency and complexity – both of which are greatly reduced when data center and cable landing station facilities are integrated more closely. As new ideas and technologies are developed towards this effort, network efficiency and reliability will continue increasing. STF

SUBTEL CABLE MAP UPDATES

The SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry stan dard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database. It tracks the progress of over 440 current and planned cable sys tems, 50+ cable ships and over 1,000 landing points. Systems are also linked to SubTel Forum’s News Now Feed, allowing viewing of current and archived news details.

This interactive map is a continual work and progress and regularly updated with pertinent data captured by analysts at SubTel Forum and feedback from our users. Our goal is to make easily available not only data from the Sub marine Cable Almanac, but also more and more new layers of system information.

We hope you continue to make use of the SubTel Cable Map to learn more about the industry yourself and educate others on the importance of submarine cable systems.

All the submarine cable data for the Online Cable Map is pulled from the public domain and we always strive to keep the information as up to date as possible. If you are the point of contact for a company or system that needs to be updated, please don’t hesitate to reach out to rspence@ subtelforum.com.

The full list of updated systems since the last issue of the magazine are as follows:

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

SYSTEMS ADDED

2Africa/PEARLS

ALC

Deep Blue One

Highclere Cable Medloop

Olisipo Pencan-9

Unitirreno

Systems Updated 2Africa ACC-1

ADC Amitié BaSICS Celtic Norse CeltixConnect EMIC-1 FEA G2P2 Grace Hopper HAVFRUE/AEC-2 Havhingsten/CC-2 Indigo West Malbec

MENA Norsea Com-1 PEACE PEACE Singapore Extension Saudi Vision Cable SEA-H2X Shefa 2 TLSSC STF

KIERAN CLARK is the Lead Analyst for SubTel Forum. He originally joined SubTel Forum in 2013 as a Broadcast Technician to provide support for live event video streaming. He has 6+ years of live production experience and has worked alongside some of the premier organizations in video web streaming. In 2014, Kieran was promoted to Analyst and is currently responsible for the research and maintenance that supports the Submarine Cable Database. In 2016, he was promoted to Lead Analyst and his analysis is featured in almost the entire array of Subtel Forum Publications.

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE PESKY CABLESHIPS?

BY REBECCA SPENCE

Welcome back! While there are still several weeks left until 2023, cableship news this year has been more ac tive than any time in the last decade. With two converted vessels, a long-term installation contract and a completely new vessel all added to the fleet. So, let us take a look at some numbers.

Between August 24th and Octo ber 23rd, the cableship fleet logged over 12,000 AIS update. Over half of the updates indicated movement at a variety of speeds during this 60-day period. Nine vessels did not report any movement in that period: the Telepaatti, Ile de Molene, Cable

Innovator, Pierre de Fermat, CS Etisalat, Asean Protector, Ile de Aix, Reymond Croze and the Umm Al Anber. This lack of movement is generally attributed to repairs, scheduled maintenance and upgrades.

For this edition of Where In The World Are Those Pesky Cableships, the visual of reported vessel activity has a new look! Each colored bubble represents a different vessel and is placed in the region where that vessel spent the most time over the past 60 days. SubTel Forum is now ac tively tracking 53 different cable laying or maintenance vessels and, as the image reveals, AustralAsia is quite a busy region, with 22 vessels between the China coast and Western Australia. The eastern portion of the Atlantic, North Sea, Baltic Sea and Mediterranean had 16 vessels occupying its waters over the past 60 days. and Another six vessels spent most of their time off the Western coast of Africa, the Middle East and Coast of India. A few are hard at work around the coast of Africa laying systems like 2Africa and PEACE Cable. The remaining vessels were scattered around the less active Americas and Pacific region.

As mentioned, the cableship fleet has grown more this year than any year in the last 10, and the distribu tion of vessel ownership has shifted quite significantly. At this time last year, SubTel Forum was only track ing 44 cableships, this number has now increased to include nine more vessels between November of 2021 to November 2022. A handful of these additions are vessels that have only recently been added to SubTel Forums AIS tracking data. Some were added after seeing a shift in their focus from power cables to telecoms cables. Just last month, the Normand Clipper signed an extended contract with NTT for installation projects over the next several years. There have also been several conversions, like ASN’s Ile de Molene, which was christened this past summer.

Orange Marine’s beautiful new vessel the Sophie Ger main launched as I was sitting down to write this month’s article, so she is not yet included in the SubTel Forum AIS tracking data or included in the Owner Distribution. Over the coming weeks she will sail from Sri Lanka to France to begin her new role as the first battery powered, energy

efficient submarine cable laying vessel in the entire fleet. Welcome to the family Sophie, et bon voyage.

There have been some fantastic cableship pictures shared over the past two months. A personal favorite was the beautiful sunrise off the coast of South Africa taken shared by Thomas Quehec on the Leon Thevenin in late October. Keep posting those cableship pictures and I will see you next year! STF

REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum. Rebecca possessed more than 10 years’ experience as an analyst and database manager, including for the small business division of prominent government contractor, General Dynamics IT. She is a regular contributor to SubTel Forum Magazine and is based out of Hillsborough, North Carolina USA.

SUBSEA sustainable

GREENING OF MARITIME PORTS

Is Regulation The Game Changer?

BY ANJALI SUGADEV, SORCHA FFRENCH, AND GEORGE RAMÍREZ

Our industry depends on a fu el-intensive marine fleet to in stall, maintain, and repair subsea cables. Yet this fleet–for better or worse–is almost entirely absent when it comes to discussions of the environmental impact of digital media technologies. Infrastructures like boats and ports are both essential to global telecommunications and essential to reducing greenhouse gas reductions. If we pay attention to the marine sector, we will find new and innovative paths toward sustainabil ity. In this article of the Sustainable Subsea Networks project, a research initiative of the SubOptic Foundation, we dive deep into one location of marine sustainability: the port. Understanding the greening of maritime ports is critical. If the subsea cable industry knows where sustainable ports are, our ships can dock at places where climate-friend ly practices are already established. Beyond this, understanding regula tion is also critical. Many ports are more sustainable than others be cause they follow laws that regulate practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Regulation also allows for port authorities to invest heavily on infrastructure, which is their key con tribution to a carbon-reduced future. “We’ve always relied on rulemaking, which seems counterintuitive,” says Morgan Caswell at the Port of Long Beach. “You think organizations don’t want regulation, but we just want

good regulation.” Many of these laws enable ports to use future energy car riers with the potential for long-term oil substitution like hydrogen, ammo nia, methanol, and biofuels.1 The most popular among these is shore power, which shifts vessel emissions from fossil fuels to the landside grid. Regulation is eventually coming that will affect the subsea indus try. Getting ahead of the game, the industry could define good regula tion that warrants marine vessels to be equipped with technology that is compatible with alternative fuel

1 Directive 2014/94/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0094

sources and shore power. Infrastruc ture enhancement requires heavy investments, the motivation for which is often mandatory rules laid at an international, national, or local level. “The investment in new port facili ties and greener vessels is expensive for both port operators and vessel owners but eventually it is something that will have to be done,” says Bruce Neilson-Watts, Chief Executive Of ficer of Global Marine. Subsea cable companies can offer voyage optimi zation strategies, partake in recycling initiatives, and participate in energy efficiency strategies, but the ships are the largest contributors to emissions. Regulation would also make carbon accounting for marine fleet emissions

more accurate. In this article we cover existing regulations that are rele vant to the subsea sector, and whose implementation would be a proactive way to improve our environmental sustainability.

THE THREE REGULATIONS

The Sustainable Subsea Network team recently interviewed port au thorities around the world to better understand their capacity to reduce emissions. Along with identifying fifty sustainable ports, we found three pieces of regulation that impact the operations of ports and ships: IEC/ IEEE 80005-1:2019 on High voltage shore connection (HVSC) system, Directive 2014/ 94/ EU on Alternative Fuel Infrastructure (AFI) and Ocean-Going Vessels at Berth Regulation. These laws represent regulations at various hierarchical lev els of enforcement - an international standard, a regional law and local regulation respectively. They are ex amples of the types of legal measures - hard binding law (California’s AB regulation), a regional supra-national body’s (EU’s) directive that creates a framework for its Member States to develop punitive national rules and soft law that has recommendatory status (IEC/ IEEE HVSC standard). This article discusses these regulations to enable the subsea cable industry’s vessels to adapt technologies that support sustainable infrastructure.

REGULATION 1: THE IEC/ IEEE HVSC SYSTEM AND SHORE POWER

The IEC/ IEEE HVSC system is an international standard published by the leading global standard-setting organization, International Elec trotechnical Commission (IEC) to ensure compatibility with the world’s

shore power systems. This is current ly the first technical reference that describes the system onboard the ship and on the shore2 and sets the stage for unification of shore to ship equipment by eliminating differences in their technical characteristics.3 The standard was developed as a result of the San Pedro Bay Port Complex’s Technology Advancement Program (TAP). According to Caswell, “Once it can be shown that [a solution] can be done feasibly, rulemaking can come in behind and make sure it is stan dardized.” This is a typical example of soft law, which are legal instruments that are not binding, as they persuade vessel owners and port authorities to follow a universal standard. Addi tional and/or alternative requirements can be imposed by national admin istrations or the authorities within whose jurisdiction the ship is intend ed to operate and/or by the owners or authorities responsible for a shore supply or distribution system.

2 Faculty of Maritime Studies University of Rijeka, ‘Regulations in force and certifications’ (European Regional Development Fund, 31 December 2021) 5 available at https://www.italy-croatia.eu/documents/300761/0/4.3_ Regulations+in+force+and+certifications_ final.pdf/8e47ca16-470f-1c8e-30045504c1f21c3c?t=1650614113790

3 IEC/IEEE International Standard- Utility connections in port- Part 1: High Voltage shore connection (HVSV)-General requirements available at https://standards.ieee.org/ ieee/80005-1/5835/

The subsea cable industry can consider setting their own standards that encourages operators to adopt sustainable technologies and prac tices. There are many companies that already have vessels equipped with shore power, including Alcatel Submarine Networks, Global Marine Systems, IT International Telecom, and Orange Marine. “It is always our preference to be on shore power in port, especially when sitting in stand by for longer periods of time,” says Paul Hebert, Marine Technical Man ager at IT International Telecom. However, this is not yet standardized across the industry, and even in the many ports that have shore power available, cable ships still may not have access to shore-powered berths.

REGULATION 2: EU DIRECTIVE 2014/ 94 AND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The 2014 EU Directive on AFI calls upon its Member States to establish national policy frameworks outlining their national targets and actions for the development of the market for alternative fuels.4 Member States were required to submit a progress report in November 2019, and complemented

4 Directive 2014/94/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0094

The subsea cable industry can consider setting their own standards that encourages operators to adopt sustainable technologies and practices.

SUBSEA sustainable

by additional reports every three years thereafter. Since the port authorities alone do not have much influence over sustainability initiatives, the Directive recognizes the involvement of private actors such as ship owners and termi nal operators (in the case of landlord ports where the port real estate is leased to terminal operators) to be consulted when implementing regula tory and non-regulatory incentives and measures for compliance with this Di rective. In some cases, port authorities form partnerships with their tenants to reach sustainability targets by using concession agreements. The Directive also calls for a core network of LNG refueling points at maritime and inland ports to be available at least by the end of 2025 and 2030, respectively.5

Financial support is available from the European Union for building new technologies and innovation for decarbonization of transport, espe cially for the subsea industry as it exploits the synergies between three priority sectors covered by another regulation6, namely transport, energy and telecommunications. Marine operators can find financial support for sustainable technologies through programs like the TAP in the San Pe dro Bay Complex. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey provides financial incentives for operators using the port to make changes to their fuel use, engine type, and other infrastructural enhancements. The subsea industry can register their boats into the Environmental Ship Index to enhance performance, min imize emissions, and pay less money

5 ibid.

6 EU Regulation No.1316/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013, establishing the Connecting Europe Facility, available at https://ec.europa. eu/inea/sites/default/files/download/legal_framework/ regulation_13162013_cef.pdf

when calling at the Port. Authorities are invested in building strong part nerships with vessel operators because they want their business.

Building partnerships with ports can help our industry’s marine ves sels be more sustainable in ways that are beneficial for both parties. “The key to success,” observes Bruce Neil son-Watts, “is ensuring all stakeholders communicate their needs/wants, port owners to communicate their future green energy roadmap as this assists ship owners to make more informed decisions on newer propulsion tech nology.” Communication is essential. “Where possible we want to avoid port owners investing in fuelling infrastruc ture that is not aligned with shipown ers future vessel investment plans.”

Unfortunately, the current efforts and progress by Member States under the Directive is not sufficient to cat alyze a full transition. The European Commission’s assessment of Mem ber State reports reveal that further action needs to be taken to reach their goals. Data availability on the uptake of onshore power supply for ships at berth is also limited.7 There is

7 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/ PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021DC0103&from=EN.

no detailed and binding methodology for Member States to calculate tar gets and adopt measures. “Even with standards in mind, you almost always have to account for special solutions that follow the needs of the vessel,” shares Valter Selen, the European Sea Ports Organization’s (ESPO) Senior Policy Advisor for Sustainable Development. The level of ambition in target setting and policies to sup port it varies greatly among Member States. For example, Spain reported that it has 2 shore-side electricity supply points and expected to have 45 more in 2020.8 Its national policy framework for LNG supply points for ships and ferries have already been accomplished 100%. This is not the case with many other Member States.

The Directive has shortcomings, but they provide marine cable oper ators a few things to consider: elec tricity supply, port traffic, and grid capacity. In response to these short comings, the European Parliament has proposed legislation to set binding targets for electricity supply for vessels

8 European Commission Working Document, ‘Updated Detailed Assessment of the Member States Implementation Reports on the National Policy Framework for the development of the market as regards alternative fuels in the transport sector and the deployment of the relevant infrastructure implementation of Art 10 (3) of Directive 2014/94/EU’ (Brussels 16 February SWD 2022 33 final Part 3/4) 260.

Building partnerships with ports can help our industry’s marine vessels be more sustainable in ways that are beneficial for both parties.

in ports. Ship carriers working with the subsea cable industry should think about how they can work with ports that enable them to use shore power. As this form of alternative energy be comes increasingly adopted, ports will get busier, so ships should plan ac cordingly. This is why ESPO proposes to define the scope of the shore-side electricity supply based on a mini mum level of traffic per terminal in stead of per port.9 This will encourage more vessels to adapt corresponding shore power technology over time. At the same time, we should remember that as ships become increasingly de pendent on the grid, that will increase the strain on the cities these ports are located in. ESPO predicts that the EU will need at least fifteen times the current grid capacity available to meet the requirements set by the comission. “If you don’t know what demands you have,” Selen says. “Whether they will be using OPS or another solution, it’s difficult to install something that is future proof.”

go ships, the law affects the subsea cable industry because it will be re evaluated to include smaller fleets and additional vessel types in the future.11 It was approved in 2007 with com pliance requirements beginning in 2014 and was later updated in 2020.12 As of 2020, it resulted in a decrease of 80% of emissions from container, cargo, and cruise vessels.13 This regu lation seeks to reduce emissions from auxiliary engines at berth. While the EU Directive targets CO2 emissions in particular, the state law requires terminal operators to provide shore power, allowing the use of other low sulfur emitting technologies, like use of marine gas oil or scrubber sys

and emission control strategy oper ators have shared obligations under the California regulation for reducing at berth emissions, depending on who is the agent responsible for installing any necessary equipment onboard a vessel.15 This is because most port authorities are not regulatory bodies but landlords who rent sections of the port property to operators. Terminals and ports in general will be responsi ble for installing shore-side emissions control equipment and/or infra structure, while vessel operators are responsible for installing any neces sary equipment onboard a vessel.16 In stead of placing the responsibility on ports, the State of California created

REGULATION #3: CALIFORNIA’S AB REGULATION AND

CO2 EMISSIONS

The third regulation we examined was California’s AB Regulation. This is a landmark legislation with some scholars and industry experts calling it one of the most successful pieces of legislation in the US concerning statewide efforts to reduce green house gas emissions.10 While the regulation affects container ships, passenger ships, and refrigerated-car

9 European Sea Ports Organisation, ‘Position of the ESPO on the Proposal for Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation1 (COM 2021 559) 2.

10 Cassandra B. Drotman, Santa Rosa, Raymond H. Huff, Camille Q. Le, ‘A Look at CARB’s AB32 GHG Programs, from Early Action to Today’ ( AWMA’s 114th Annual Conference & Exhibition Virtual ConferenceJune 14 – June 17, 2021 Extended Abstract # 984215) 12.

tems.14 Subsea cable vessels that want to dock in California ports will need to comply with this law, but following it will also help reduce our industry’s emissions.

Interestingly, vessel operators, terminal operators, port authorities,

11 California Air Resources Board https://ww2.arb. ca.gov/our-work/programs/ocean-going-vessels-berthregulation/about

12 Updated in 2020, appearing in sections 93130 through 931190.22 of Title 17, California Code of Regulations.

13 Control Measure for Ocean-Going Vessels at Berth available at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/factsheets/control-measure-ocean-going-vessels-berth

14 Zis, T. (2019). Prospects of cold ironing as an emissions reduction option. Transportation Research. Part A: Policy & Practice, 119, 82-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.11.003

the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to enforce and advance cli mate regulation. The Regulation has strong penalties which are essential for its enforcement. Pursuant to the Health and Safety Code and the 2020 amendment to the AB Regula tion, each failure to meet any require ment of California’s AB Regulation constitutes a single, separate violation, amounting to a maximum of $37,500

15 California Air Resources Board, ‘At Berth Frequently Asked Questions’ (2021) 3 available at https://ww2.arb. ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/TTD21-272%20At%20 Berth%20FAQs.pdf

16 ibid.

At the same time, we should remember that as ships become increasingly dependent on the grid, that will increase the strain on the cities these ports are located in.

SUBSEA sustainable

for “each action”. This regulation exemplifies a hard binding law that makes the maximum impact as it is followed by penalty for non-com pliance. Ports teach us that without regulatory agencies to ensure compli ance, there is no incentive for the ves sels that install, repair, and maintain our cables to be more aware of their carbon footprint. Because our vessels are one of the most significant carbon emitters in our industry, setting stan dards for sustainable practices and infrastructures can have a significant impact on our environment.

IS LAW THE RIGHT INSTRUMENT FOR CHANGE?

The subsea cable industry could benefit from regulation that enables sustainable practices across the sector. Working with sustainable ports will encourage us to adapt the technolo gies that can decrease emissions while still effectively maintaining our ca bles. Good regulation maximizes our capacity to support decarbonization efforts across our chain of production.

A comparative analysis of these three pieces of legislation reiter ates that law, in whatever form, can be conducive in achieving climate targets. According to a 2019 French news article, three ferries with 12-hour daily stopovers between Marseille and the Island of Beauty saved two to four tons of diesel per ship by switching to electrical power. This strategy alone resulted in a 30% reduction in fuel consumption.17 This is driven by regulations which since 2010 have been strengthening requirements in terms of emissions linked to transport.

17 Translated from a French article, “Electricity connection to the ferry dock is developing in the port of Marseille Fos”, by Paul Molga, January 2018.

It is critical to implement environ mental standards and legislation for all green technology. It provides a way to future-proof further development towards alternative fuels and energy carriers.18 Moreover, coordinated policy frameworks go a long way in establishing long-term certainty and uniformity for ship owners and operators, thereby providing greener pastures for infrastructure invest ments with confidence. Rather than replacing a fleet, the subsea cable industry can leverage already existing laws to improve their sustainability practices. We are in a position to en courage and incentivize our operators to work with green ports and to set their own emissions standards with ports’ support.

Outside of regulatory obligation, there is less motivation for vessel owners to adopt alternative fuel technologies. Therefore, a concerted, uniform practice across ports can go a long way in increasing emissions reductions and help reach sustainabil ity targets even sooner. Our depen dence on regulation also suggests that we address sustainability as a multipronged approach, adapting multiple strategies simultaneously to minimize our emissions. While regulation helps

18 Directive 2014/94/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0094

universalize a single procedure to be more sustainable, it is crucial to act now in setting regulation rather than waiting for it to be determined for us. Cable ships can capitalize on port infrastructure to enhance their sustainability goodwill among their customers by investing in technologies that complement the available port infrastructure. There may not be a single solution to decarbonize the In ternet, but if our marine vessels work with these ports it will be a significant actionable step toward that end.

This document is an output from the Sustainable Subsea Networks research initiative, funded by the Internet Society Foundation. STF

ANJALI SUGADEV is the Law and Policy Lead at the Sustainable Subsea Networks. She is also a law consultant and researcher focusing on the regulatory and policy issues governing submarine cables.

SORCHA FFRENCH is a graduate of Masters of Law from Trinity College Dublin focusing on the intersection between business and human rights as well as environmental constitutional ism.

GEORGE N. RAMÍREZ is a PhD candidate in the Department of Media, Culture, and Commu nication at New York University, where his work focuses on sensation and performance in Latinx popular culture.

Rather than replacing a fleet, the subsea cable industry can leverage already existing laws to improve their sustainability practices.

5 QUESTIONS WITH BRIAN MOON

Talking Network Trends With Pacific Telecommunications Council’s CEO

1.

WHAT IS PTC’S MISSION?

Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) is the leading global non-profit membership organization for the telecoms industry promoting the ethical development and use of information and commu nication technologies (ICT) through collaboration, knowledge, and out reach. PTC’s vision is a better world where people and organizations are connected through the innovative use of ICT.

2.

HOW DOES PTC PARTICIPATE IN THE SUBMARINE CABLE MARKET?

One of the biggest draws each year at PTC’s Annual Conference are the submarine cable workshops; an esteemed panel of experts providing attendees with the latest global updates and this year specifically taking a look at sustain ability initiatives within the industry; in addition to the Submarine Cable Luncheon sponsored by SubOptic. Get involved at PTC’23 as a spon sor, advertiser, exhibitor, conference attendee, or become a PTC Awards 2023 patron. Visit PTC.ORG/PTC23 for more information.

3.WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF PTC’S SUCCESS?

PTC’s success is much in part due to its membership base, as the PTC Members, leadership, and committee volunteers are the backbone of the organization. They support and fur ther enhance PTC’s vision and mission.

The organization provides a platform for stake holders from across the global telecommunications ecosystem to meet, network, and advance the devel opment of ICT through education, research, and the sharing of ideas.

PTC’s Annual Conference, held each January in Honolulu, is the industry’s premier telecommunica tions event and serves as the strategic springboard for the global communications industry. Funds from PTC Annual Conferences and membership supports PTC’s Community Outreach Initiatives, research, and projects to further enhance its mission and vision.

While the Annual Conference is one of the main focuses of the organization, PTC continues its efforts through its many Community Outreach Initiatives – PTC Academy, PTC Emerging Scholar Program, PTC Research Awards, PTC Projects, and more.

It’s also the relationships and new partnerships that have been created and established over the years that contribute to PTC’s success and the success of its members in the industry. Many ideas are present ed, joint projects agreed upon and executed, making lives better all over the globe and most importantly in the Pacific.

4.

AS SUSTAINABILITY HAS BECOME A HOT BUTTON ISSUE IN OUR INDUSTRY, WHAT ARE PTC’S PLANS FOR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS GOING FORWARD?

There is no doubt sustainability is a target focus for all organizations in the telecom industry. At PTC’23, we’ll hear from panelists in the subcable industry on those that are leading by example and implementing sustain ability initiatives. Others in the ecosystem will discuss the changing landscape around energy use and efficiency in the digital infrastructure space as well as in data centers. We’ll learn about organizations’ sustainability commit ments, progress, goals, initiatives, and more. This will be a hot topic discussed for some time, especially following the Annual Conference. PTC hopes to continue the conversa tion in 2023 in various ways.

5.WHAT IS NEXT FOR PTC?

PTC and the Secretariat are currently focused on the upcoming Annual Conference, PTC’23 from 15 to 18 January, 2023 in Honolulu, Hawaii at the Hilton Hawaiian Village® Waikiki Beach Resort. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Hawaii yet again, especially those who weren’t able to join us at PTC’22. This year’s Annual Conference is on track to dou ble the attendance from this past January’s event. It’s going to be a big conference year, one that anyone in the industry really shouldn’t miss!

Following the Annual Conference, we are delighted for the return of the PTC Webinar Series: Frictionless Busi ness in early 2023. Stay tuned for the schedule, hot button topics, and expert panelists. The opportunity to sponsor webinars in 2023 are still available, as well as other Annual Sponsorships to support the vision and mission of PTC.

We are keen on continuing to grow our membership base and invite you to join PTC as a member if you haven’t already done so. Becoming a member allows you to network on both a social and business level to create, build, and maintain industry relationships. It provides you access to senior executives furthering your relationships and business partnerships, ideally in turn increasing your organization’s business revenue. The Annual Conference is convenient for all attendees; a one-stop-shop to get a ma jority of your annual business accomplished in one place at the beginning of each calendar year. PTC also provides a knowledge base of industry experts to learn from and develop with, and creates a sense of community, one ohana (family) throughout the year.

I know I’m biased, but if you ask me, it’s worth it to become a member. Just ask your industry peers! STF

BRIAN MOON is CEO of Pacific Telecommunications Council, the global non-profit membership organization promoting the advancement of informa tion and communications technologies in the Pacific Rim.

Brian held a variety of roles over a span of 15 years at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Prior to joining PTC, he was the vice president of sales and business development at CTA, where he led the sales and business development team for CTA and CES, driving growth and industry engage ment for the world’s most influential technology event. Previously he was vice president of international sales from 2014 to 2020 and national accounts manager from 2003 to 2009.

In addition to two tenures with CTA, Brian was also vice president of sales, convention and allied membership with the National Restaurant Association, and Manager of industry relations and exhibits at the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in professional and technical communication with a concentration in marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a member of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) and is certified in exhibition management (CEM).

AN APPRECIATION

THANKS TO ALL OUR OUTSTANDING AUTHORS

BY SUBTEL FORUM STAFF

Since our first issue in November 2001 more than 630 subject matter experts from around the world have provided timely insight into the health and ever-changing technology of our very special submarine cable industry. SubTel Forum’s vision has always been to be the “Voice of the Industry” and with their help we have done so.

Thanks to all the outstanding Authors who have contributed to SubTel Forum Magazine over the last 21 years!

Abhijit Chitambar

Abiodun Jagun Ph.D. Adam Hotchkiss

Adam Kelly

Adam Sharp

Adebayo Felix Adekoya

Aislinn Klos

Alain Peuch

Alan Mauldin

Alan Mccurdy

Alan Robinson

Alasdair Wilkie

Alex Vaxmonsky

Alexandra Middleton

Alexis DiGabriele

Alexis Pilipetskii

Alfred Richardson

Alice Amiri

Alice Leonard de Juvigny

Alice Shelton

Allan Green

Amanda Prudden

Amber Case

Amy Marks

Anders Ljung

Anders Tysdal

Andrea Rodriguez

Andrés Contreras

Andres Figoli Pacheco

Andrew Oon

Andrew Ray Andrew Rush

Andrew Woollven

Andrew Evans

Andrew Lipman

Andrew Ljung

Andrew Lloyd

Andrzej Borowiec

Andy Bax

Andy Cole

Andy Lumsden

Andy Palmer-Felgate

Andy Riga

Andy Shaw

Anne LeBoutillier

Anne Pasek

Antoine Lécroart

António Nunes

Anup Changaroth Arnaud Leroy

Arunachalam Kandasamy

Ashutosh Bhargava

Asubam Weyori

Barbara Dean Ph.D. Basil Demeroutis

Ben Basson

Benoit Kowalski

Bernard Logan

Bertrand Clesca

Bill Barney

Bill Burns

Bill Carter Bill Glover

Bill Kolb

Bill Redpath

Bjørn Rønning

Bob Fredrickson

Bran Herlihy

Brendan Press

Brett Ferenchak

Brett O’Riley

Brett Worrall

Brian Crawford

Brian Lavallée

Bruce Neilson-Watts

Bruce Rein

Byron Clatterbuck

Captain Nick Parker

Caroline Elliott

Cate Stubbings

Catherine Creese

Catherine Dixon

Catherine Kuersten

Cengiz Oztelcan

Charles Laperle

Charles Foreman

Charlotte Winter

Chris Barnes

Chris Bayly

Chris Benjamin

Chris Butler

Chris de Josselin

Chris Ellis

Chris van Zinnicq Berg

mann

Chris Wood

Christian Annoque

Christian Keogh

Christian von der Ropp

Christine Cabau Woehrel

Christopher Noyes

Christopher Wood

Chuck Kaplan

Cliff Scapellati

Clifford Holliday

Clive McNamara

Colin Anderson Coran Darling Craig Donovan Dag Aanensen

Daishi Masuda

Dallas Meggitt

Dan Parsons

Daniel Carragher

Daniel Hughes

Daniel Perera

Daniel Wiser

Daryl Chaires

Dave Crowley

David Cassidy

David Coughlan

David Eurin

David Lassner

David Latin David Lipp

David Liu Jianmin

David Martin

David Mazzzarese

David Miller

David Robles

David Walters

David Warnes

Dean Veverka

Debra Brask

Delphine Rouvillain

Denise Toombs

Denise Wood

Dennis Chan

Derek Cassidy Derek Greenham Derek Webster Devin Sappington Dixit Shah Dmitri Foursa Domingos Coelho

Don Klikna Donald Hussong Doug Madory Doug Ranahan Doug Stroud Douglas Burnett Edward Saade Edwin Danson Edwin Muth Elaine Stafford Emma Martin Emmanual Delanoque Emmanual Desurvire

Ening Philip Eric Handa Erick Contag

Erlend Anderson Eugene Park Eve Griliches Eyal Lichtman

Fan Xiaoyan Fiona Beck Francis Audet

Francis Charpentier

Frank Cuccio

Frank DiMaria

Frank Donaghy Ph.D. Fredrik Hane

Funke Opeke

Gabriel Ruhan Gareth Parry Gary Gibbs

Gary Kennedy Gavin Rea Gavin Tully Genius Wong Geoff Ball

Geoff Bennett

Geoffrey Thornton

Georg Mohs George Baker

George Krebs George Foote George Miller George Ramírez George Samisoni George Tronsrue Georges Krebs Gerald Soloway

Gil Santaliz Glenn Gerstell Glenn Hovermale Glenn Maule

Glenn Wellbrock

Global Maritime Initiative Gordon Duzevich Graham White Graham Cooper Graham Evans Greg Berlocher Greg Kunkle Greg Otto Greg Stoner Greg Twitt Greg Varisco Gregor McPherson Guillaume Huchet Gunnar Berthelsen Guy Arnos Hans Christian Nilsen Hardeep Sidhu

Harold Bock Hector Hernandez Heiner Ottersberg

Helen Veverka

Henry Lancaster Henry Lancaster

Hermann Kugeler

Herve Fevrier Ph.D. Hicham Maalouf Himmat Singh Sandhu Horst Etzkorn

Houlin Zhao Howard Kidorf

Hubert Souise

Hugh Thomson

Hunter Newby

Hunter Vaughan

Iago Bojczuk

Ian Davis

Ian Douglas Ian Fletcher

Ian Gaitch Ian Thomas

Ian Watson Igor Czajkowski

Ilissa Miller

Inge Vintermyr

Inger Gloersen Folkeson International SOS

Ioannia Konstantinidis

Iris Hong Isaac Kofi Nti

Italo Godoy Jacie Matsukawa Jack Richards Jack Runfola James Barton James Case James Cowie James Halliday James Herron

James Neville Jan Kristoffer Brenne Jas Dhooper Jason O’Rourke

Javier Izaguirre

Jaynie Cutaia

Jean Devos

Jean-Francois Baget

Jean-François Bilodeau

Jean-Marie Fontaine

Jean-Marie Vilain

Jed Duvall

Jeff Gardner Ph.D.

Jeffrey Hill

Jeffrey Hoel

Jeffrey Snider

Jennifer Ruch

Jennifer Gibbons

Jeremiah Mendez

Jerry Brown Ph.D.

Jim Baumann

Jim Bishop

Jim Byous Jim Fagan

Jim Lemberg

Jing Ning

Jiping Wen

Joanna El Khoury

Joe Capasso

Joel Ogren

Joel Whitman

Joerg Schwartz Ph.D.

John Golding

John Hedgpeth

John Hibbard

John Hill

John Horne

John Kasden

John Manock

John Melick

John Pockett

John Schulz

John Tibbles

John Walker

John Weisbruch

Jon Seip

Jonathan Boes

Jonathan Liss

Jordan Kearns

Jorge Orlando Garcia

Lozano

Jorn Jespersen

Jorn Wardeburg

Jose Andres Ph.D.

José Chesnoy

Jose Duarte

Jose Sousa Barros

Joshua Henson

Judi Clark

Jukka-Pekka Joensuu

Jules BenBenek

Julian Rawle

Kaori Shikinaka

Karen Boman

Karl Jeffery

Kate Panayotou

Katherine Edwards

Katsuyoshi Kawaguchi

Kaushik Sengupta

Keith Russel Shaw

Keith Schofield

Ken du Vall

Ken Weiner

Kent Bressie

Kevin Summers

Kieran Clark

Kjetil Korslund

Kristian Nielsen

Kristian Ohleth

Kurt Ruderman

Kylie Wansink

Lara Garrett

Larry Schwartz

Laure Duvernay

Laurent Campagne

Laurie Miller

Leetal Weiss

Leigh Frame

Leo Foulger

Liam Talbot

Linda Evans

Lindsay McDonald

Ling Zhao

Lionel Carter

Luca Possidente

Lucia Bibolini

Lynsey Thomas

Madeleine Findley

Mai Abou-Shaban

Manuel Costa Cabral

Marc Fullenbaum

Marc-Richard Fortin

Maria Garcia Alvarez

Maria Mato

Marianne Murfett

Mark Davidson Mark Englund Mark Enright Mark Hukill Mark Wickham

Marsha Spalding

Marta Lahuerta Escolano

Martin Foster

Matthew Milstead

Matthew Mitchell Mattias Fridström Maui Sanford Maurizio Pizzi

Maxim Bolshitysnsky

Meredith Cleveland Merete Caubert

Merrion Edwards Ph.D.

Michael Reimer

Michael Craigs

Michael Jones

Michaël Marie

Michael Nedbal Ph.D. Michael Ruddy Michael Schneider Michael s Carter

Michel Chbat Ph.D. Michel Martin Mick Greenham Mike Conradi Mike Daniel Mike Hynes Mike Last Mike Pan Mikinori Niino Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Eldahshory Mojeed Aluko Molilaauifogaa SeanoaLamua

Morgan Heim Motoyashi Tokioka Muhammad Rashid Shafi Murray Eldridge

Nancy Poirier

Natalia López Natasha Kahn

Neal Bergano Neil Lambert Neil Tagare Nguyen Vu Nicholas Kazaz Nick Silcox

Nicole Starosielski

Nigel Bayliff

Nigel Shaw

Nikos Nikolopoulos

Ning Jing

Norma Spruce

Ola Khaled

Olav Harald Nordgard

Olivier Courtois

Olivier Plomteux

Olivier Tremblay-Lavoie

Omar Jassim Bin Kalban

Owusu Nyarko-Boateng

Pamela Barnett

Panagiota Bosdogianni

Pascal Pecci

Patricio Boric

Patricio Rey

Patrick Faidherbe

Patrick Parsons

Paul Abfalter

Paul Budde

Paul Davidson Ph.D. Paul Deslandes

Paul Eastaugh

Paul Gabla Paul Gagnier

Paul Grant Paul Hibbard Paul Kravis Paul McCann

Paul Polishuk Ph.D. Paul Rudde

Paul Savill

Paul St. Clair

Paul Szajowski

Paul Treglia

Paula Dobbyn Per Handsen Per Ingeberg

Pete LeHardy

Peter Bannister

Peter Evans Peter Ford Peter Lange Peter Liu Peter Phibbs

Peter Worthington

Phil Anderson

Phil Footman-Williams

Philip Roche

Philippe Dumont

Phillip Pilgrim

Pierre Tremblay

Priyanth Mehta

Puja Borries

Rachel Justis

Ragnhild Katteland

Raj Mishra

Rannveig Bergerød Aase

Rannveig Li

Raul Magallenes

Ray Chrisner

Ray Drabble

Rebecca Spence

Remi Galasso Rendong Xu

René d’Avezac de Moran

Renzo Ravaglia

Rex Ramsden

Rich Potter

Richard Faint

Richard Kram

Richard Nickelson

Richard Blann

Richard Buchanan

Richard Elliott

Richard Romagnino

Riley Kooh

Rita Rukosueva

Rob Eastwood

Rob Hudome

Rob Munier

Robert Bannon

Robert Lingle Jr.

Robert Mazer

Robert McCabe

Robert Mecarini

Robert Stuart

Robert Thomas

Robert van de Poll

Robin Russell

Rogan Hollis

Roger Carver

Roland Lim

Rolf Boe

Ron Crean Ron Totton Ross Buntrock

Ross Pfeffer Ross Slutsky

Rubayet Choudhury

Russ Doig

Rusty O’Connor

Ryan Wopschall

Sally Sheedy Salon Ma Samir Seth Sammy Thomas Sandeep Narayan Kundu Sandra Feldman

Sanjai Parthasarathi Sarah Lockett Scott Foster Scott Griffith Scott McMullen Sean Bergin Serena Seng Sergei Makovejs Sergey Ten Seth Davis

Shaheen Qamar Shashank Krishna Shawn Xu Sherry Sontag Shreya Gautam

Shu Zhuang Siddhartha Raja Siew Ying Oak Simon Brodie

Simon Frater

Simon Webster

Sir Christopher Bland Søren Arentsen Stacia Canaday Stan Kramer

Stephane Delorme Stephanie Ingle Stephany Fan Stephen Dawe Stephen Dres

Stephen Grubb Ph.D.

Stephen Jarvis

Stephen Lentz

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ANNIVERSARY

THE MORE THINGS REMAIN, THE MORE THEY CHANGE THE SAME

Dear Wayne,

I wish to thank you for the opportunity to undertake the painful task of looking in the mirror twenty-one years later and assessing where we’ve been as an industry and what might lie ahead. I approach this with at least as much trepidation as you did when I invited you to speak at the inaugural KMI Fiberoptic Undersea Systems Symposium in New York (it “happened at the Hilton”!) some 28 years ago (1994, you’re welcome!) Can’t understand what all the F.U.S.S. was about… In any case, congratulations on 21 years of SubTel Forum!

B/r, —Tom

INTRO – WHAT IS AND WASN’T THEN

Ah, those heady – and at the same time, scary – times! What amazes me is not so much how things have changed, but how much they’ve stayed the same –only even more so. But change is all about perspec tive, isn’t it?

Just a couple of data points to set the scene – in 2001…

• Google was a mere toddler of 3 years old (how did it ever survive the dot.com bust?)

• Facebook was still 3 years in the future yet (much less Meta)

• Skype was 4 years in the future – VOIP was still a rela tively low-quality alternative to telco “pin drop quality” voice service

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – as in Amazon Web Service – was still 5 years in the future

But the beginnings of the end of the arguably stodgy, un der-innovative and expensive (read: “highly profitable”) tel co-dominated communications business model were already well afoot. Private investors stepped into the market (boy, did they ever!) to rapidly fund and construct cable networks to

BY TOM SOJA

meet and anticipate surging demand. Growth in data traffic had already begun to surpass voice (ask your grandma about 64-kbps (not a typo) voice circuits and erlangs!)

MEA CULPA

From time to time, clients have asked about the accuracy of our forecasts. In the early days, the answer was, “It’s still too early to tell”. These days, the answer is more clear. Now we know for sure that forecasts from back then were – and I’m increasingly confident that those of today too are – all wrong. And on the low side.

My excuse well-reasoned explanation, is that the future apps and uses that will continue to drive demand haven’t yet been invented and therefore it remains beyond human capability to predict, much less convince someone else to believe, how big they could possibly get or how fast.

Fundamentally, the submarine telecom cable industry is about supplying physical infrastructure to create and support virtual services that transport bits & bytes over that infrastructure (storing and sometimes processing those bits & bytes in data centers and such along the way.)

Is there a limit? Given that bits and bytes largely repre sent human imagination for creating and sharing thoughts, emotions, connections, creative expression – and sometimes truly useful information – it’s hard to posit any real limit, especially if the resources available for their generation are relatively inexpensive, or even free.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE

There are a few things that stand out to me that have stood the test of time (at least so far.)

“…greater number of choices for device types, e.g., telephone, comput er, pager, PDA, web phone, wireless devices and other non-PC devices.”

• We’ve not yet begun to see the impacts and possibilities that 5G (and 6G, etc. after that) will bring

• Granted that every phone today incorporates all of the func tions previously embedded in separate devices mentioned above, and then some (compasses, tape measures, video cams, thermometers, wallets, translators…just to name a few)

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• Google / Siri / Alexa voice assistant systems represent additional non-PC / nonphone methods for generat ing digital services from afar

• There will be more ways to generate digital con tent to be transported and processed both locally and internationally

• Granted, by law, some of this content will need to remain domestic to the market in which it’s gen erated but inevitably much content will be shared globally (cat / dog videos anyone, or other special interest groups content)

“…rich multi-media interface environment via such applica tions as audio and video down loads, computer games, e.g., Nin tendo and Sony Play Stations, Launch Media’s 3-D virtual city interface, web phones providing access to current non PC users”

• Meta’s (and others’ versions and visions of the) metaverse is all of this writ large.

• We harbor no illusions that today’s vision of the metaverse is THE ONE, but it will undoubtedly spur creativity to invent what that future and ever-evolving environment / platform will eventually become and inspire (not to men tion the multiple generations of insanely cool, “shiny-ob ject” hardware you’ll need to purchase to experience it!)

• But gaming systems as virtual environments also (can) represent a social environment for players from diverse backgrounds, locations and time zones (in addition to “shootin’ at stuff” online just for fun.)

“…Michael O’Dell Chief Scientist, UUNet has said, “The fundamental error people make is believing that humans have something to do with this”. In other words, continued growth in the Internet is not based upon the diminishing returns of a high penetration percentage of the population.”

• Bots notwithstanding, it’s now well-proven that the major ity of traffic is not about individual pings by people sitting at their computers that are driving the traffic. It is the serv er-to-server / data center-to-data center interconnectivity driving both traffic and submarine cable construction today

as content providers strive to improve the end-user experi ence by bringing data closer to the user.

• Anecdotal proof that in ternational traffic load isn’t so directly related to individuals anymore is that when Queen Elizabeth died, there was no less real-time human interest globally than when Princess Diana died so many years prior (1997.) Yet there was no major impact to bandwidth this time around. Or perhaps the Inter net’s temporary plumbing con gestion is being better-handled today? The human, real-time traffic being generated is today more easily accommodated since it’s a relatively smaller proportion of traffic compared with server-to-server traffic, which is massive.

• We’re still on the very leading edge of machine-to-ma chine generated traffic with 5G networks still relatively newly deployed. Instinct tells me that we’ve not yet seen what impact these will truly have on traffic since the next generations (yes, plural) of apps / use cases have not yet been imagined / invented.

• Ring / Nest / Wyze / SimpliSafe home security cameras and devices are already here

• Smart appliances undoubtedly will be a contributor as well, including smarter(?) automobiles among those appliances

“The future is indeed bright for new network expansion and development…”

• I couldn’t agree more

MEA CULPA-2

No, this is not the name of a new submarine cable (yeah, we used to like to optimistically number those too, way back when), but rather some additional admissions of being wrong ahead of the times. Timing is ev erything. Looking back, I can’t help but notice that several networks men tioned in 2001 never actually came to fruition.

NAVA-1, Pangea-1 and

ANNIVERSARY

AfricaOne never got built (oops – sorry!) despite attempts by many to will these (or even actually finance them) into existence. But multiple other cables in the Northern Eu ropean region have captured Pangea’s originally envisioned market routes, and similar developments have occurred all along coastal Africa and within the Asia-Pac region.

Global West – a great concept to solve a genuine market deficiency when initially proposed – unfortunately, was delayed due to permitting issues and then constructed only after other solutions were implemented that satisfied the market capacity requirement in other ways. Sadly, that net work sat largely idle for many years post-RFS. A cautionary tale against ignoring changing market conditions.

WHAT’S CHANGED?

De-regulation of former monopolies is not a prevalent driver globally anymore – but former telco monopolies have arguably been replaced by new monopolies – the OTTs –and currently largely unregulated?

• Or maybe this is the same – just with the names changed?

• Commonly used, expensive infrastructure tends to accumulate to scale for owners that have the profitable revenue streams to build and sustain it.

• No longer as much the case for telcos, but certainly is the case with content providers, who have created new and different ways to extract value, rather than charging users directly for the privilege through exorbitant tolls.

But government or monopoly control of the telecom space is still playing out in some markets, and opportunities to provide alternatives – both in terms of physical infra structure assets and business models and services – still exist.

Technology generations have changed – that’s to be expected. We’ve gone from 2.5 G to 5G and 6G already being worked on in the mobile sector. Optical transmission rates on our cables have long since blown right though 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps wavelengths and are now heading to 800 Gbps and Terabits-per-second rates.

Who would have thought back then that fewer waves per fiber pair would yield greater capacity, not less. Yet that’s the idea behind SDM.

Submarine cable pure-plays are no longer Wall Street darlings (if they ever properly were.)

Data Centers – were still in their infancy in 2001, rela tively speaking, and as the dot.com bust played out, there was no real certainty about future growth. Today, submarine cables are very much about connecting data centers.

Cloud Computing / IaaS / SaaS / eeaaS (etc., etc, as a Service) was still in the future.

Co-Building submarine cables was mostly in the future, although Project Yellow / Atlantic Crossing 2 (AC-2) –already RFS in 2000 – was perhaps the early precursor to ownership of separate fiber pairs within the same cable sheath operated as independent “cables-within-in-a-cable” as opposed to shared capacity.

As an industry, we are no longer building submarine net works as self-healing rings – network resiliency is handled through multiple redundancies across many different cables and routes.

Open Cables are an increasing trend. SLTE vendors are no longer relegated to post-RFS upgrades. This develop ment also exposes the need for a sufficiently-large market potential for an SLTE vendor to economically justify the massive investment required to develop the next better technological edge. The pure-play submarine SLTE has be come practically extinct. A transmission gear manufacturer can only participate in this space if the basic R&D can be amortized over the much larger terrestrial transmission market too.

WHAT’S STAYED THE SAME

There are still places in the world with insufficient capacity. I would guess that there will always be routes and markets that are leaders and others that are followers – and driven by both the economics of what is the definition of “sufficient”, which changes and increases inexorably over time, and what is economically feasible while certain un derlying costs remain more fixed or less changeable.

But one surprise is capacity on routes, ostensibly well-supplied, now becoming less reliable – not necessarily because systems have become less reliable, but because the ability to repair them has become less dependable / more contentious.

Price decline allows growth to continue. Can’t have one without the other. Market sizes don’t grow to the sky in value – at least not without massive reallocations of spend ing from other sectors / spending categories.

Non-computer Internet devices – Play Station / gam ing consoles anyone, Google / Siri / Alexa home apps and others will continue to proliferate.

Oddly, the Covid global shutdown in some ways repeated the history of the post-9/11 video-conferencing boomlet. This time with many more choices and platforms and for the most part either cheap or free (Zoom / Skype / TEAMS / GoToMeeting / WhatsApp.) The looming possibility of a global recession could have a similar bolstering or sustaining effect on bandwidth if a recession materializes and business es decide that Covid proved that air travel was not always

ANNIVERSARY

necessary. Bandwidth tends to be cheaper than jet fuel. Immersive apps – Virtual as precursor to reality already exists (iRacing » drivers in cars on tracks racing) and virtual as an entire environment unto itself, Metaverse on the rise.

There is no shortage of capital available for good sol id business plans executed by good solid teams. And yes, submarine cables remains a “team sport”, thankfully less driven by – or more accurately, less distorted by – singularly obsessive visionaries.

Prices for submarine cable capacity in all its forms con tinue to decline year-on-year. Now, as ever, submarine cable really is like sushi – best when it’s sold fresh, quoting my friends from Japan.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE QUESTIONABLE

Cheap and pervasive technology is both a blessing and a curse. Google / Siri / Alexa home and business voice assis tants – a great convenience, but who’s listening / recording / remembering / altering your ad search profile?

Everything is in the cloud and therefore readily accessible – both to us and to hackers.

SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS:

• Too much screen time, not enough face-to-face time (in “meat space” as we used to say)? On the other hand, comms technology in many ways provide opportunity for greater inclusiveness by those who might not otherwise be able to participate in society at large for many different and diverse reasons. Digital technology can help over come certain challenges.

• Arise of the digital “panopticon” (surveillance society) al ways surveilled environment – kinda spooky, if you ask me. But on the other hand, if everyone knows everyone else’s business or knows they’re being watched, could/would that lead to a “kinder and gentler” society or a society of exhibitionists? Society, in general, is still wrestling with this one. Among the interesting issues are who stores, controls or uses the data and under what conditions.

• Threats to cables have always been with us. Intentional human-caused threats have been a hot topic of interest from time to time over the years. Right now, it’s of very high inter est again amidst regional political instability, military postur ing and sabre rattling from many different corners. Will it be more real and more pervasive than it has already been?

• Closely related to the above is common understanding and respect for our oceans as a resource with varied and legiti mate user interests. Are we heading in a direction of closer understanding and appreciation for mutuality or toward more divergency – and how does this affect our beloved cables?

• Increasing size and concentration of massive data centers are a concern – with the implications on demands for new sources of environmentally-friendly energy use as well as the dissipation of the resulting excess heat and the interplay / impacts of climate change.

• Efforts by repressive regimes to thwart the flow of infor mation is a concern – examples include China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar. According to Yasmin Green, CEO of Jigsaw, a unit within Google that ad dresses threats to open societies,

“At least 225 internet shutdowns have taken place in response to popular protests since 2016. Access Now, a digital human rights advocacy group that tracks internet shutdowns, reports that protests and political instability were the cause of 128 of 182 confirmed internet shutdowns in 2021.” (Wired, Oct 19, 2022.)

This is worrisome, to say the least. Will we see the death of the world wide web through some type of segregation of information flow in large parts of the world. Would that even be possible in the long run? Will the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” prevail?

MEA CULPA-3

I don’t pretend to have the answers – but as a participant in the international business community, I do appreciate that there are perspectives that are not purely technological or economic in nature that are important to consider.

After all, we don’t ask the questions and engage with others in respectful dialog to probe the issues in a mean ingful way, we might not like the results. If the beginning of wisdom is “I do not know”, then seek wisdom and reach outside your comfort zone to explore some of these weighty issues. Will you join us? And thank you Wayne and SubTel Forum for providing the space to do so! STF

TOM SOJA is a Leader and Innovator in the International Submarine Cable Industry. For more than 30 years, he has assisted a wide variety of clients with compelling analysis of opportunities in the industry, developing actionable plans, and training and leading senior technical and commercial teams to construct and commercialize submarine cable networks globally. Mr. Soja is President of T Soja & Associates, Inc. (TSA) which he founded in 1997. Last month TSA celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Mr. Soja has provided strategic advisory and hands-on support to telecommunications companies, content delivery players (OTTs), network entrepre neurs, investors, lenders, the legal community, the insurance industry, offshore oil & gas producers, network and equipment suppliers, government policy makers and regulators. Mr. Soja currently serves as a reviewer on the SubOptic papers sub-committee on Regulatory, Permits, Legal and Security.

ANNIVERSARY

In 2001, our industry was KO standing, in full depression, in complete contrast to the current period. Rereading an article from that time is a perilous exercise, the fear that our statements of the time appear totally denied by the next 20 years. I can only see how much uncertainty we were then. When you are at the deep bottom of a well it is difficult to see the light of the sky! But we also showed hope for a recovery because we were convinced then that this activity was going through cycles, and that we had to adapt and hold on. Could such depression recur, and with what consequences?

I leave that question to today’s editorialists. STF

Jean Devos November 2022

COMMENTS ON DR. PAUL POLISHUK’S 2001 ARTICLE “THE STATE OF SUBMARINE FIBER OPTIC SYSTEMS IN THE AMERICAS”

BY CLIFFORD R. HOLLIDAY AND DR. HUI PAN

Dr. Paul Polishuk was a mentor, boss, and, most of all, a good friend to both of us for many years. These comments are based on an article he wrote in 2001 in the premier issue of Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine and are a tribute to him. He served his country for many years in senior defense technology roles and became one of the brightest stars in the developing telecom munications universe. It was an adventure and a pleasure working with him.

HISTORY OF SUBMARINE CABLES

The subject of submarine cables is fascinating because it is probably the oldest communications technology that still represents a significant portion of today’s Internet. Submarine cable technology saw its first application before the Civil War. A transatlantic cable was in oper ation three years before the first transcontinental tele graph (that replaced the Pony Express) was working. On August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria and President James Buchanan exchanged telegrams on the new cable. It took a ‘mere’ 17 hours and 40 minutes to transmit the brief correspondence (fewer than 100 words in total). This still represented the fastest message ever sent between Wash ington and London.

Somewhat anti-climactically, the achievement was short-lived, with the cable failing only a few weeks later. Unfortunately, this first trans-Atlantic cable nev er worked very well and eventually destroyed itself

when one of its inventors tried to raise the voltage (there were no repeaters on these early cables) to increase the speed. Disastrously, this voltage increase resulted in the cable shorting itself out in the ocean.

But while it would take another six years for it to be replaced, the expedition marked the first step in a commu nications revolution that would ultimately lead to the cre ation of the Internet. The early advocates and developers

of the undersea cable technology read like a listing of the most important pioneers in telecommunications, including Morse, Faraday, Wheatstone, Cyrus West Field, and Oliver Heaviside. This first transatlantic cable went from Ireland to Newfoundland. Almost 100 years later, TAT-1 (Trans atlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. Between 1955 and 1956, the TAT-1 cable was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland, and Clar enville, Newfoundland and Labrador. It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, carrying 36 telephone channels.

In the 1960s, amplifiers (tubebased) were added to cable construction, and some of these were still in service a few years ago. The TAT-14 cable Dr. Poli shuk mentions in his article was a successor to this TAT-1 cable.

Submarine cables were the primary target of attack in WW I when the Royal Navy cut Germany’s telegraph and voice sea cables. Now subsea cables are the essential network system for international traffic, with over 95% of all global traffic riding it. Subsea Cable technology has de veloped since its inception in the 1850s through several changes to its current form today. It first morphed from copper to coax and then to fiber, where it has been for several years. A new kind of fiber system approach is beginning that replaces the current architecture. The new architecture is based on merging the widely used technol ogies in the terrestrial world with the needs of the subsea world. The result is a ‘re-imagineered’ fu ture architecture based on cable systems that offer much higher capacity, better survivability, and almost endless flexibility.

SUBMARINE CABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Although it started first (by decades), subsea cable architecture mainly developed independently from terrestri al-based networks and, to an extent, was somewhat slower. Maybe slower because, historically, the terrestrial market was much more extensive and growing faster, more was spent on development in that area. Al most twenty-five years ago, land networks began to go to DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) and a little more recently to ROADMs (reconfigurable optical adddrop multiplexers) and mesh

configurations. However, subsea systems were much slower to adopt these new and very expensive tech nologies.

Fairly recently, that developmental separation has begun to close with the adoption of many terrestrial advances by the subsea establishment. Although virtually identical fiber continues to be the primary ingredient in subsea cable networks, the application of newer architecture elements has begun a transformation that is significantly increasing its capabilities. Perhaps as importantly, subsea cables are becoming much more survivable and flexible in application. Changes are coming at a time when they are necessary to meet (and are being driven by) the rapidly expanding and diversi fying market of subsea cable traffic. These changes, taken together, will result in the development and deployment of submarine systems that will signifi cantly surpass the capabilities of existing lines.

In 2001 the telecom industry was in the throes of the burst of the telecom bubble and the subsequent market crash. Late that year, a new magazine was born – the “Submarine Telecoms Forum.” One of the initial contributors to that magazine was Dr. Paul Polishuk of Information Gatekeepers, Inc. (IGI). Dr. Polishuk wrote of the then-present state of the submarine cable industry in the Americas and forecasted that industry for the next 4-5 years.

Aside from the actual numbers or words in Dr. Polishuk’s article, the remarkable part was the tone of the article. Re flecting the always positive outlook of the man, his article in that time of chaos and despair was bright and very positive for the industry’s future. Despite major telecom companies going under, never to be heard of again, Paul forecasted favor able growth rates for the American submarine cable industry, and he has been proven correct today.

In the winter of 2022, we sat in our dens in the US without considering how we could watch the live activities in Beijing at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Of course, some of the events were taped due to the time differences, but some weren’t. Many took place as we watched, live, 10,000 miles away. We saw the lead anchor in Los Angles talk live to commentators on the individual events in the back woods of China – as if they were right down the street. How was this possible?

The casual observer may say it has something to do with satellites and gee-wiz stuff, but it wasn’t. Instead, these viewing miracles resulted from one of the oldest forms of long-distance communications – submarine cables. More

KiloTeraBytes/Mo.

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

International Traffic in KiloTerabytes

Total Over Seas Traffic - To /from North America Tranapacific Traffic

Transatlantic Traffic

Latin American Traffic

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022

specifically, they were the result of the positive forward thinking from people like Dr. Polishuk in his 2001 article that resulted in the development of the undersea cable capabilities of today.

That growth today is reflected on the chart above.

This chart shows the relative importance of traffic to and from various areas related to the total U.S. International Traffic. This international traffic continues to grow at a healthy rate (about 40% - reflecting Dr. Polishuk’s article) throughout the period. In addition, all segments of it (traf fic to/from all areas) continue to grow.

As seen, while all segments grow, the Pacific area over took the European by about 2015-16 and becomes very significant by 2023, reaching half of the total traffic. This Pacific growth is driven by the rapidly growing economies of that area, including China, India, and Korea. European and Latin America traffic also continues to grow at slower rates than Pacific traffic.

As noted, these curves represent an almost 40% annual growth rate of international traffic, with virtually all of it being carried on submarine cables.

Dr. Polishuk’s appearance in the undersea cable arena, as the terrestrial telecom expert he was, was a contributing factor in the later merger of the two worlds. Subsea sys

ANNIVERSARY

tems are now borrowing heavily from the terrestrial optical world to meet the increasing traffic and the need to give content providers better control. However, despite their similarity of purpose, these two communications worlds have developed separately.

Terrestrial communications developments have led the subsea applications, despite the subsea starting decades sooner. Now they are beginning to merge. Products like DWDM and ROADMs and related devices/technology were being introduced in the terrestrial world (and Dr. Pol ishuk’s company led their introduction – IGI) at the time of Paul’s article. However, it would be years before they would be actively used in the undersea world.

Paul was aware of this disparity, and his closing remarks were prophetic. He forecasted that technology would drive the subsea cable market by lowering the cost per bit and thus bring many more customers.

His words were: “Technology continues to drive the submarine cable network markets.”

And  “Further decrease in cost and pricing of submarine unit capacity….”

These words undoubtedly referred to what Dr. Polishuk knew very well (IGI had published pioneering, best-sell ing reports on DWDM and ROADMs in the terrestrial market) what was happening elsewhere at the time. He was forecasting the coming of super cables carrying terabytes of data rather than gigabytes.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE INDUSTRY

One can also hear an echo of the current trend of signifi cant customers like Amazon and Goggle becoming owners/ operators of subsea networks rather than just consumers. The international capacity deployed by companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon rose 14-fold between 2012 and 2016. That was just the start because this trend is a response to a fundamental shift by businesses in a digital age to a cloud-first approach to IT.

Content giants like Facebook now depend on the ability to access cloud services anywhere because there’s no other way to quickly deliver the content (video, audio, news, etc.) their global customers demand. Meanwhile, cloud compa nies like Amazon Web Services have a financial stake in

being able to provide those services. Subsea cable systems are critical to making this possible. By investing in them, these mega-companies get their cable systems built faster. They also get control over construction, maintenance, and operation. That control is ultimately more economical than being merely a paying customer on a telecom’s cable.

In retrospect, this structural change was foreshadowed in Paul’s closing words.

“Growth of broadband access markets and new appli cations will continue to drive up demand for undersea capacity.”

Thank you, Dr. Polishuk, for the early forecasts and in sights that are still guiding our industry. STF

(All data and figures taken from the IGI Report “Super Cables – Re-imagineering Subsea Systems,” www.igigroup.com)

CLIFFORD HOLLIDAY founded and operates the consultancy, A & C Consulting Services. Here he has designed major fiber networks serving customers on three continents. He is also a lead analyst for Information Gatekeepers, Inc, and has published over 50 major reports since 1999. His latest reports are “Investing in 5G” and “Electric Vehicles in the United States”; both are available from www.igigroup.com. In recent years, Mr. Holliday is the author of many books found at amazon/author/clifholliday.

- BSEE, MBA, PE, Invited Member of Mensa, Life Member of IEEE, Kentucky Colonel

DR. HUI PAN is Chief Economist and Editor-in-Chief with Information Gatekeepers (www.igigroup.com). As Chief Economist, he tracks the global telecom and fiber optics market development and provides overall direction to the analysis of IGI. As Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Pan is responsible for several of IGI’s newsletter publications, including Broadband, Fiber Optics Weekly Update, 5G, Asia Telecom, and Submarine Fiber Optics Communications Systems. Dr. Pan has a Ph.D in economics from Northeastern University in the United States.

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PTC IS ON A MISSION TO ADVANCE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

BY JASON O’ROURKE

Did you know? PTC is a global non-profit membership organization promoting the advancement of informa tion and communication technologies (ICT).

Following the organization’s vision and mission to improve people’s quality of life, PTC conducts a series of Community Outreach Initiatives which focus on helping the future of digital telecommunications thrive, by supporting up-and-coming scholars, bringing Internet to hard-to-reach locations, and training the next generation of executives, the future of telecom management. It is through the industry’s support by becoming a PTC Member, annual sponsor, attend ing the PTC Annual Conference, and more, that PTC is able to give back and continue its Community Outreach Initiatives.

PTC COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVES

PTC EMERGING SCHOLAR PROGRAM

Continuing the commitment to recognizing and sup

porting up-and-coming scholars in the field of information and communications technologies, PTC introduced the renamed PTC Emerging Scholar Program which broadens the spectrum of individuals who may apply to the program by removing the age eligibility requirements.

The 2023 PTC Emerging Scholar Program recipients were recently announced and the following individuals will be presenting their research at PTC’23: [Share headshots with STF}

• Anna Oriishi, Doctoral Candidate, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Japan

• Prasanth Prahladan, Ph.D. Graduate Student, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

• George N. Ramirez, Research Assistant, Sustainable Subsea Networks, USA

• Monica Nila Sari, Ph.D. Candidate, Keio University, Japan

• Carl Vander Maelen, Doctoral Researcher, Ghent Uni versity (Belgium) - Faculty of Law, Belgium

• Ryan Wang, Ph.D. Candidate, Penn State University, USA

These Emerging Scholars were selected from the excellent applications received and join the ranks of 50 other scholars from around the globe that have been recognized since the program began in 2013.

PTC RESEARCH AWARD

Each year at the Annual Conference, PTC offers the Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award for excellence in research, open to researchers and faculty members in the academic, non-profit, or private sector. The 2023 award recipient will receive a cash award, com plimentary registration to attend PTC’23, the oppor tunity to present their winning paper at the Annual Conference, as well as a stipend for travel and accom modations. Stay tuned for the announcement on the 2023 recipient.

For more information, visit ptc.org/research-award

PTC ACADEMY

The PTC Academy aims to provide exceptional management training to rising industry leaders, with coursework designed by PTC and accreditation pro vided in partnership with Submarine Telecoms Forum. The Academy courses focus on target topics required for professional advancement seldom addressed by formal education or institutional training and features presenters with a wealth of industry experience from the C-suite and PTC Membership.

PTC recently completed two courses in 2022 deliv ered across 10 modules in 90-minute live online sessions combining lectures followed by instructor Q&A and peer structured discussions, with the theme Executive Insight for Exceptional Leaders. The 2023 schedule of courses will be announced early next year.

For more information about the PTC Academy, please visit ptc.org/academy.

INTRODUCING PTC BEYOND

In an effort to encourage more young professionals to join PTC and empower the future, the PTC Beyond com mittee gathers some of the most promising minds of the industry. Isabelle Paradis, founder and president of HOT TELECOM and a member of the PTC Advisory Council leads the committee with a focus on programming at the Annual Conference and throughout the year to engage with and inspire the next generation of telecom leaders.

With PTC Beyond programming at PTC’23, there are

even more reasons to take advantage of the Young Profes sionals BOGO registration offer. Registered and paid at tendees for PTC’23 are able to invite one young profession al from their company to register for PTC’23 for free. Only one complimentary registration per company is allowed and a total of 50 young professional registrations are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For complete details or to register for PTC’23, please visit http://PTC.ORG/PTC23/BOGO.

PTC AWARDS 2023

PTC’23 will host the PTC Awards 2023, intended to acknowledge the outstanding contributions being made to improve the ability of people and organizations in the Pacific region to connect, communicate, collaborate, and experience an enhanced quality of life. The shortlist will be announced in early December.

Celebrate the finalists and recipients of the PTC Awards 2023 on Tuesday, 17 January 2023 under the stars at Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Kalia Pool. Proceeds from this event help fund PTC’s Community Outreach Initiatives. Sup port PTC’s mission and vision further by becoming a PTC Awards 2023 Patron. There’s a package suitable for any organization!

For more info on the awards and patron packages, visit ptc.org/awards.

HOW CAN YOU JOIN PTC?

PTC membership is open to any person or entity world wide with professional interests pertaining to telecommuni cations or related fields. Membership is the most powerful way to reach and connect with leading companies, execu tives, prospects, partners, and thought leaders in ICT.

The new and redefined individual membership categories are:

• Individual For-Profit Associate

• Individual Non-Profit Associate

• Individual - Professional Researcher/Academic

• Individual Retiree

• Individual - Honorary

• Student (Restricted)

Find out more about the benefits of membership in PTC and the new categories at ptc.org/join. STF

JASON O’ROURKE is Marketing Manager of Pacific Telecommunications Council.

BY PAUL MCCANN

The global submarine cable network continues to expand as the world’s economy and people’s daily lives become more and more reliant upon fast, reliable, high-capacity communications. The network proved essential as governments, companies, and individu als all relied on e-services to keep going and stay healthy during the recent pandemic.

These last three years have also made it all the more ob vious that the world as a whole – again, governments, com panies, and individuals – need to step up efforts to protect the health of our planet! At our first, post-COVID PTC Annual Conference in January 2023, where we’re hoping to see many friends from across the submarine cable indus try, we’ll examine our impact on the health of the world in which we live by focusing discussions on “Building a Sustainable Future.”

In line with PTC Submarine Cable Workshop tradition, the Sunday workshop will commence with Tony Mosley and a panel of regional experts leading us on a tour around the globe, ensuring we are all aware of the major submarine cable systems that are being built or planned. Not only will they discuss the latest regional projects, but they will also comment on the next generation of projects and connectiv ity developments for new markets. PTC wants to ensure we are all familiar with “What’s going on today – Here, There and Everywhere!” Our speakers will include Erik Contag, SubOptic; Paul Gabla, ASN; Eric Handa, APT; Wayne Nielsen, WFN; and Takahasi Ohta, NEC.

Tony’s session will conclude with Kent Bressie’s annual update on the many Security and Regulatory Challenges, plus news from ICPC where he serves as the legal adviser.

The second session at the PTC’23 Submarine Cable Workshop, will be a panel moderated by Nicole Starosielski from NYU, who is leading a SubOptic Foundation initia tive, funded by a grant from the Internet Society. Nicole and her team are studying various aspects of the subma rine cable industry’s carbon footprint. At this workshop session entitled “Leading by Example,” we’ll have Peder Nærbø, Bulk; Kashima Takahiro, NEC; Didier Dillard, Orange; and Emmanuel Danjou, ASN, each of whom will share examples of what some of our leading companies are already doing to reduce their carbon footprint and protect the health of our planet.

Next, all workshop attendees are invited to stay for lunch, sponsored again this year by SubOptic. And once you’ve enjoyed that, we’ll continue the theme of what we’re doing to help move toward a healthier planet with an esteemed

Sunday,

executive panel. Elaine Stafford, DRG, will moderate a discussion amongst leading executives – Steve Alexan der, Ciena; Nigel Bayliff, AquaComms; Ayotunde Coker, Open Access Data Centers; and Bruce Neilson-Watts, Global Marine – who will share their thoughts on where we are today, the opportunity to do better, and how the industry can do more together to lessen our industry’s impact on the environment.

Following the luncheon, the TeleGeography team will be back presenting their annual telecom trends work shop live and in person for the first time since 2020. This three-ring circus of market research is sure to entertain and delight. Jon Hjembo will offer insights on cloud and data center expansion and the latest trends influencing the interconnection market. A presentation by Brianna Boudreau will take you around the world to look at the factors shaping capacity pricing trends. And finally Alan Mauldin will speak about the decline of a U.S.-centric global network.

The PTC’23 Submarine Cable Poster Sessions will be bigger and better than ever! Take time to have a look at over 10 posters and have a chat with their presenters during our breaks. This year the posters share insights on new technology, new systems, and innovative ideas to stimulate us all. Don’t forget, the poster sessions are designed to stimulate our thinking, and importantly pro vide exposure for some of our new industry talent. These informative sessions are meant to provide encouragement to all those working in the industry towards the common vision of excellence!

As the world relies so heavily on our ability to plan and roll out a resilient cable network – so too the world relies upon us all to ensure connectivity via submarine cable enhances a healthy world that supports not just the communications needs – but is sustainable, continuing to maintain and grow, and supporting the lives of our children and economy!

Many people across the world have contributed to the success, growth, and development of Submarine Cables. Recognizing this, SubOptic created the “Crew Tube” ini tiative. If you have not taken the opportunity to tell us all what you enjoy most about being part of the Cable Com munity, the opportunity now exists, see us at the PTC’23 Submarine Cable Workshops!

Finally, over the last 12 months, we have lost two very good friends and champions of the Cable Industry, Mike Rieger and Fabrizio Civitarese. Let us take a few minutes

to remember them and to acknowledge all those no longer with us to whom this industry owes so much! May they rest in peace. STF

PAUL MCCANN is Managing Director of McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd. Paul has over 40 years network planning & development experience in telecommunications both in international and domestic arenas. Prior to returning to consulting in 2012, Paul spent over 8 years with Verizon in Asia Pacific, driving growth of Verizon’s network across Asia by developing & implementing plans delivering major operational cost reductions and improved service perfor mance. Paul is now managing his own consulting business, specializing in development in the Pacific Region, where the core business focus is on “connectivity” with expertise spanning all aspects of planning and development for Satellite, Submarine cable and Domestic access technologies and business. Paul is well known for his personable nature, his rapport with customers and his ability to deliver on time.

A REBOOT OF WARTIME SUBMARINE FIBER OPTIC CABLES

Options to Repair Underseas Fiber Optic Cables in the Event of War or Sabotage are Limited. This Must Change.

BY CAPTAIN DOUGLAS R. BURNETT, U.S. NAVY (RETIRED)

This article originally appeared in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings in October 2022. Copyright U.S. Naval Institute. Reprinted with permission.

What should the U.S. government do when the transoceanic submarine fiber optic cables that supply, at the speed of light, more than 99 percent of the international voice, data, video, and internet communications between the United States and the rest of the world are damaged or cut during wartime? Declare an emergency? Then what?

Fortunately, Congress enacted a National Security Coun cil–generated solution in 2019 with the Submarine Security Fleet law that addresses this situation in the context of a national emergency triggered by the hostile actions at sea of peer state competitors. Unfortunately, the solution is not getting the funding it needs to work. Russia’s recent attack on Ukraine and corresponding Russian threats to commu nication infrastructure against Western nations that chal lenge Russia’s right to invade a sovereign nation is a timely reminder of the critical value of U.S.-flagged and -crewed submarine cable repair ships.

REPAIRS IN CONTESTED WATERS

During hostilities in contested oceans, the peacetime arrangements for repairing cables will flounder. Peacetime cable ship maintenance agreements contain force majeure clauses that excuse performance of cable ships in the event of war involving the flag state or major global powers. Even if the agreements were to be performed, the normal peacetime repair ship call-out procedures, such as the customary “first come, first serve” cable repair priority and common shared international consensus decision-making practices, would be overwhelmed in a topsy-turvy scenario in which belligerent actions damage many submarine cables and national govern ments all want their specified cable repairs attended to first.

Crews will be reluctant to sail in contested waters where the cable ships are likely targets. Multinational crewing with divided national loyalties and visa restrictions add complexity in wartime conditions.1

Standard marine protection and indemnity insurance

policies exclude wartime coverage, stating: “In the event of war or war-like conditions between any of the following states: The United Kingdom, The United States of America, France, the Russian Federation, The People’s Republic of China, the insurance against war perils shall automatically terminate.”2 Cable ship owners will not risk their ships without adequate and affordable war risk insurance or national guarantees to replace sunk, damaged, or captured cable ships, and indemnify them for breaking existing contracts and other damages associated with hostilities. As a result, the United States is vulnerable to being cut off or crippled by an enemy that disrupts the 50 or so internation al cables tying the United States to the rest of the world unless it has U.S.-flagged and -crewed cable ships.

THE CABLE SECURITY FLEET

Implemented in December 2021 to January 2022, the Cable Security Fleet (CSF) is an innovative solution to the lack of U.S.-flagged cable ships in wartime or nation al emergency.3 The CSF provides for two commercial U.S.-flagged and -crewed cable ships in this new critical infrastructure protection program. Each cable ship opera

Peacetime cable ship maintenance agree ments will flounder during hostilities in contested oceans.

tor receives a $5 million stipend annually, provided the cable ship meets the statutory and related contractual require ments. The annual stipend is designed to partially compen sate the cable ship owner for the increased cost of using a U.S. citizen crew and complying with the requirements for a ship to fly the U.S. flag.

The CSF requirements include compliance with the terms established by agreement with the U.S. Maritime Adminis tration (MarAd), Department of Transportation (DoT)— essentially, guaranteed availability of a cable ship and crew on 24 hours’ notice following a national emergency declara tion and entering a contingency contract with a federal op erating authority for wartime operations. The CSF provides the government with not only U.S.-flagged cable ships, but experienced U.S. crews, access to commercial spares (cable, amplifiers/ repeaters, universal joint kits, etc.) and the cable owner’s marine depots worldwide, and the ability to leverage the cable owner’s working relationships with other cable ship owners and operators, survey companies, and vendors.4 Its modest $10 million annual price for two cable ships is bargain insurance for wartime resilience.

A U.S.-flagged ship allows a highly trained loyal U.S. Merchant Marine crew to fulfill its traditional mission of delivering service in peacetime, in wartime, every time. The first CSF U.S.-flagged cable ship is the CS Dependable, operating in the Pacific Ocean, and the second is the CS Decisive, operating in the Atlantic Ocean. These ships carry out normal commercial work but can support the U.S. gov ernment in an instant if activated.

The irrefutable position that submarine cables—and the ships that lay and repair them—are critical has the strong endorsement of all national security agencies, but this was not enough to sway some senior DoT officials who overrode DoT’s own MarAd to kill CSP when it was first introduced in 2019.6 Congress, however, recognized the compelling national security need and acted.

DoT opposition is tied to bureaucratic complacency, outdated misconceptions of modern international commu nication technology and potential disruptive impacts, and an unexplained view that protecting cables is not important or is a problem for others because transporting data is not DoT’s concern. Even though then-Secretary of Transporta tion Elaine Chao wisely directed DoT civil servants to stop delaying implementation of the law, DoT tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to prevent its implementation through bureaucratic holding tactics.

CSF opposition continues in the Biden administration as DoT and the Office of Management and Budget oppose Ma rAd budget support for this critical program beyond its initial year.7 Notwithstanding the billions of dollars DoT received under the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law, DoT deleted funding for the modest $10 million annual stipend needed to continue funding the CSP after its first year of operation.

While DoT will not specify the basis for its opposition to the CSF, one possible argument may be that foreign nations would not attack submarine cable infrastructure. History offers a full rebuttal to this wishful thinking.

In the 1898 Spanish-American War, the U.S. Navy, in

A sailor tracks an underwater cable. The recent Russian attack on Ukraine is a timely reminder of the critical value of U.S.-flagged and -crewed submarine cable repair ships.

what was described as a new chapter in international law, cut submarine telegraph cables between Spain and the Philippines and Cuba, earning several Medals of Honor for the sailors who carried out the operation under fire. In 1914, the German Navy cruiser SMS Emden destroyed a British cable station at Fanning Island in the central Pacific before the German raider was cornered and destroyed by an Australian cruiser. In 1918, the German long-range subma rine U-151 cut submarine telegraph cables between New York and Nova Scotia and New York and Panama. German submarine U-156 on 21 July 1918 reportedly attempted to cut a submarine cable between Massachusetts and France when the action was interrupted by U.S. Navy flying boats. In both World Wars I and II, the first hostile acts by the Royal Navy against Germany involved cutting the telegraph cables linking Germany to the Americas. In 1940, the British cable ship Kent was sunk by German dive bombers off Greece, and the British cable ship Retriever was torpe doed and sunk by a German U-boat in 1945. State practice historically leaves no doubt that submarine cables and cable repair ships are legitimate military targets in wartime.8

If the current Russian naval order of battle with ships and submarines designed to attack international cables is any indication, modern fiber optic submarine cables and cable repair ships continue to be military targets whether in a hot war or in the grey zone.9

NAVY CABLE SHIPS

DoT also may believe the Department of Defense (specifi cally, the Navy) should handle cable repairs. However, the Navy does not have repair responsibility for commercial subma rine telecommunication cables. Given that commercial cable responsibility requires commercial cable ships and Merchant Marine crews, the MarAd—as selected by the National Secu rity Council when the CSF was created, with deep experience operating the 60 ship Maritime Security Program with more than 60 commercial container, roll-on/roll-off ships, and other U.S.-flagged and -crewed merchant ships that can activate in wartime—is the logical agency to operate the CSF in peacetime.

The United States, France, and Japan are leaders in the man ufacture, installation, and maintenance of fiber optic submarine cables. Maintaining this edge requires an industrial base, which today consists of a single U.S. manufacturing company with the mariners and cable ships to install and maintain global subma rine cable communications. Outsourcing submarine cable repair to foreign ships and mariners, the logical result of DoT’s posi tion to not fund the CSF, undercuts the necessity to ensure the nation does not depend on non-U.S. skilled labor and products for critical infrastructure. Moreover, it plays into China’s hands,

as a state-owned company is aggressively entering this critical technology market with its own manufacturing and cable ships.

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The information packets transmitted at the speed of light on garden hose–diameter international fiber-optic cables are as critical, if not more, to the nation’s economy and defense as U.S. trucks, railroads, and shipping. A recent example is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) banking communication system that gained widespread notice when sanctions were applied to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. SWIFT com municates exclusively on submarine cables.

Not providing for cable repair ships in wartime is like building firehouses in a town, but not providing for fire trucks and firefighters to extinguish the fires. It is an undeniable emergency when the glass fibers in fiber-optic submarine cables are broken, whatever the cause. Putting the internet and critical voice, data, and video communica tions back in order after hostile action requires U.S. flagged cable ships crewed by U.S. mariners. The CSF accomplishes this vital national goal. Hopefully, Congress will act again to override DoT and fund the CSF. STF

CAPTAIN DOUGLAS BURNETT is a 1972 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a surface warfare officer with more than 37 years of experience in the marine industry as an admiralty attorney. He served as chief counsel at the Maritime Administration from 2017 to 2021. He currently works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as a senior maritime operations and policy member.

NOTES

CAPT Douglas R. Burnett, USN (Ret), “Submarine Cable Security and International Law,” International Law Studies 97 (2021).

Standard Club, P&I Rules, 2022/23, rule 4.1 (automatic termination of coverage), 76. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, pub. L. no. 116-92, § 3521, 133 Stat. 1198 (2019).

Burnett, “Submarine Cable Security and International Law,” International Law Studies. Burnett, “Submarine Cable Security and International Law.”

Burnett.

Burnett.

Burnett.

Colin Wall and Pierre Morcos, “Invisible and Vital: Undersea Cables and Transatlantic Security, Center for Strategic and international Studies,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 11 June 2021; Burnett, “Submarine Cable Security and International Law.”

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2022/october/ repairing-submarine-cables-wartime-necessity

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2.0 AN INTRODUCTION

BY GLENN HOVERMALE

The marine representative role is an essential part of any submarine cable project. Representatives are a necessi ty for all operational phases, including marine survey, cableship loading, system installation, commissioning and acceptance, burial assessment surveys and cable re pairs. The primary services that marine representatives pro vide include oversight of documentation and daily reporting. Typically, representatives rely on some form of template for daily reporting (Daily Progress Report (DPR)), and those reports are provided to customers and purchasers via email through a distribution list of pertinent individuals.

Once a representative’s daily report is submitted via

email, there is little traceability or tractability of that unique report as it relates to other reports or to the project at large. If a customer wants to review a DPR from a date in the past, it will require scrolling through email to find the specific date. If a customer wants to review a specific DPR that relates to a specific incident, it requires scrolling through the body of past reports to find the specific report. Likewise, there isn’t a method for qualifying or quantifying the effort put forth by an individual marine representative.

WFN Strategies has created a solution to this prob lem, Project Management 2.0, which is a real-time, GISbased implementation service that

provides 100% trans parency with all repre sentative reporting as well as real-time vessel tracking and problem identification.

WFN Strategies has created an in ternet-based project management and qual ity control system for uploading, retrieving, storing, and catalog ing relevant project-related documentation and DPRs through an easily navigated dashboard that can be accessed through any computer with the proper username and password credentials.

One of the primary focuses of the WFN Strategies DPR is to ensure that the material presented holds some in dependent merit for the purchaser and is not simply a regurgitation of the DPR developed by the service provider (vessel). This is accomplished through the designation of issues and incidents that impede progress or are situations that exist outside of the planned operations in the service provid er’s Load and Lay Report (SLLI). Within the WFN geo-referenced dashboard, incidents and issues are highlighted in different colors and this allows anyone navigating the site to easily identify and select those specific reports and view the details as necessary.

As for timelines and revisiting older DPRs, the dashboard provides the daily locations of all vessels involved with a specific project and the relevant DPRs can be viewed by clicking on the vessel location on the tractable map. This saves time and limits confusion when looking for specific data on a specific topic or on a specific date.

The WFN Strategies dashboard service provider is just one part of the larger Project Management 2.0 system (update to PM 3.0 coming in 2023). The full suite of services can run through the entire lifespan of a subma rine cable system. Specific services included system procurement, system engineering &

management system manufacturing, system installation & operations, and management. Within system engineering & management available services include desktop study review, system design review, site survey review, and per mitting review. Within system manufacturing, available services include supplier quality system and manufac turing review, factory acceptance test review, and system assembly and test review. Within system installation, specific services include cable loadout review, installation review, sure and installation review, Submarine Line Ter mination Equipment (SLTE) installation review, system commissioning and acceptance review, and program completion. Finally, within operations and maintenance, specific services include joint service maintenance docu mentation and MOP review. STF

GLENN HOVERMALE is Construction & Marine Coordinator at WFN Strategies with more than 20 years of consulting experience in undersea cables, including marine survey, Oil & Gas and offshore wind industries. He has held client representative, offshore project management, and survey positions, and he possesses experience working aboard SubCom, Alcatel, Korea Telecom, and Global Marine cable ships as well as Fugro and EGS survey vessels.

OFFSHORE ENERGY INITIATIVES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CABLE PRODUCTS, PROCESSES, AND APPLICATIONS FEATURED DURING IWCS’S 71ST ANNUAL FORUM

BY DAVID B. KIDDOO AND REBECCA DIPPEL

EVENT OVERVIEW

IWCS welcomed attendees to the 71st annual Cable & Connectivity Industry Forum, the premier event for new technologies in cable and connectivity products, processes, and applications, in Providence Rhode Island on October 10–13, 2022. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the event was conducted virtually in 2020 and 2021, but the high attendance and energetic networking in Providence illus trated the industry’s excitement for the ability to finally network again in-person.

More than 860 guests representing 23 countries gath ered at the Rhode Island Convention Center for four full days of networking and learning. Attendees shared and absorbed cutting-edge research, technologies, and products that are helping our industry advance nearly all aspects of our connected global society. As IWCS CEO David Kid doo exclaimed during his welcome remarks, “The cable & connectivity industry is mission-critical to the future of our connected society”. Similar sentiments about the impor tance of our industry were echoed by James Filice during Thursday’s panel discussion, “The industry is small and well-connected with vast opportunities”, said Filice. “We get to see the impact of our work on a daily basis through out the world.”

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

The event kicked off on Monday with seven Professional Development Courses on the topics of cable materials, op tical fiber, copper cable, and extrusion processes. The cours es were well-attended by students, engineers, scientists, and other industry professionals who wrote copious notes and asked engaging questions of the instructors from indus try-leading organizations such as Nexans, LyondellBasell, Corning, Dow, The Chemours Company, De Montfort University, and Wire & Cable Technology Resources. Stan dard core courses and annually-rotating elective courses provide introductory topical information geared towards individuals who are new to the industry, or those who seek a refresher.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Tuesday’s Executive Session, a perennial highlight, was so popular the ballroom quickly became stand ing-room-only and additional chairs had to be added to accommodate all the attendees. John Gross of The Copper Journal provided an overview of the copper demand and legal, social, and environmental factors impacting the cop per cable market. Switching gears, Michael Render of The Fiber Broadband Association took the stage to present a five-year outlook on fiber optic broadband deployment and

how the increased fiberto-the-home demand is driving telecom provid ers to act quickly. IWCS welcomed back Robert Fry of Robert Fry Economics, who discussed current con ditions in the global economy and the outlook for future growth. Earlier this year, Robert was awarded the macro economics Outlook Award from the National Association for Business Economics.

Next up, Luca Ruozi and Brian Risch of Prysmian Group shared an update on the renewable energy market and how offshore wind farms are rising from the transi tion to cleaner energy sources. Concluding this compel ling session, Rashmi Varma of Innovate 5G Inc. spoke of rapidly evolving advancements in 5G and its importance to human- and machine-subscribers in our modern connected society. Rashmi wrapped up the Executive Session with an invitation for attendees to think differently about network architecture and push to improve wireless communication.

PRESENTATION SPOTLIGHT: PRYSMIAN DISCUSSES HOW OFFSHORE WIND FARMS AND CABLE TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS FACILITATE THE TRANSITION TO RENEWABLE ENERGY

The renewable energy market is experiencing unprece dented growth globally, particularly in the US where robust state-level procurement targets, national targets, and tech nological advancements have driven new initiatives. Among other sustainable resources, wind power holds exceptional value with large offshore wind projects on the horizon. The push for clean energy has increased demand for the devel opment of sustainable and circular cable materials, better installation methods, long-term protection systems, and efficient system design. Current cable transmission system developments are facilitating the transition to green energy.

To meet ambitious global targets, cable manufacturers are investing heavily in the transition to smarter, more affordable, and more reliable power grids. In the US only about 42MW of offshore wind power is currently online, but projects under development should increase this capac ity to over 40GW by 2035, a 1000-fold increase. In 2018,

the average upfront cost to build a 1 GW offshore wind project was over $4 billion. Offshore transmission, i.e., the interconnecting and export cables, comprised between 20 to 30 percent of this cost. The average cost of an offshore wind project is expect ed to decrease by more than 40% within the next decade. However, the percentage of cost allocated to transmission is forecasted to more than double as projects move farther from shore. As such, innovations to cable design, manu facture and installation are necessary in efforts to reduce project expenses.

Key technical improvements to cable design and per formance include higher voltage ratings, larger conductor cross-sections, higher operational temperatures, inventive insulation materials, and dynamic electrical load computa tions. Some of the most advanced products currently in op eration include HVDC connections at voltages of 525KV, HVAC connections with voltages as high as 420KV, and cable conductor cross sections as high as 3200mm2. New advances in cable materials have also resulted in 90C op erational temperatures and the possibility of recycling and reclaiming next generation high performance thermoplastic insulation.

Another key advancement is an optics technology de signed to monitor and preserve electrical systems, enabling asset integrity management using real-time data acquisition with optical fiber sensing. Advanced system monitor ing allows for reduced environmental impact and greatly improved system reliability. Monitoring systems also allow more optimized system performance during dynamic load conditions which can allow for reliable and safe system operation during peak load conditions without a costly physical upgrade of the system. Optimized system perfor mance and condition monitoring have become a reality.

PLENARY LUNCHEON WITH KEYNOTE FROM VERIZON

After a coffee and networking break sponsored by Fiber Optic Center and LLFlex, attendees gathered in the grand ballroom for the Plenary Luncheon which was followed

by opening remarks, recognition, and 2021 technical paper awards presented by IWCS representatives David Kiddoo, CEO; Scott Wasserman, Chairman of the Board, and Charles Glew, 2022 Symposium Committee Chair. Andrea Caldini of Verizon shared a Keynote presentation titled, “Technology Drivers for Deployment and Full Potential Utilization of 5G” and held attendees’ attention by discuss ing the accelerating rate of change for telecommunications and how Verizon is taking strong leadership in 5G devel opments, building on the foundation established by Verizon for 3G and 4G networks.

After the Keynote, attendees fled to the Supplier Ex hibition™, which was filled with more than 80 exhibitors who, prior to the event, were uncertain of the anticipat ed turnout. However, the exhibitors in Providence were blown away by the amount of industry professionals who attended the in-person event and engaged with the prod ucts on display at their exhibition booths. Amjad Abu-Ali of Geon Performance Solutions described the Supplier Exhibition as “a family reunion of sorts”. This year’s “re union” included a mix of those new to the industry, as well as many with decades of experience. In fact, 37% of attendees re ported this is the first time they have ex perienced the IWCS Forum while others have attended the annual event more than 40 times! Supplier Spotlight Presenta tions allowed 14 exhibitors to share their company’s newest developments with the

audience on Tuesday afternoon. The Supplier Exhibi tion™ remained open on Tuesday and Wednesday.

TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM

The Technical Symposium, cornerstone of the event, featured 62 technical research papers during author pre sentations and poster displays. The papers were categorized into unique sessions featuring topics of: Materials, Advanc es in Optical Connectivity, Special Applications in Optical Fiber, Cable Design, Fiber Cable Manufacturing, Optical Fiber Reliability, Installation & Tools, Codes & Standards,

ABOUT IWCS

IWCS is a not-for-profit organization that has hosted the premier event for new technologies in cable and connectivity products, pro cesses, and applications for the past 71 years. The Cable & Connectivity Industry Forum is the leading worldwide event to explore topical issues, learn about new technologies, and network with colleagues from the communications, data, electronics, power, industrial, automotive, and aerospace industries. In addition to the Forum, IWCS is committed to the development of industry professionals and scholars by hosting educa tional webinars, publishing research, and awarding scholarships.

The IWCS Technical Symposium Committee generates an extremely high-caliber program for each year’s Forum. Peer-reviewed papers pre sented during the Technical Symposium and recordings from the IWCS Webinar series remain archived for ongoing research and education.

IWCS, Inc. is headquartered at 9618 Villagesmith Way, Burke, VA 220154170 USA. For further information, visit the IWCS website at www.iwcs.org or contact David B. Kiddoo, CEO, at dkiddoo@iwcs.org. Follow IWCS on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

A welcome reception, complete with music, libations, and food concluded Tuesday’s program. Once again, attendees displayed their excitement to catch up with one another by sharing drinks, laughter, and fun.

SAVE THE DATES

iwcs.org Orlando, Florida, USA

September 17 – 20, 2023

High-Density Cable, Copper Cale, and Multimode Fiber / Data Center. As always, audience members had the op portunity to ask the presenting authors engaging questions about their research at the end of each presentation.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

New this year, IWCS included focused panel discus sions as additional event components. Wednesday’s panel discussion included six female representatives from the cable, connectivity, telecom, chemicals, and materials industries who discussed what it is like to work in histor ically male-dominated STEM roles and what they do to help empower young women to join the industry. Spon sored by Dow and moderated by Dr. Bianca Hydutsky of Chemours, this panel discussion provided panelists with a platform for a dynamic conversation regarding important topics such as closing the gender gap and pay equity. The panel included Cheryl Stewart of Quabbin Wire & Cable Co., Ana Cruz and Kikie Kunplin of Belden, Dr. Corina Neumeister of Nabaltec AG, and Sue Welsh of Wire & Cable Manufacturers’ Alliance, Inc (WCMA). During the question-and-answer period, an audience member ex claimed, “We’re seeing positive changes in the industry and this panel discussion is proof of the progress that is being made.” IWCS is proud to encourage the upward trajectory of female representation in science, technology, engineer ing, and math (STEM) careers, roles which are critical to the cable & connectivity industry.

The second panel discussion took place on Thursday and was focused on common challenges starting a career in the cable & connectivity industry, trends in recruitment and talent retention, and career-building tips. The pan el discussion was made possible by Cable Components Group, Gem Gravure, and Wire & Cable Manufacturers’ Alliance, Inc (WCMA). Moderated by Charles Glew of Cable Components Group and Ed Fenton of WCMA, the lively discussion enabled panelists Tom Artinian of Hita chi Cable America, Sharika Chowdhury of UL Solutions,

tance of mentorship was a common theme throughout the discussion. “College doesn’t teach you wire and cable”, said Schmidt. “People are willing to help. Find a mentor”, he continued. The industry is full of broad opportunities with meaningful work that can be seen in nearly all aspects of the world and this panel discussion encouraged companies to invest in developing their employees.

JOIN THE INDUSTRY LEADERS SEPTEMBER 17–20, 2023 IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA

IWCS deeply appreciates the support from its annual sponsors, Board of Directors, Symposium Committee, exhibitors, authors, presenters, and attendees who are critical to the success of the Cable & Connectivity Indus try Forum. The next IWCS Forum will take place Sunday, September 17 – Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida USA. Visit iwcs.org for more information. STF

DAVID B. KIDDOO is the CEO / Director of IWCS, Inc. www. iwcs.org

IWCS provides a forum for the exchange of information among cable & connectivity suppliers, manufacturers and users on advancements in materials, processes and products for transmission systems of voice, data, video signal and electrical current.

David is also the Executive Director of the Communica tions Cable and Connectivity Association (CCCA). www.cccassoc.org

CCCA is a non-profit association comprised of leading manufacturers, distributors and material suppliers. The organization is a major resource for well-researched, fact-based information on the technologies and issues vital to the structured cabling industry.

Prior to his current assignments, David spent over 20 years as the Global Business Manager for Wire and Cable insulation and sheathing products at AlphaGary Corporation. He also had 11 years of wire & cable experience with the Du Pont Company.

REBECCA DIPPEL, principal of RD Creative Strategy, has provided marketing and communications support to IWCS, Inc. for over a decade. With additional clients in the wire, cable, and manufacturing industries, Rebecca approaches marketing with a balance of creative strategy and technical understanding.

BACK REFLECTION

HALLOWEEN/ALL

BY PHILIP PILGRIM

INTRODUCTION

SOULS’ DAY EDITION

On the heels of Halloween and All Souls’ Day, it is fitting to write an article for SubTel Forum’s November issue in the spirit (pun) of these cele brations. Here are two submarine cable related ghost stories that I had come across in my research. They occurred in the later days of the Atlantic Cable System connecting London with New York City (Figure 1).

One usually thinks of the Atlantic Cable System as purely an undersea link but there were many terrestrial sections needed to close the path. These terrestrial networks crossed New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Ireland and England. The following ghost sto ries occurred on the remote and desolate

telegraph line that ran across southern Newfoundland (Figure 2). This line

carried all transatlantic traffic until 1867 then carried mostly local traffic.

LONG HARBOUR TELEGRAPH STATION AND THE WIFE OF PHILIP RYAN (1906)

BY JOHN GUILLE MILLAIS, 1865-1931

Of what we may call the supernatural I have had only one experience, and that a most unpleasant one, and as the mat ter may be of interest to my readers, I will put it down exactly as it happened.

In the year 1906 I resolved to continue my labours in the mapping of the central part of Newfoundland, which at that time was still uncharted owing to the difficulty of reaching the interior. No one seemed to have been in the Mount Sylvester region since Cormack crossed the island in 1827, and the whole district, from the south at Long Harbour to the Gander River in the centre, and the east at Maelpeg to eighty miles to the west of Mount Sylvester, was quite unknown. I was, too, resolved to ascend the Long Harbour River, practically a long series of rapids and overfalls, because Howley, the Gov ernment surveyor, and an excellent trav eller, had failed to do so, and said it was “ impossible.” To accomplish this journey, I reached Belloram in Fortune Bay in Sep tember 1906, and was there met by Phil ip Ryan, who kept the store and telegraph office at the mouth of the Long Harbour. He was the soul of geniality, and as active as a cat despite his sixty years. For forty years he has been in the service of the Anglo-American Telegraph Compa ny, and, as his work does not entail any arduous duties, he can spend his time in farming, sport, and in doing a little trade with the Micmac Indians. Philip Ryan was a remarkable man in some ways. In quite a big sea he would climb up the mast to adjust his sails, and handled his cutter, the Caribou, with great skill.

Being a thorough Irishman, all his tackle was rotten, and how he had escaped with his life for so long in the squalls of Fortune Bay was difficult to imagine. He was the only man on the south coast the

Indians trusted, and it was through him

I got my Indian guides for this trip. After a rough and by no means safe voyage across Fortune Bay, we reached Ryan’s house at Long Harbour, where I found

Figure 2: The 500km Route Across Newfoundland and Location of Ghost Stories

Figure 3: The Telegraph Station at Long Harbour

BACK REFLECTION

one of my Indians. Ryan lived alone in a two-storied wooden house, and the whole place was one indescribable mass of stores, furs, gunpowder, and truck of every description piled in confusion in all the rooms. Everything bespoke dirt and disorder, and the house did not seem to have been swept out for years. About 11 p.m. Ryan conducted me upstairs to a large bedroom and wished me good night. Immediately I entered the room I felt a deadly chill and sense of unusual depression. Being a man of sanguine tem perament, the feeling was unusual, and dispensing with a light I threw off most of my clothes and jumped into a large bed, which seemed to be a litter of clothes (unmade), and covered with what had once been a whitish counterpane. It was a cold night with frost, and the moon shone brightly outside. For hours I tossed about uneasily, and whenever I tried to doze, I sprang up again with the idea that there was a woman moving about the room. Presently the rays of the moon penetrated to the room (there being no blinds) and fell upon the bed. What now attracted my attention was the peculiar pattern on the counterpane there were many dark, irregular patches all over it, but the prin cipal design in the centre seemed exactly to fit the outline of my own figure as I lay in bed. The hours crept slowly on, and at last, being unable to sleep, and still half frozen, I arose and got out my reindeer bag, which I placed on the top of the bed and crept in. Even then sleep refused to come, and the mysterious sounds of some one moving close to the bed continued. I often tried closing my eyes, and then, after gauging the direction of what seemed like rustling skirts, I opened them suddenly. There was nothing there.

So, the night passed, and at about six I

arose, resolved to get out of that horrible room. No one was stirring, so I started to get my kit in order and remove it downstairs. The morning sun streamed in, and as I lifted the reindeer bag from the bed, I saw plainly the central design on the counterpane. It was the perfect outline of a woman in black, whilst the stains around were blood red. I can only say that I fled downstairs three steps at a time, and out into the sunlight. An hour later Steve Bernard, my Indian, fetched my kit from the room, and after a hurried breakfast, at which Ryan was as jolly and cheery as ever, we started on our journey up the river.

Two nights afterwards, whilst sitting over the campfire, I told Steve and the other Indians my experience in the bedroom and asked them if they could give any clue to the mystery. Their faces showed strange emotion and horror, and at first there was a long silence, in which no one spoke.

“Why! did you not know?” began Steve at last. “I tell you. Two years ago, Ryan’s wife came to the house at Long Harbour. At first, she seemed all right and was kind to us Indians. By and by she seemed queer, and often said, when we passed and brought furs, that the quiet would kill her. She’d sit for hours on the porch looking out to sea and saying nothing when you spoke to her. One day las’ winter I come in from Shoe Hill with my furs, an’ Ryan ask me to stay a day or two and help clean up, so I did. Next morn ing, I go to the boat to get some things, when I see Mrs. Ryan come out on the porch and look about. I go towards her, when she pulled out a box of matches and lit one. Then she walk along the front and throw the match into a barrel of gun powder standing there. There was a great

blow-up, and I ran and raised her up, an’ she was ‘most dead. Ryan was standing on top of stairs when the barrel went off, and was blown to the bottom, but not much hurt. Together we picked the woman up and carried her to the upstairs room. There she soon died, and no one has been in that room since.”

Philip Ryan continued to live in his lonely house at the mouth of the Long Harbour, where in after years he enter tained three of my hunting friends, St. George Littledale, Captain Lumsden and Captain the Hon. Gerald Legge, whom I sent to him, and for whom he procured Indians. He went to Belloram again and again in spite of squalls and bad tackle, till one night in 1916 the old Caribou capsized in a heavy squall off Belloram “Back Cove,” and Philip Ryan was never seen again. The tragedy was observed from Belloram, and old Doctor Fitzgerald at once got out his boat, the Albatross, and with three volunteers, Isaac Burke, George

Figure 4: John Guille Millais

and Alec Tibbs, went to the rescue. They were, however, too late, and themselves met with disaster by collision with a small steamer, the Hump, which they met in the dark. The two Tibbs and the gallant doc tor escaped by a miracle, but Isaac Burke was swept overboard and drowned.

John Guille Millais was an avid hunter, naturalist, writer and artist. He traveled throughout the world, writing several books about his experiences in Africa, Great Britain, Ireland and Newfoundland. The son of the re nowned English painter, John Everett Millais, he was also a wildlife artist of the highest order.

Figure 5: Long Harbour Sketch 1912

Figure 6: The Telegraph Station at Garia Bay

BACK REFLECTION

GARIA TELEGRAPH STATION AND THE BROTHER OF PAUL BENOIT (1886)

BY FR. MICHAEL FRANCIS HOWLEY 1843-1914

How little is known by those who sit comfortably around their snug fireside, listening to the howling and moaning winds without, and the swish of the snowdrift against the windowpanes, of the hardships and trials of the poor Tele graph Repairer! How many are not even aware of the existence of such a function ary ! Yet his life is full of interest and adventure and nowhere, perhaps, more so than in Newfoundland.

The Anglo-American Telegraph stretches its long, dreary line for over three hundred miles from St. John’s along the southern coast of Newfoundland to Chan nel or Port-aux-Basques, the southwest ern angle of this great continental Island. The coast, after passing Placentia Bay, is one of the most dismal and depressing territories, to be seen, perhaps, in any part of the world. Great, black, rough head lands of bare and weather-beaten granite rock rise up irregularly from the depths of the ocean, towering often to a height of a thousand feet. This rough and uninvit ing coast is cut up by hundreds of inlets, harbors, and channels of various depths, some being mere coves or crannies capable of giving anchorage only to a few tiny fishing boats, and affording scarcely room for a family or two of fishermen to perch their little cottages, stages and flakes; often indeed are they obliged to support one part of them by shores stuck in the crevices of the rocks and into the very water of the sea itself, which continually rises and falls with flapping noise beneath their floors. Some again of these inlets stretch away inland fifteen and twenty miles forming veritable fiords, penetrating between the perpendicular and beetling cliffs. Such are

Long Harbor, Conn River, Bay de Lievre, Bay de Nord, La Hune, White Bear Bay, La Poile, Garia, &c. It is at the head (or bottom) of these bays that the Telegraph line is tapped from the sea, and here the offices and houses of the operators and repairers are situated. Dreary and lonely places they are, far removed from all in tercourse with the outer world, except once or twice a year, when the supplying schoo ners arrive from St. John’s. Along between these offices over the broken barrens, hummocks, and ridges, stretches the line. No habitation exists for hundreds of miles except the tilts or camps of the repairers, and along these weary tracks they have to travel night or day, winter or summer, regardless of weather. The moment the operator announces, “line down ·west,» or “ground current east,» off he must tramp to the end of his « section,» a distance of some forty or fifty miles. The Repairer, when fully equipped for his tramp, has on his back a kit of not less than fifty or sixty pounds weight, and consisting of the following articles:- a pair of rackets (in winter), three or four fathoms of wire, half a dozen or so of insulating glasses, a couple of pounds of bracket nails, hammer, pincer, vice, pair of “climbers,’’ grips and tackle; grub for four or five days consisting of bread, meal, tea, molasses, meat or rish, &c., a kettle, blanket, and gun with pow der and shot. Thus equipped, the Repairer sets out upon his bleak and dreary tramp, over barrens, down brooks, across rivers, up ridges, on until he comes to the break, where he sets to work to make his splice. Often the break will be found to have occurred right over the center of a raging, boiling torrent. There is nothing for it then but for the poor Repairer to strip off his nether garments and wade out into the frigid stream; and there gather up the two

ends of the wire, rig his tackle and make his splice, while the broken sheets of newmade ice, jagged and sharp as a knife, come dashing down the stream, cutting his shins and thighs to the bone. These are some of the hardships of the Repairer’s life.

A few days before Christmas, in the year 1886, the small company which constituted the staff at the solitary office of Garia were preparing to enjoy the ‘’ peace on earth,” if not the joy and gladness of the Holy Season. The whole company consisted of the operator, Mr. S his wife and children, the Repairer. Paul Beno it, with his newly married wife and his brother Joe, a fine strapping young fellow of twenty-one years of age, just newly broken in to the repairing business; and a few Indians who had gathered in from a furring cruise, knowing that about this season they are sure of a generous share of the delicacies ( principally of the canned variety) which are broached at headquar ters at Christmas time. The office of Garia was then the repeating station for the North Line running to Bay St. George, which had been put up only a few years before. The distance from Garia Station to Sandy Point was about fifty miles, and is certainly one of the most dreary and dangerous sections in Newfoundland, passing, as it does, right through the heart of the country over the lofty “ Long Range” mountains, aptly called “The Back Bone of Newfoundland.” As very often happens, when people are just laying out to have a good time of it, something turns up to interfere with their plans and upset all their little arrangements; so the party were not surprised when word came from the office-” line down north.” “I ‘spected as much,” said Paul, a little put out, as he was only passing his honeymoon, and counted on a nice jolly Christmas at home,

and it was quite possible that he might not be able to reach the end of the section and back before the festival day. Still he com menced good humoredly to make prepa rations for the tramp, knowing there was nothing else for it. But as soon as Joe beard of it he begged to be allowed to go. Indeed, being young, single and active, and no break having occurred for some time, the monotony of the station life was becom ing unbearable to him: and he had been praying for some time past for a break or a “gr r-r-ound cur-r-ent,” as he enunciated the words. The Benoits belong to an old Acadian family, whose native language is French of that robust colonial quality, which is not a patois, but the survival of the Archaic, Gaulois of a few centu ries back, preserving all the purity of the classical age of Louis XIV., and in English these people retain the strong ecrasemeut of the R. Paul had some hesitation about allowing Joe to go alone, but it was finally agreed that they should go in company·- at least as far as the first halting place. They started at once and arrived that evening as far as the seven-mile tilt, where they put up for the night, boiled the kettle and made themselves comfortable. Next morning, they crossed Garia Brook, and Paul accompanied his brother as far as the Blue Hill, about three miles from the tilt, where he took leave of him, and returned to Garia, Joe going on northwardly to find the break. On parting Joe said,’· I think you had better give me your gun and I’ll take the dog too; he may he useful to me.” The dog belonged to Paul and was a most faithful and affectionate animal. He looked on sagaciously at the proceedings, and though at first, he seemed inclined to return with his master, as soon as he saw which way the gun was going, he made up his mind and skipped off gleefully after Joe.

Paul, having no burden, travelled in quick time, and arrived home that evening.

On the following night, about two o’clock, when all at the station were locked in slumber, Paul and his wife were awak ened by hearing the well-known short, quick step of Joe on the crisp ground with out. Then they heard him approach the door and turn the knob. They also heard the dog scraping at the door and whining. Paul was out of bed in a minute. “Get up,” he said to his wife, ‘’and make down a fire, here’s JoeI’d know his step among a thousand.” “ Yes,” she said, “I heard him. I’ll have the kettle boiled in no time; I suppose the poor fellow is starved.” While she was making the fire and getting some supper ready Paul went out, opened the door, but found no one there. He went around the house, but no sign of dog nor man. He called out loud, searched every place about, went along the path some distance shouting, but all in vain. He returned to the house breathless and pale. “ It’s all over with poor Joe,” he said. His wife could scarcely ask what was the matter. At length she cried ‘’ What is it? where is he ? why don’t you bring him in?” “ Oh, he’s far enough away from here’·’ said Paul. “ But he’s dead as sure as I am alive, and that was his death token we heard. They did not sleep again that night, and at daylight Paul started off along the line with a beating heart. On passing the fourteen-mile tilt early in the day he found the first signs of Joe’s presence. He had made a splice not far from the tilt. He had also fixed up in the tilt a piece of stove pipe which he had brought with him. Towards evening Paul found himself in a heavy grove of woods, and the night fell dark and thick, without moon or stars. But immediately the pathway before him was lighted up from some unseen source, so that he had no trouble in treading his steps through the deepest recess of the

forest, the trees almost meeting overhead. He could see clearly some fifty yards before him along the path. “ The first thing I no ticed,” Paul says, as he graphically tells the thrilling story, “ was my gun placed across the path in such a manner that it would be impossible for any one to pass by in the dark without stumbling over it. Then I found the snowshoes a little further on, also laid one on top of the other across the path. I knew then I was not far from poor Joe. I came to a low gulch or valley about fifty yards across. At this time the strange light seemed more bright than ever, and there at the other end of the gulch I saw my poor brother lying peacefully across the path, the dog standing over him, and whining most piteously. When I came to the spot, I saw that he had kneeled down to pray; the mark of his knees was in the soft ground. His left hand was

Figure 7: Archbishop Michael Francis Howley

BACK REFLECTION

stretched out and his cap near it, showing that he had taken it off to pray. His right band was by his side and held his Rosary beads. It was a hard sight, I tell you. He did not die of hunger; he had plenty of ‘ grub’ with him. There was some porridge left in his can, and he had bread enough. I saw by the tracks afterwards that he had gone on to the end of the section, and returned seven miles towards Garia, as far as Rocky Ridge. He slept the night in Riverbrook tilt and started next morning on his return; but finding himself weak, I suppose, he turned back again and was making for the tilt. It was about 500 yards from the tilt I found him. The first thing I did was to tear off a piece of my shirt and cover his face. I then took him on my shoulders and carried him to the tilt and laid him out there and waited till morning.”

Paul has no words to express the feelings which filled his mind during that long and lonely death-watch alone in the midst of the forest by the side of the stark, stiff body of his dead brother. And, perhaps, it would be better to leave to imagination the task which no language could describe. In the morning, having well secured the tilt against the possible ravages of the wolf or the bear, Paul again started for Garia. It was then the faithful dog began to show the most pitiful signs of sorrow and attachment. He would run ten or fifteen yards from the tilt, then stand on his hind legs, paw the air, moan and whine in the most heart- rending manner and run back to the tilt, looking backwards towards his master as if it were beseeching him not to

Figure 8: The Head of Garia Bay (Summer)

Figure 10: Rock Cribs Western Newfoundland Route

abandon the poor dead man. It was with the greatest difficulty Paul got him away from the tilt. Again, when they came to the place where the dead body had lain during the night, the dog became almost frantic in his excitement. He went around and round the spot, uttering the most plaintive cries, till the tears seemed to come from his eyes. On arriving at Garia, Paul telegraphed to Bay St. George to his family who lived there, and who also had some premonitions of poor Joe’s death. A party of men at once set out carrying boards and nails to make a coffin, and when Paul again returned to the tilt, he found about fourteen men there, all ready to help in this sad hour of need. They soon had a rough coffin made, and slinging it on a couple of rails, they set out on the long and toilsome funeral procession back to Bay St. George. And here again, it is the belief of all present, from many of whom the present writer has frequently heard it, that the supernatural element entered in. For they travelled without the slightest diffi culty the whole length of that long thirty miles, bearing their heavy burthen through swamps, over brooks, across snow-banks, without difficulty or accident of any kind, and without sinking in snow or bog in a manner which under ordinary circum stances would be altogether impossible. “ Poor Joe Benoit,” was a good and innocent young man. He now sleeps in peace in the blessed ground of the little grave-yard at St. George’s awaiting the trumpet-call, and the reward of “the good and faithful servant.”

We know the story of what trans pired in Garia Bay because of the writings of one man, Michael Francis Howley, a Roman Catholic priest, archbishop, and author. For many years, Howley lived and worked out of St. George’s on the west coast, where

he was a public figure in the social, economic, spiritual, and political life of the area. He was a contributor to many publications, and one of his stories about Garia was published in 1915, the year following his death, in a journal called Christmas Bells. The seasonal magazine was published by Gray and Goodland and contained assorted articles, stories, bits of poetry, and photographs.

THE NEWFOUNDLAND TELEGRAPH ROUTE IN 2019

Janet and I had the opportunity to explore the eastern and western ends of the telegraph route across New foundland in August of 2019. Con struction of this route began in 1851 and was completed in 1856 in prepa ration for the 1857 Atlantic Cable Lay (this attempt failed). The terrestrial

route was “upgraded” in 1867 and again in 1879. Although we did not explore as deep into the interior where Philp Ryan and Paul Benoit worked, we (Janet) did find the line. From the car, she spotted the remains of rock cribs used to hold poles. They were in a perfect line mixed/hidden among the regular outcrops of rock dotting the barren land in that area. We walked 3km of the line and found a broken insulator dated ~ 1870 (figure 11). These would have been the same lines signaled over by Philip & Paul. S TF

PHILIP PILGRIM is the Subsea Business Development Leader for Nokia's North American Region. 2021 marks his is 30th year working in the subsea sector. His hobbies include "Subsea Archaeology" and locating the long lost subsea cable and telegraph routes (and infrastructure). Philip is based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Figure 11: Broken Insulator Found in a Rock Crib (left) and One Purchased in a nearby Antique Shop (right)

ON THE MOVE

ZELLAH FUPHE joined NTT as Chief Risk and Sustainability Officer in September. A graduate of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, she has spent the last two decades developing a value-based, authentic model of leadership. She stated, “ [she] is very privileged to have been given this exciting opportunity.”

Zayo welcomed BILL LONG as the new Chief Product Officer. Previously of Equinix and CenturyLink, Bill is a graduate of the University of Vir ginia and is the named inventor on 5 patents.

On October 1st, MARYCLAIRE RYAN started her new position as Hyper scale Global Accounts Director at sDigital Realty, a data center compa ny. She has over a decade of experi ence having worked at Interxion for 13 years previously.

RUSSEL EDMONDSON was named the Managing Director at Pharos Off shore Group in mid-October. He has over two decades of senior manage ment experience and is passionate about the offshore sector.

At the end of October, AEL QUEFFÉLÉANT was announced at Orange Marine’s new Deputy Chief of Mission.

Arelion promoted from within, an nouncing WES CANTRALL as Director of Sales, North America. Orange also promoted from within with the announcement that JEANPIERRE FONSECA would be moving to Orange Marine to serve as the new Communication Director, taking over for Benedicte Bigot.

On November 7th, former Micro soft President, KATE JOHNSON, took the reigns as Lumen’s new CEO. She will also be serving on the company’s Board of Directors. She is “looking forward to leading this great company through its next chapter and helping customers leverage the Lumen plat form to power amazing digital world experiences.” STF

SUBMARINE CABLE

NEWS NOW

CABLE FAULTS & MAINTENANCE

Fishing Vessel Likely Cause of Shefa-2 Fault

PNG DataCo Cable Fault Update 4

SubCom to Repair PCC-1 Earthquake Damage

PNG Earthquake Causing Multiple Cable Disruptions

Malfunction On IMEWE Causing Disruption

FUTURE SYSTEMS

PEACE Cable Wet Plant Complete

The Ile de Sein Has Landed 2Africa in Marseille

Consortium Inks Deal to Build Asia Link Cable

WIOCC to Activate Fiber Pair on Equiano Cable

AP&T Completes Installation of the SEALink Cable

EllaLink To Build 4.3 Petabit Cable in Portugal

Telecom Egypt’s Red2Med Cable Inaugurated

Ooredoo Signs Deal To Land PEACE Cable in Tunisia

Development Corp Formed for Far North Fiber

Unidata Chooses ASN & Elettra for New Med Cable

PLDT Begins Asia Direct Cable Construction

SPARKbANGLA Has Withdrawn Service from AtG

2Africa Lands at Sant Adrià de Besòs Beach CLS

Globe Lands $150m Submarine Cable in Mactan

AU-Aleutian Final Splice Has Been Completed

PDSCN Has Landed in Siargao

Inligo Networks Appoints APTelecom As International Sales Partner

3 More Private Submarine Cables for Bangladesh

Hawaiki Cable To Build Australian Link for Avaroa

AEC-2 Cable System Has Landed in Ireland

PLDT to Build New Aurora CLS

Vocus to Begin Installation of Highclere Cable

N0r5ke Fiber Expanding N0r5ke Viking Cable

Cinturion and Grid Telecom Confirm TEAS Landing

CURRENT SYSTEMS

Lumen Invests in Sixth Atlantic Subsea Route

DATA CENTERS

Formal Opening of DE-CIX Richmond Internet Exchange

Omantel Launches 400GbE DCI Service with Ciena

AWS Announces Data Center Plans for Thailand

NTT Opens New DC in South Africa

GTA Begins Work on New DC and CLS in Guam

CyrusOne Infrastructure-Rearchitecture Program Launches DC BLOX Breaks Ground on its Myrtle Beach CLS

Bulk Data Centers Plan Expansion to Nordic DCs

Africa Data Centers join forces with Nigeria’s IXPN

Virginia Has More Hyperscale DC Capacity Than Europe or China

AirTrunk Has Received First Green Loan in Japan

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

DE-CIX and AFR-IX Sign Strategic Partnership

Arelion Adds New Northeastern US Route

Hormuud Telecom CLS in Somalia is Complete

GBI Diversifies North Route Through Iraq

Quinault Indian Nation Announces Toptana Technologies Plans for CLS

NEC Signs Charter Contract For Normand Clipper

LS Cable to invest W25.2b in KT Submarine

Timor-Leste Government to Buy Timor Telecom

PTC Appoints Brian Moon as New CEO

Hexatronic to Acquire U.S. Based Rochester Cable

Equinix Commits $50M to Advance Digital Inclusion

Member States elect Doreen Bogdan-Martin as ITU Secretary-General

IFC Investing in WIOCC’s Digital Expansion

FiberSense & SX Announce Deal Expansion

TECHNOLOGY & UPGRADES

JGR Optics Introduces a New Polarity Detector

Algar Telecom Selects Infinera Best-in-Class Coherent Transport Solu tion to Modernize and Scale Subsea Network

Angola Cables Selects Infinera’s ICE6 Technology

C&W Upgrades CFX-1, EWC Cables with Ciena

HMN Tech Launches 32FP Branching Unit

OFFSHORE ENERGY

Prysmian Group Awarded Projects by Amprion Offshore GmbH

SubTel Forum

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QUARTERLY INVESTMENT: $5,000

EXCLUSIVE 3-MONTH SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS:

• Full-Page Ad (optional :30 embedded Video) near front of document

• Logo/Link on Cover and acknowledgment on Publication Webpage

• Complimentary tile Web Banner on SubTel news feed

• Social Media acknowledgment (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter)

• Acknowledgment in announcement Press Release and Mailer

ART & VIDEO REQUIREMENTS

• Full Page: 8.5” W x 11” H

• Add an additional .125” all the way around if you’d like your ad to bleed

• 300 dpi, High-Resolution PDF or JPG with crop marks

• Optional Video: Include blank box in ad design for video over-lay (size: no restrictions)

• Optional Video - 30 seconds

• 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080 resolution – mp4 Video File

ARTWORK DEADLINES:

February/March/April Issue Art due Feb 6

May/June/July Issue Art due May 8

August/September/October Issue Art due Aug 7

November/December/January Issue Art due Nov 13

The print Almanac will feature each major international system on its own page, along with a system map, landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other valuable data.

• This limited-edition hard copy of the Submarine Telecommunications Forum will be available in the conference bags at SubOptic ’23 in Bang kok in March 2023. INVESTMENT: $5,750

SPONSORSHIP

• Complimentary tile Web Banner on SubTel news feed

• Social Media acknowledgment (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter)

• Acknowledgment in announcement Press Release and Mailer

ART REQUIREMENTS

• Full Spread ad: 17 ” W x 11” H

• Add an additional .125” all the way around if you’d like your ad to bleed

• 300 dpi, High-Resolution PDF or JPG with crop marks

• Art Deadline| January 16

SUBTEL FORUM IS EXCITED TO PARTNER WITH YOUR BUSINESS ON THE FOLLOWING SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

SUBTEL FORUM INDUSTRY REPORT

Updated annually, the Report provides the most accurate, comprehensive data on the submarine fiber market. The analysis of data includes system capacity analysis as well as the actual productivity and outlook of current and planned systems and the companies that service them.

• Over 560,000 downloads per issue

• One-year exposure

YEARLY INVESTMENT: $3,750

SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS:

• Two-page Spread Ad

• Complimentary Tile Web Banner on SubTel news feed

• Social Media acknowledgment (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter)

• Acknowledgment in announcement Press Release and Mailer

ART & VIDEO REQUIREMENTS

• Full Page: 8.5” W x 11” H | Art due Oct 2

• Add an additional .125” all the way around if you’d like your ad to bleed

• 300 dpi, High-Resolution PDF or JPG with crop marks

• Optional Video: Include blank box in ad design for video over-lay (size: no restrictions)

LOCK IN NOW FOR 2023!

Sponsors can lock into a specific category below. First come-first served!

• Global Overview

• History of Submarine Telecoms

• System Growth

• Out of Service Systems

• Evolution of System Ownership and Customer Base

• Capacity Ownership

• Financing Analysis

• Historic Financing Perspective

• Regional Distribution of Financing

• Current Financing

• Supplier Analysis

• System Suppliers

• Installers

• Surveyors

• Recent Mergers, Acquisitions, and Industry Activities

• System Maintenance

• Publicity

• Reporting Trends & Repair Times

• Club Versus Private Agreements

• Cable Ships

Note: Subtel Forum reserves the right to change categories

• Current Cable Ships

• Shore-End Activity

• Market Drivers and Influence

• Hyperscalers

• Data Centers

• Special Markets

• Offshore Energy

• Unrepeatered Systems

• Sustainability

• Regional Market Analysis and Capacity Outlook

• Transatlantic Regional Market

• Transpacific Regional Market

• Americas Regional Market

• AustralAsia Regional Market

• EMA Regional Market

• Indian Ocean Pan-East Asian Regional Market

• Polar Regional Market

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SUBTEL FORUM IS EXCITED TO PARTNER WITH YOUR BUSINESS ON THE FOLLOWING SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

SUBTEL FORUM ONLINE CABLE MAP

Built with the industrystandard Esri ArcGIS plat form and linked to the Sub Tel Forum Submarine Cable Database, the Subtel Forum Online Cable Map tracks the progress of:

• 550 Current & Planned Cable Systems

• 1,500+ Landing Points

• 1,700+ Data Centers

• 53 Cable Ships

• Systems are also linked to SubTel Forum’s News Now Feed, allowing viewing of current and archived news details

• If you haven’t had the chance, use this link to the Online Cable Map to explore our many features

SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS:

• 12-Month Exclusive Sponsorship of the Online Map

• Your Logo/Link on every page

• 75-word Company Description of company Announcement

• Complimentary tile web banner (visible on SubTel news feed)

• Social media acknowledgment (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter)

• Acknowledgment in announcement Press Release and mailer