Statistics
ISSN No. 1948-3031
PUBLISHER: Wayne Nielsen
MANAGING EDITOR: Kevin G. Summers
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Stewart Ash, Stuart Barnes, Tony Frisch, Stephen Jarvis, Omar Jassim Bin Kalban, Arunachalam Kandasamy, Mike Last, Brian Lavallée, Joerg Schwartz
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.
Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the Managing Editor at editor@subtelforum.com.
Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. 21495 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 201 Sterling, Virginia 20166, USA subtelforum.com
Copyright © 2013 Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.
Welcome to Issue 70 of SubTel Forum, our Capacity / SubOptic 2013 Wrap-up edition.
The last time my family and I visited Normandy was in 1993 just before SubOptic in Versailles.
At the time, we were standing at the beginning of an incredible ramp-up of the industry. Our BTM team was one of maybe ten exhibitors and we were all tucked away in a single large tent that was attached to various meeting and presentation rooms. The number of participants was surely much smaller than recent years, but the enthusiasm (and subsequent flow of wine) was certainly not lacking. Coming back to Paris last month was among other things an interesting opportunity to review how our industry has evolved over the years and where we might be headed.
I came away with some interesting thoughts about the state of play today in our industry. The business is
certainly alive, but whether it is moving positively or negatively depends on who you met in the various receptions. Finance issues continue to be a concern, and a number of systems expected for launch last year are looking anew for 2013. Technology continues to improve by leaps and bounds with no end in sight. But interestingly not a number of new system names were floated. At a minimum, SubOptic proved again to be an excellent opportunity to catch-up with old friends and network with new colleagues, and assess for oneself the direction of things.
And Normandy continues to be a wonderful visit, and the 15th century farm manor we stayed in again even has internet – although the younger members of our group who were responsible for uploading the final edition of STF Today might take umbrage with that.
In This Issue...
Africa Coast To Europe Submarine Fibre-optic Cable Inaugurated In Accra
BT opens global development centre in Bangalore
Africa Coast to Europe Consortium and Alcatel-Lucent Further Strengthen Broadband Continuity In Africa With Maintenance Service Agreement
Africa Gains In Connectivity With Submarine Deals
Alcatel-Lucent To Help Ensure Continuity Of Broadband Services In Africa By Signing Maintenance Services for West Africa Cable System
Allied Fiber Launches Miami to Atlanta Segment of Its NetworkNeutral Fiber and Colocation System
News Now
Bharti Airtel to buy optical network gear from US-based Ciena Communications
BICS Selects Infinera DTN-X for 500G Pan-European Network
Breaking News : SubOptic 2016 in Dubai
Business is Tough Out There: Guest Speaker, Chris Burke
Cable Repairs on a Crowded Continental Shelf : Oral Sesson TH2B
Coherent Transponders: Oral Session TU2C
Columbus Networks and CWC Form JV to Expand Subsea Network Platform
Coping with National Security Regs: Oral Session WE2A
Corning Optical Cabling Used by Allied Fiber for Ambitious Dark Fiber Project
Corning to Provide Optical Cabling Solutions for Miami-to-Atlanta Segment of Allied Fiber’s NetworkNeutral System Build
CSA Demonstrates Capabilities of USV During Live Field Tests
DeepOcean acquires a 50% interest in ADUS
DeepOcean Group Awarded Trenching Contract in the North Sea
Different Viewpoints on Reliability: Masterclass Tutorial 3
E-marine Brings World ECFS Consortium Selected Xtera for Upgrading its Caribbean Festoon Subsea Cable System
ECFS Consortium Selected Xtera for Upgrading its Caribbean Festoon Subsea Cable System
ECFS Consortium Selected Xtera for Upgrading its Caribbean Festoon Subsea Cable System
Ed Parsons: Keynote Speech 2
Egypt: Divers Caught While Cutting Internet Cable
Emmanuel Desurvire : Keynote Speaker
Era of High Spectral Efficiency: Oral Session TU2C (3:30)
Etisalat Inks BBG Internet Agreement
Expresso ACE Fibre Cable Ready For Launch In Ghana This Week
Finance: Round Table 1
From Start to Finish: Xtera Expands Turnkey Offering and Joins ICPC
Global Marine Appoints Bill Donaldson as New Chief Financial Officer
News Now
Globenet Completes Construction Of Bermuda-US (Segment 5) Replacement
GlobeNet Opens Fastest US Hibernia Networks Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary
Huawei Marine Achieve Breakeven by Year-end of 2012
India Seeks Innovation Now Goes Under Water: Xtera Announces New Repeater for Subsea Cable Systems
Kenya: Seacom Launches a Cloud Services Unit
Matt Ridley: Keynote Speaker 1
Namibia: Telecom’s Own Pops for WACS Connection
NGD And The Welsh Pirates, Poison, and Politics : Masterclass 10
Protecting Subsea Cables Using AIS: Oral Session TU1B (11:00)
Protecting the Submarine Cables That Wire Our World
Prysmian Group Opens New Optical Cable Plant In Slatina, Romania
Reliance Communications Ltd : Reliance Globalcom integrates Hawk cable system with Reliance Global Network
Reliance Globalcom activates Mobily on its Hawk submarine cable system
Reliance Globalcom’s Hawk Submarine Cable Creates New Middle East, India Opportunities
Reliance Jio to use Bharti Airtel’s i2i submarine cable for international connectivity
RIL, Vodafone, Others Tie Up To Construct Undersea Cable
Sabotage Threat to Undersea Cables is Overblown
Seaborn Networks Selects Equinix for First Sao Paulo Gateway to US
Severed cable blamed for Syrian Internet cut
Single-Mode Fiber offers high power, low loss at 100 Gbps.
Sri Lanka Dialog says submarine cable will give high speeds
Sri Lanka State-of-the-Art Advances Set New Standard for Spectral Efficiency and Distance
STF Today - Monday Wrap Up
STF Today @ SubOptic 2013
STF Today @ SubOptic 2013Episode 4
STF Today @ SubOptic 2013 Wrap Up - Day Three
STF Today @ SubOptic 2013 Wrap Up - Tuesday
News Now
Submarine Fibre Collaboration Sees Local Expertise For Australian Oil And Gas
Syria’s Internet Restored After Blackout
TE Subcom Awarded Epic Contract For Chevron Jack & St. Malo Undersea Network
TE SubCom Awarded Supply Contract Of Poseidon Undersea Cable System By Ocean Specialists, Inc.
TE SubCom Demonstrates RecordBreaking Transpacific Transmission
Telecom Italia Sparkle Selects iconectiv for Accurate Routing of Voice and SMS and Fraud Prevention
Telstra Eyes Slattery’s Singapore Undersea Cable
Telx Secures New US Connections to Brazil With Seaborn Networks
The Future of the Industry : Roundtable 3
The Legal Detail: Masterclass Tutorial 6
Top 10 telecom operators UAE, Oman to be connected to new undersea cable system
Undersea Cable Cut Affects 50% of Pakistan’s Internet Traffic
Undersea Cable From Brazil Skips Miami
Upgrades: Guide Session 3
Visualizing the Impacts of Cable Breaks : Oral Session WE1B
Why Undersea Internet Cables Are More Vulnerable Than You Think
WIOCC Continues African Expansion
WIOCC Xtera Expands Turnkey Offering and Joins ICPC
The Undersea Cable Report 2013
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The Undersea Cable Report capitalizes on Terabit Consulting’s global on-site experience working with carriers, cable operators, financiers, and governments in over 70 countries on dozens of leading projects (e.g. AJC, BRICS, EASSy, Hibernia, SEAS, TBI)a world of experience, at your fingertips in a single resource!
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perspective
expertise
Capacity Statistics
SubOptic 2013 Recap
Stephen Jarvis
In an interview for a previous article, John Horne, one of the conference organizers, said “I think there needs to be a forum, such as Sub-Optic, where representatives from all parts of the industry can get together.” He told me that the thing that makes SubOptic something special is the overall focus on paper presentation and the exchange of information from all areas.
Well, in the opinion of someone who didn’t know what the term “dark fiber” meant prior to attending Mike Conradi’s talk on how a lawyer handles due diligence, the 2013 SubOptic more than met that standard.
I am not a member of the telecoms industry. I feel like that’s an important distinction to make. I’m a run-of-themill freelance journalist, which puts me at a disadvantage compared to most everyone reading this magazine in terms of Sub-sea Telecoms knowledge.
It’s for that reason that when I attended the SubOptic, I was fairly astounded by the information that was being shared in the various master classes, sessions and round-tables. Maybe this was normal for everyone who knows what to expect, but it was something for the uninitiated to watch all the different
sessions; one on the calculations of cost and return on spare parts, another on the challenges of piracy. I could never have imagined that the various presentations could deal with such a range of macro and micro issues that the industry deals with.
In my work for the STFToday blog following the conference, I attended 19 of these events. The first day began with the set-up of the stands (well, technically the conference began with
the ceremony the following morning).
The very first event I attended was a master class on reliability, both of systems and their components. Tony Frisch and Ed West represented both the supply and the demand side of the issue, thoroughly examining the cost and return on buying replacement components.
The rest of the day included a Guide Session on upgrades led by Colin Wallace of Ciena and a master class
on the legal side of the industry. This included two distinct issues. The first was presented by Mike Conradi from DLA Piper on the subject of how a lawyer handles due diligence. The second was an ominous presentation by Simon Airey, also of DLA Piper, on the new UK Bribery Act.
“What we don’t know is that the enforcement regime has changed,” Airey said. He made it clear that times are changing, and the world is taking a zero tolerance policy towards bribery. The next morning began with the conference opening and welcome.
Speeches were made by Richard Elliot, Chairman of the Program Committee, Fiona Beck, President of the SubOptic Executive Committee, and Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, the company that hosted the conference in Paris.
This was directly followed by the first keynote speaker: Matt Ridley, scientist, journalist, and author of “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.”
“The world economy is booming ahead at three to four percent a year,” Ridley said. His speech consisted of statistics and examples of how the world, scary
place that it’s been the last few years, has actually been steadily improving for many years and will continue to do so.
Events I made it to that day included three oral sessions and a guest speaker.
The guest speaker was named Chris Burke. I mention this session especially for two reasons. First, no one expected the topic he gave his speech on. Second, more than one person came up to me afterwards to see if we’d taped it and if they could have a copy.
"The people in senior capacities have become largely unskilled," Burke said.
There has been a phenomena where executives may have no real experience with the products you're trying to sell them. Because of this, he explains, people need to learn how to explain why they should want their product despite their relative inexperience in the industry. He even had a seven step plan to go with it.
The keynote speaker the next morning was from Ed Parsons, Geospacial Technologist for Google. I can honestly
say I will never again look something up on Google without noticing how it sorts items by distance from my location; which is just one way the company employs GPS. Parsons makes the point that Google's real purpose is to provide information. Apparently, about 1/3 of the information people search for is location related. Even when the question isn't about a specific location, Google uses location to better narrow down the answers they give you.
But his speech was truly about the growth of the internet, which apparently has a few more users coming just around the corner. “How are we going to make the internet helpful for these next billion people?” There is growing use of smart phones specifically for internet purposes in countries like Kenya.
“We’ve got to work hard to make broadband as accessible everywhere else,” Parsons said.
For that day I attended two oral sessions and a roundtable on Finance. One of the oral sessions was on the topic of Regulatory Permits and Network Security. Kent Bressie gave an impressive look at the way national security concerns are becoming a major worry for cable companies.
There has been a shift in perception. So much so that when there is a break in a cable, the first thought isn't an accident, but a terrorist attack. This has led to all sorts of new oversight by governments, according to Bressie.
The final keynote speaker was Emmanuel Desurvire, who I apparently owe for the bandwidth I previously thought was naturally occurring. For
his speech, he explains the history of the erbium-doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs), a technology that made higher bandwidths possible.
For the last day's events, I managed to attend two roundtables, an oral session and a master class. The first of the roundtables was entitled "Africa: The Impact of an Unprecedented Wave of Investment.' It's moderated by Yves Ruggeri, of France Telecom Orange. Participants include Funke Opeke, of Main One, Angelique Weeks, of Liberian Regulator, Nzioka Waita, of Safaricom, and Antonio Nunes, of Angola Cables.
The issues discussed ranged all over. According to Waita, there is a discrepancy in price for terrestrial lines. In some cases the cost for a far greater distance may be cheaper than closer areas. Weeks asked the question "How much is the private sector willing to invest without a clear return?" Capacity can get to the more isolated areas, but it requires the wireless option. "We can get it out there. It's imperative. How fast is the question."
whose topic varied greatly. My favorite of them was David Tossell, of AlcatelLucent. He spoke on Piracy.
A total of 76 vessels were recently attacked by pirates. Despite the almost humorous things that come to mind when mentioning pirates, it’s not that funny of an issue. Submarine cables are located all over the work. The threat of piracy and robbery is nothing new, says Tossell. It’s recently become more of a problem.
However, the presenter that left the greatest impact was Ryoichi Yatabe speaking about dealing the aftermath of Fukushima and nuclear contamination on the water. As many would remember, the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm.
More than 20 cable faults in 7 systems occurred. The company KCS repaired 11 of the cables. They experienced a number of challenges. The first of
The master class I attended was one I couldn’t pass up: Pirates, Poison, and Politics. There were four presenters
which was easing customers’ confusion. Fear of nuclear contamination caused chaos during the process. Next, they had to determine a permissible level of exposure, so that they could repair cables near the Fukushima disaster. Preventative measures they took included revising the manual on security against radioactivity, collecting data, using protective gear, and using multiple ways of measuring radioactivity while working. Lastly, cable repair was particularly difficult because of the earthquake. Landslides had congested and buried the cables. The repairs took a total of 154 days.
The day ended with a bang. The closing ceremony for the 2013 SobOptic conference featured an awards ceremony for a few different honors, handed out by Fiona Beck and Wayne
Nielsen, owner of SubTel Forum, which donated the awards:
• Best Paper from a Newcomer: Nicole Starosielski
• Best Poster : Andy Palmer-Felgate
• Best Paper Presented: Elisabeth Rivera Hartling
An Award for Outstanding Contribution was also given to Elaine Stafford and Fiona Beck. After that came the big news. First, Beck stepped down from her position in SubOptic.
"I'm pleased to announce your new president is Yves Ruggeri," announced Beck. She had completed her two year term as president of the executive committee of SubOptic and had to pass the baton.
Ruggeri then invited the general manager of E-Marine to the stage and made a big announcement. Ibrahim Alowais was introduced at the SubOptic closing ceremony as it was announced that E-Marine will host SubOptic 2016 in Dubai.
“SubOptic enables us to not only celebrate and consider the state of our industry but it also enables us to look forward with the best the industry has to offer,” said Alowais. “Like our industry Dubai has also changed… It’s only right that we should welcome the world’s largest conference in the submarine cable industry. We are confident that E-Marine and Dubai will be the perfect platform to host.”
And that finished out an exciting conference. Look forward to three years from now in Dubai.
Stephen Jarvis is a freelance writer in the Washington D.C. area. He has published articles and done editorial work with several publications including Submarine Telecoms Forum. Also, he has been a speaker for the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National
and the winners are...
The Best Paper From a Newcomer:
Nicole Starosielski, New York University
“Surfacing: A Digital Mapping of Submarine Cables”
Abstract - There is a lack of public awareness about the importance of submarine cable systems, even despite the recent increase in the circulation of visual and geographic information about them. This lack of awareness can inhibit policy, regulation, and investment. This paper discusses an opportunity to improve the “cable literacy” of the general public, including policy-makers and regulators. “Surfacing,” a digital map of submarine cables built using web technologies, is designed in gamelike format in which the user becomes the signal, traverses the network, and learns about the challenges companies face in constructing and maintaining cable systems.
Best Poster: Andy Palmer-Felgate, Verizon
“Marine Maintenance in the Zones - a global comparison of repair commencement times”
Abstract - Many factors can impact the time it takes to commence a submarine cable repair: permits, transits, vessel availability, weather, spares availability and security requirements to name just a few. This paper takes available repair durations spanning several years from across all of the World’s maintenance zones (ACMA, MECMA, SEAIOCMA, YZ & NAZ) to compare and contrast the mean time to repair by region. In addition, the underlying reasons for the widely varying timescales are explored, and common themes identified. The findings of this paper shed light on the geopolitical issues impacting the expeditious repair of submarine cables, which may have profound economic consequences for carriers and endusers alike in the countries and regions affected. Whilst no attempt is made here to suggest solutions, by presenting quantified regional differences in mean time to repair we aim to provide a global overview of what has become a significant issue for international carriers.
Best Paper Presented: Elisabeth Rivera
Hartling, Ciena
“Using
Coherent Technology for Simple, Accurate Performance Budgeting”
Abstract - Coherent technology, powered by advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP), provides access to a rich set of information on the optical field. Despite this, current practices in performance budgeting and system acceptance focus only on the pre-FEC bit error ratio, translated to dBQ2, and ignore the set of measures offered by coherent technology. In this paper, we discuss how coherent technology with advanced DSP can measure, in realtime, necessary components to derive performance budgets. We demonstrate a working example using commercially available 100 Gb/s coherent DP-QPSK modems with high gain soft FEC.
Time Has Come For Taking Innovation Under Water
The How and Why Of a New Repeater
Stuart Barnes, Tony Frisch & Joerg Schwartz
Since the introduction of fiber optics to submarine telecommunications in the 1980’s there has only been one major evolutionary change in repeater technology, this being the switch from regenerative (3R) repeaters to optically-amplified repeaters, which made the undersea plant agnostic to the line rate and format. Such low speed of innovation seems surprising if compared with other advances in undersea communication technology. For example, let’s have a look at how terminal equipment, and in particular the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) line rate, has changed over the same period. The first repeatered cable system was UK-Belgium 5 laid in 1986, operated with a single plesiochronous channel (it was regenerative!) at 140Mbit/s; recently, 100Gbit/s per wavelength was deployed on submarine links of the GBI network by Xtera. With odd releases (such as 420Mbit/s) there were eight incremental changes to the line rate per system or subsequently wavelength in a period where repeater technology has only changed once! Submerged plant, however, needs to be very much more reliable than terminal equipment that explains the reluctance of suppliers to make changes without some pressure.
Lightweight repeater undergoing extensive terrestrial test to simulate deployment, handling and recovery
Other than the miniaturized 2-pair repeater developed by start-up company RedSky (subsequently acquired by Huawei Marine Networks) and some internal improvements, such as better spectral flattening, repeater technology has been little changed for well over
a decade. With the introduction of coherent detection techniques coupled with breakthroughs in Forward Error Correction (FEC) – such as soft-decision coding – the TDM approach continues to be appealing. However, there is not much further to go with FEC; other
digital technologies to allow transmit pulse shaping and mitigate the effects of non-linear impairments seem likely to be a route to increased capacity. There is no doubt that scientists and engineers will continue to rise to this challenge, but it is equally clear that this is not the only solution and that revisiting the somewhat neglected submerged amplifier might also yield some benefits.
About 3 years ago Xtera therefore embarked on a journey to develop a new repeater to satisfy the conflicting needs of the industry. On the one hand, it had to be evolutionary to meet the stringent reliability expectations of the industry, but on the other hand it also had to address the need for more bandwidth/capacity at lower cost per transmitted bit.
One key advantage that Xtera had from the beginning was its rich history in Raman amplifier design. Xtera started its company history in the late 1990’s as a start-up that was specifically focused on Raman amplifier design, filing well over 100 patents on this topic alone. This has been a consistent theme running through all its product innovations, both in terrestrial and unrepeatered submarine systems
where Raman amplification leads to higher line capacity and longer reach when compared to the conventional amplification approach. Coupled with that, the UK arm of Xtera has a rich vein of skills in long-haul submarine system design and had been able to learn from the experience of upgrading a number of different systems.
So what are the main differentiators that are accessible by using Raman amplification technology in a repeater?
There are actually two answers to this question: the Raman effect can be used to create gain in the line fiber, thus attaining a noise figure that is inherently lower than that of a traditional ErbiumDoped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA); the Raman effect can also be utilized to create gain outside the fixed window provided by classical EDFA amplifiers. The former opens the gate to increasing the inter-repeater spans for some specific applications, while the latter can be used to widen the useable optical bandwidth in a system.
So far Raman amplification has had no place in a real submerged amplifier, although there have been numerous publications, some suggesting a hybrid mix of EDFA and distributed Raman. However, the pumps needed are less
efficient than EDFA pumps and more power is required, which might explain why people have shied away from this approach so far. Through careful attention to the electronic design and using more modern approaches to drive circuitry Xtera has overcome this barrier and is now able to offer the first hybrid EDFA / distributed Raman amplifier for use underwater.
In doing this, Xtera has not forgotten the critical standards of performance and reliability demanded by the submarine communications industry with a design that uses six pumps per amplifier pair with redundancy to cover the possibility of a pump failing. Xtera has also selected pumps which have very good reliability pedigree and will also be using control / supervisory unit redundancy. Throughout the whole design and development process Xtera has always been mindful of the conservative approach that is demanded by submarine cable system operators. The first repeater release has a bandwidth of more than 50nm on transoceanic distances – nonetheless a significant increase over current EDFA designs – with an overall architecture that will be recognizable as essentially an evolution from the “industry standard”.
Armored cable being made ready for recent sea trial
Next, Xtera has developed a modular approach to amplifier design that allows the offering of at least three variants of the optical amplifier to target different market segments. Xtera has also learned from terrestrial amplifier module suppliers who long ago surpassed subsea cable system industry in terms of miniaturization.
Allied to some proprietary tricks Xtera has developed a product that is easier
to manufacture, offering the option to assemble the repeater in much less specialized, clean room environments, and that may also offer the ability to take some of the assembly and test closer to the deployment location.
Finally, Titanium was chosen for the housing and external metal units. Titanium has become the material of first choice in the hydrospace sector, in
particular oil and gas. It has the best specific strength of all the candidate materials and excellent corrosion characteristics in sea water. Together with a small form factor amplifier module, Xtera has evolved a much lighter, smaller form factor product that is suitable for both surface laying and plough burial. In general, the mechanical design was equally challenging from inside to outside. The first challenge was building a scalable internal unit that gave intimate contact with the inside polymeric liner (need for electrical insulation) in order to give optimal heat transfer to the outside of the repeater and supported by comprehensive thermal modeling. Xtera has carried out extensive work with Southampton University to understand some of the fundamental characteristics of Titanium, such as corrosion, thermal, and hydrogen permittivity. In addition Xtera had to design new bulkheads and seals and new interconnection solutions. These designs were extensively tested at a conceptual level prior to mechanical testing and formal qualification.
The journey has been long and arduous, as one would expect from a multidisciplinary task such as this, with full knowledge that some of the concepts
discussed above would require extensive concept and qualification testing, often with the assistance of cable or installation partners. In addition to designing a higher-bandwidth amplifier, Xtera had to select electrical and optical components to meet the stringent reliability requirements of the industry. From an electrical perspective Xtera was focused not only on the control and supervisory aspects, but also on broader system requirements such as surge resilience and the high voltage reliability of the extremity boxes that join the repeater to the cables.
Formal and extensive qualification is the subject in this industry that burns up a lot of time and cost. Based on in-house experience developing and introducing terminal equipment to the submarine systems market Xtera felt it necessary to ask a reputable Tier 1 operator to act as an independent qualification authority; this Tier 1 operator has audited the design, specification and qualification process, which includes the usual gamut of terrestrial testing and sea trials. The latter were facilitated by Xtera’s already ongoing and expanding activities in the submarine turnkey market, through which Xtera has already executed a number of full system deployments, ranging from redeployments to completely new systems and including repeatered and unrepeatered installations of different sizes. Through this Xtera has not only vastly expanded its in-house expertise in planning and execution of submerged installation, but also developed
partnerships with cable manufacturers, survey companies, or marine installation suppliers.
These partnerships, combined with in-house SLTE and abundant system engineering expertise, will enable Xtera to be a serious player in this market by having control of the following elements either through an internal resource or through partnership means: system design, transmission equipment design and manufacture, ocean cable, installation plant and finally repeater technology. Having established relationships with recognized leaders in cable and installation Xtera was happy to embark on an exciting journey that has led to today’s product –which will continue by serving the needs of new customers that are looking for a new generation of submerged plant for maximizing the reach, capacity and value of their subsea assets.
Dr. Stuart Barnes joined Xtera in 2007 and serves as the CTO for submarine systems. Stuart has over 30 years of experience in the submarine telecommunications business.
Prior to Xtera, Stuart was the founder and COO of Polariq, as well as founder and CTO of both Azea Networks and of ilotron. In addition, Dr. Barnes has held senior management positions at Atlas Venture, Alcatel Recherche, STC Submarine Systems and STC Cables Newport. Stuart holds over 20 patents, has published over 40 papers, and has been recently
appointed to the Advisory Board of the Aston University Institute of Photonics.
Tony Frisch started at BT’s Research labs and then moved to Alcatel Australia, becoming involved in testing submarine systems. A move to Bell Labs gave him experience in terminal design and troubleshooting, after which he went back to Alcatel France, where he worked in Alcatel Submarine Networks’ Technical Sales before moving to head Product Marketing. He is now SVP, Repeaters for Xtera Communications.
Dr. Joerg Schwartz is responsible for Xtera’s Turnkey Solutions product offering, delivering end-toend submarine solutions to network operators based on the company’s transmission, equipment, and project execution expertise. Prior to this, Joerg has directed the NXT system definition and developed Xtera’s systems engineering team, providing network solution design, field and lab trials, sales support, and systems research. Other previous experiences include engineering and operational management roles for Ericsson, submarine terminal development for Alcatel, and founding an optical components company.
SEaCOm – Upgrading the african Internet
Brian Lavallée & arunachalam Kandasamy
The African Market
Affordable access to broadband is a major contributor to economic growth in developing countries. According to a 2011 study by the World Bank, a 1.38 percent increase in a country’s GDP growth is experienced for every 10 percent increase in broadband penetration — higher than any other telecommunication service. Since Africa has, for different reasons, traditionally lagged behind other continents in terms of economic development, improving its telecommunications networks represents a significant opportunity to close the broadband divide with the rest of the world. Since bandwidth access and cost is a major hindrance to the increased use of IT, improving the African telecom infrastructure using the
latest in optical networking technology and supporting infrastructure is seen as an ideal way to improve the lives and livelihoods of Africans in a relatively short period of time. As world economies become increasingly interconnected, modern telecom networks are essential for Africa to enjoy the benefits of globalization.
As shown in Figure 1, Africa currently lags behind the rest of the world, but decisive steps are being taken to increase its broadband Internet connectivity. Connecting to the global network infrastructure as well as
enabling intra-Africa connectivity on a reliable basis and at competitive costs will continue the process of putting Africa on an equal footing with the rest of the world. Reliable and high-speed connections allow Africans to access content, both local and offshore, serve
up its own brand of localized language and culture content, participate in global markets, enhance productivity and grow online business opportunities — all in relatively short order.
According to TeleGeography2, Africa has already experienced 77 percent CAGR associated with international bandwidth usage from 2008 to 2012, clearly demonstrating its growing adoption, and reliance on, international connectivity. Numerous submarine cables connecting the African continent to the rest of the world as well as continuing investment in terrestrial networks and access have fueled this astounding growth, which will only continue as reliable lower cost bandwidth, particularly among the less connected landlocked countries, proliferates. Broadband connectivity can revolutionize how people solve problems at individual, community, business, security, and national levels. Benefits related to tourism, education, manufacturing, job creation, healthcare, productivity, economic growth, and even social inclusion can be realized from improved access to affordable broadband. So it’s no surprise that substantial investment in Africa’s
Figure 1:
telecom infrastructure, both in the terrestrial and submarine segments, continues to increase.
SEACOM, the Company
SEACOM is a privately owned and operated pan-African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabler, driving the development of the African Internet being built on the backbone of open-access and equitable
principles. African ownership of SEACOM currently stands at over 75 percent and this high level of regional ownership and local presence enables SEACOM to better understand and address African market dynamics and associated demands. SEACOM developed and financed the first highspeed submarine cable serving the route between South Africa and Europe via East Africa and India to offer high-quality and affordable Internet
connectivity services. This directly addressed the growing digital divide previously experienced by numerous underserved countries along the south and east African coast, as well as several landlocked countries. By replacing previously utilized satellite communications technology, and all of its limitations when compared to fiber optic networks, SEACOM brings the African telecommunications infrastructure on par with the rest of the developed world.
SEACOM provides reliable international and intra-Africa bandwidth to African carriers at wholesale prices, and their diverse and growing network offers city-to-city services to African carriers for connectivity within Africa and to and from Europe and Asia. Each CLS and data center attached to the SEACOM network is operated on an “open access” principle, which permits direct access to any licensed or licenseexempt operator, thereby acting as a catalyst to the East and South African telecommunication markets.
To reach inland across provinces, regions, and cities, SEACOM leverages its subsidiaries and local partners in each served country to carry telecommunications infrastructure Figure
deep into landlocked countries. SEACOM has developed, and continues to do so, numerous relationships to bring the benefits of the SEACOM communications network to southern and eastern Africa and continue the transformation that they started in 2009.
SEACOM, the Network
In late 2007, SEACOM began construction of their ambitious submarine cable network, which was completed and Ready for Service (RFS) by mid 2009. The SEACOM submarine fiber optic network system was launched in 2009 and serves to directly interconnect South Africa and East Africa with Europe and Southern Asia and has already connected many African countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. SEACOM enables Africans to enjoy high-bandwidth services such as HDTV, IPTV, true broadband Internet, peer-to-peer networks, cloud, as well as numerous other connectivity-related services.
Center (NOC) based in Pune (India), and employs adequate trained and skilled resources across the network.
Network Upgrade Challenges
To ensure the SEACOM submarine cable is properly maintained, SEACOM has a 24x7 Network Operations
SEACOM has continued to develop and mesh its network to offer diversity and resilience by securing capacity from other suppliers on the East and West coasts of Africa as well as multiple routes within Europe and across Egypt (the only African carrier to offer this in Egypt). This capacity can be used for the customers who opt for protected services from SEACOM as full service services supplier. SEACOM‘s IP-T and MPLS networks are designed as highly meshed and resilient, offering multiple breakouts to the Internet in London (UK), Marseilles (France) and Mumbai (India), which provide increased resilience for IP customers in the event of network interruptions.
Given the current unabated adoption of broadband connectivity in the African markets served by SEACOM, it was evident their fully owned submarine cable network needed to be upgraded to maintain pace with increased capacity demands using the very latest in coherent-based optical transmission technology. SEACOM required a Submarine Line Terminating Equipment (SLTE) upgrade solution that allowed 10 Gb/s
Figure 3:
and 40 Gb/s channels to coexist on the same wet plant. This allows existing 10 Gb/s channels based on legacy Intensity Modulated Direct Detection (IMDD) technology to be redeployed or replaced, as required, without unnecessarily stranding network assets. It is a relatively simple task to upgrade submarine networks to the latest in coherent optical transmission technology using card swaps at the SLTE that require no alterations to the existing wet plant. However, in the case of the SEACOM submarine network, the presence of two Branching Units (BU) meant added network design complexity, which was overcome using innovative submarine network technologies and design techniques.
As shown in Figure 3, the SEACOM network has two branching units in their network that together provide access between Zafarana (Egypt), Djibouti City (Djibouti), Mombasa (Kenya), and Mumbai (India). Given the distance from BU-A to Djibouti is relatively short and, that standard unamplified add/ drop to and from shore is implemented, upgrading this portion of the segment is relatively straight forward. However, BU-B is a non-standard BU fed by three amplified chains, making it more of a challenge from a power balancing
perspective for wavelengths traveling different distances between India and Africa. SLTE transponders using legacy IMDD have different launch power and receiver sensitivity requirements when compared to newer coherent technologybased transponders. This means that obtaining optimum transmission performance is more involved when these two different transmission technologies share the same wet plant over varied distances. However, by leveraging deep understandings in IMDD, coherent transmission, and wet plant technologies, SEACOM successfully increased capacity over targeted segments of their submarine network assets using 40 Gb/s technology with a rapid and smooth evolution path to 100 Gb/s, as dictated by future market dynamics.
More than just the Line Rate
Although channel line rates receive a lot of attention in the media, there is far more to upgrading a network. The line rate is just one aspect of a typical upgrade, which also includes client-side interfaces, management integration, rolling traffic from lower rate channels to higher rates channels, and/or moving channels within the available repeater spectrum. Higher
channel rates offer improved spectral efficiency and higher total capacities of wet plants that vastly surpass original maximum capacities. However, the types of services (SONET/SDH, OTN, and/or Ethernet) that are mapped into these higher channel rates must also be planned to incorporate more expensive yet flexible multi-protocol client-side interfaces or lower cost yet inflexible single-protocol (Ethernet) client-side interfaces. The decision must maximize the return on investment of the capacity upgrade while meeting market demands of today and tomorrow. Separating the client-side and lineside functions to different circuit packs facilitates the decision, as they can be changed as the market evolves, while being able to maintain use of the more expensive coherent-based line-side optical interfaces.
Once client-side and line-side hardware has been evaluated and selected, management integration of this new hardware comes to the forefront because the network Operations team will spend most of their time interfacing to this new hardware via the Network Management System (NMS). A seamless hardware upgrade requires a seamless NMS upgrade, which was part of SEACOM’s decision-making process
from the start. Fortunately, third-party upgrades on existing wet plants are facilitated via flexible NMS offerings that enabled SEACOM to manage both the existing and upgraded portions of their expansive network from a remote location, allowing for proactive and reactive management of their network assets from the Network Operations Center (NOC). The uniquely long distances associated with submarine networks make efficient network management from a remote relocation that much more important to submarine cable operators.
SEACOM upgraded their network using 40 Gb/s coherent-based technology to meet current market demands, with the option to upgrade to the latest in 100 Gb/s technology, as market dynamics continue to evolve. The mixing of 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s, and 100 Gb/s channels is possible using the latest in coherentbased technology, allowing SEACOM to select different channel rates to meet their specific market demands while avoiding the expensive stranding of network assets. Channels can be moved within the spectrum to maximize endto-end transmission performance or replaced outright with new higher rate technologies, as offerings evolve.
Boosting the African Economy
Africa is the second-largest and second-most populous continent on Earth. It covers roughly six percent of the world’s total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. According to the United Nations, as of 2011, African had a population of just over one billion people, or roughly 14 percent of the world’s total population of about 7 billion people. However, accessing over one billion people with a relatively limited telecom infrastructure means that the broadband and digital divide could continue to increase were it not for the significant investments being made by major telecom service providers such as SEACOM. Increased access to lower cost, reliable and scalable bandwidth is one key solution to aid Africa in its quest to improve its national economies and the welfare of its people. Increasing submarine network capacity that interconnects Africa to the rest of the world, at more accessible prices, is a significant step towards improving the economies of many African countries along with associated benefits of a higher standard of living.
national broadband infrastructure and its capabilities represents a down payment in the future of their citizens. Failure to do so means the very real risk of lagging permanently behind developed countries within the interconnected global economy. SEACOM recognizes this imperative and has embarked on a journey to not only turn up the first submarine cable in 2009 to connect South Africa and East Africa to the rest of the world, but to maintain pace with subsequent growth by upgrading their network from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s technology today, and 100 Gb/s tomorrow.
Brian Lavallée is the Director responsible for Global Networks Solutions at Ciena Arunachalam Kandasamy is Head of Network Operations at SEACOM
Governments around the world understand that investing in their
‘Onwards
and Eastwards’ E-marine mD & CEO Highlights The Challenges and ambitions Of Hosting The Next SubOptic
Omar Jassim Bin Kalban
With over 700 delegates, and four days of indepth and insightful industry discussions and networking opportunities, SubOptic 2013 was one of the most successful events in its 27 year history. So as this prestigious event moves East, from Paris to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), E-marine has a major challenge ahead to make it as good, if not better, than the last event.
As the Middle East’s principal provider of submarine cable solutions, it is an honour to be awarded the privilege of hosting the next edition of this outstanding event. As an organisation that has helped to pioneer the development of the Middle East’s subsea cable infrastructure, we are excited to bring this important global event to the region. E-marine has become part of the growth engine that helps to facilitate the communications infrastructure in the Middle East and beyond and makes a major contribution to the advancement of the region –stretching from India and Iraq to Egypt and Tanzania.
The company was born out of a need to serve the region, from the region, and has over 25 years of subsea cable experience in the Middle East. During
this time E-marine has laid some of the first communication cables to the United Arab Emirates, connecting it together with neighboring countries. The Arabian peninsula has been a critical location in the progress of submarine telegraphy between the East and the West, since the end of the 19th century and more recently, the Middle East region has seen an influx in the construction and announcement of new submarine cable systems and competing terrestrial systems, along with the total demand for international
capacity from the Gulf countries, which is showing significant growth.
So the arrival of SubOptic to Dubai in 2016 will be during what is a critical and exciting time, against a backdrop of significant growth in capacity that is expected to take place over the coming years.
The appetite for businesses and consumers for new services and applications, particularly mobile broadband growth, continues to drive
cable initiatives to expand connectivity and capacity, and the pace of change continues to accelerate.
And as with any rapidly changing industry, it is critical for the industry and the companies that form part of it to be aware of, and prepared for, fluctuating business drivers that can impact our organisations’. SubOptic Dubai will enable us to not only celebrate and consider the state of industry today and the role it has played throughout history, but enable us to look forward to its commercial and technological future with the best experts the industry has to offer.
As hosts we are thrilled that the SubOptic Committee is entrusting E-marine to host the event outside of Europe, Japan or the United States for its 30th anniversary. Much like our rapidly changing industry, Dubai has also changed beyond belief since the first SubOptic event back in 1986, when it was a very different place to what it is today. From its humble beginning as a pearl diving centre to one of the world’s fastest growing cities on earth, Dubai has earned itself the reputation as ‘the gateway between the east and the west’. As someone who has personally witnessed this rapid change I look forward to welcoming delegates to experience our wonderful city that,
despite being modern, manages to hold on to its cultural heritage.
The strategic location of the UAE and Dubai is fitting, not only because of its excellent flight connections and a world renowned hospitality industry but, with many subsea cables running through the region, this too makes it the ideal place to discuss and promote the submarine cable industry.
We have the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest mall, and world’s biggest aquarium, among many other record breaking achievements; so it is only right that we should welcome the world’s largest conference in the
submarine cable industry. From the timeless tranquility of the desert to the lively bustle of the souk, Dubai offers a kaleidoscope of attractions. It is also a major international business hub with excellent infrastructure. The city has also established itself as a leading conference and exhibitions destination and we have already begun working searching for the best deals, at the best venues to match the merit of this event.
The event programme will be generated over the next year, and will
have a strong focus on the future of the industry. We will work closely with the Programme Chair and Executive Committee to develop one of the most exciting and engaging progammes to date.
We are confident that that Dubai will offer the perfect platform for the ninth edition of SubOptic on its 30th anniversary.
Omar Jassim Bin Kalban is Managing Director and CEO of E-marine, the principal provider of submarine cable solutions in the Middle East. He is responsible for leading the company’s operations and driving profitable growth in the region, as well as ensuring a superior customer experience for regional and international customers.He oversees all elements of the business which operates in the Middle East subsea cable region stretching from Sri Lanka in the East, spanning across The Gulf and Red Sea, to South Africa in the West. This also includes E-marine’s cable and storage depots in Hamriyah, UAE and Salalah, Oman and the E-marine fleet of cable ships, remotely operated vehicles and marine facilities, which are considered to be one of the most important support pillars for the regional digital infrastructure. He began his career as a graduate trainee with Etisalat-UAE in the 1980s after graduating from North-Eastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Omar was appointed as CEO of E-marine in 1998 to create, develop and grow a stand-alone unit for subsea cables and services at regional and international levels.
Trends In african International Capacity Purchasing
mike Last
An increasing number of reports are highlighting the strengthening presence of Africa on the world’s economic stage and the steep growth curves exhibited by many economies in the world’s second largest continent. The Economist, for example, reported1 that for the period 2001 to 2010, six of the ten fastest growing global economies were in Africa. Analysts anticipate an overall increase in GDP of between 5 and 7 per cent across the continent as a whole this year, and it is predicted that for the period 2011 to 2015, no less than seven of the ten fastest growing economies in the world will be in Africa - raising the continent’s profile in the global marketplace still higher.
Improved ICT infrastructure, and particularly the recent advances in international connectivity, is playing a critical role in this economic growth. Meanwhile, business and domestic customers in Africa are displaying a seemingly insatiable appetite for the reliable, high-performance services enabled by the diversity-rich, highcapacity bandwidth becoming available through the integration of new submarine cables with enhanced terrestrial networks.
A combination of improved internet access and the increasing affordability of high-specification mobile handsets have contributed to the phenomenal growth of mobile, internet and data services over the past few years, and these are playing a pivotal role in Africa’s economic expansion.
According to the World Bank2, Africa’s mobile phone market has expanded rapidly from around 50 million subscribers in 2003 to approximately 650 million at the end of 2012 – making it larger than both the European Union and the United States. At the same
time, Internet bandwidth has grown enormously as hundreds of thousands of kilometres of new fibre-optic cables have been laid across the continent and millions of dollars have been invested in new mobile technologies to serve an increasing number of its 1 billion citizens. Mobile penetration across the continent now exceeds 60%, compared to approximately 85% globally, and this is up from around 20% just seven years ago3. Mobile penetration in subSaharan Africa is expected to reach 75% by 2016.
Growth in internet usage in Africa has also been staggering, from 4.5 million users at the start of the century to more than 167 million at the end of 20124. Unlike most other parts of the world, the relatively high cost (compared to average income) of PC ownership and the limited availability of fixedline infrastructure in Africa have resulted in the majority of this growth coming from mobile internet. In South Africa, for example, more than 90% of broadband internet is delivered over mobile devices and in Kenya more than 98% of internet access is over the mobile infrastructure.
2. ICT’s delivering home-grown development solutions in Africa (World Development Bank, December 2012 - http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNI CATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/0,,contentMDK:23325885 ~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282823,00. html
3. http://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/africamobileobservatory2011-1.pdf
4. Internet World Stats, January 2013, Miniwatts Marketing Group - http:// www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm
These transformational changes, which are radically improving how businesses in Africa operate and positively impacting the way many Africans go about their daily lives, have only been possible with the dramatic advances made in the availability, reach, reliability, capacity and diversity of international submarine and terrestrial fibre connectivity into, within and out of Africa.
From availability and price to diversity and quality
The explosive growth in Africa’s international connectivity has led to some radical shifts in the decisionmaking thinking being applied to purchasing international capacity into and out of Africa.
Historically, the only consideration for carriers looking to purchase international connectivity into and out of Africa was, purely and simply, its Availability – was there an international submarine cable to which they could connect? If not, then expensive satellite connectivity was the only option. At the beginning of 2009, only two international cables served sub-Saharan
Africa: SAT3/SAFE, connecting a number of countries across western and southern Africa; and Atlantis-2, linking Senegal and Cape Verde to South America and Europe. Most international links used expensive, low capacity satellite circuits, with the high costs severely restricting internet uptake and inhibiting rollout of broadband services.
However, since 2009, nine new cables have come on stream – Main One, Glo1, WACS (West Africa Cable System)
and ACE (African Coast to Europe) serving the west African region; and on the east coast Seacom, TEAMS (The East African Marine System), LION2 (Lower Indian Ocean Network), SEAS (Seychelles East Africa System) and EASSy (East African Submarine System) – bringing the total design capacity of international submarine cables into and out of sub-Saharan Africa to more than 22Tbps.
Terrestrial networks improving too
As new submarine cables were landed, this strengthened the business case for improving the reach, reliability and capacity of terrestrial fibre networks within Africa.
Between 1995 and 2005, US$25 billion was invested in the ICT sector in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly by
Africa’s total inventory of terrestrial transmission networks had surpassed 785,500 kms - laid end-to-end, that is enough network infrastructure to wrap around the earth more than 19 times. This compares to 702,295 kms in Jan 2012, 660,230 kms in June 2011, 585,468 kms in June 2010 and 465,659 kms in June 2009. Of the total inventory, 438,838 km is fibre-optic network – representing the vast majority of
decision for international submarine cable capacity into Africa. As wholesale prices fell, operators were able to purchase more capacity to meet the ever-growing demands of their customers.
With increasing availability and falling costs of high-speed international connectivity into Africa, domestic and business end-users have become
private operators and investors. This investment resulted in a rapid expansion of communication networks, and by 2006 more than half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa was living under a mobile footprint. In some African countries, such as Kenya and Malawi, almost the entire population is now within range of a mobile network.
This investment is ongoing; according to Hamilton Research5 by Q1 2013
5. Africa Bandwidth Maps - http://www.africabandwidth-
new deployments. Over the last 12 months, an average of >115 kms of new fibre network entered service per day and there will soon be continuous interconnected terrestrial fibre network running from Cape Town to Cairo.
Equally importantly, the new cables have also encouraged a competitive market for capacity sales. As a result, Price increasingly became the key consideration in the purchasing maps.com
increasingly dependent upon the high-performance services on offer and the opportunities they create. From improved business efficiency and productivity, through to accessing music and video streaming, online gaming and popular social networking applications such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, customers now want, expect and demand access to these internet-enabled functions 24x7x365.
This evolution in end-user expectations heralded a further change in international capacity buying behaviour. The leading ISPs, telcos and carriers started to place greater emphasis on securing network Diversity to reduce the impact of individual cable cuts and other service-affecting disruptions, so that they could deliver the high-quality services increasingly demanded by their customers.
In the most competitive markets, the discussion is no longer simply about whether or not to invest in diversity, it is now about having sufficient diversity – truly redundant capacity on multiple cables. In such competitive environments, a key consideration for carriers, national operators and ISPs is to provide their customers with the highest quality of service as excessive downtime risks an exodus of customers to ‘more reliable’ competitors. This means ensuring they have sufficient capacity and enough diversity across the right networks – i.e. those that will best serve them and their customers in terms of service continuity, network resilience and network management.
further, with the focus increasingly shifting from simple diversity to securing a High-quality network. Here, quality encompasses many different aspects of the overall international capacity offering: how well protected and reliable the primary network route is, the ability to deliver alternative routes to avoid network bottlenecks; how quickly and efficiently traffic can be re-routed when a service interruption does occur, and the costs associated with this; levels of support; responsiveness to changing requirements; and the desire to create long-term partnerships.
Opportunity Africa
For Africa as a whole, continued expansion of the ICT industry is a critical enabler for growth - attracting foreign investment and financing, creating opportunity and employment, generating income and improving lives. It will also continue to be one of the key factors in the ongoing emergence of a larger and more influential African middle-class.
growth in the use of data-rich personal and business applications – is making the African continent a place of genuine and significant opportunity.
Whilst the wave of new submarine cable deployments to connect up Africa has largely subsided, local cable builds, large-scale capacity purchases and upgrades will ensure that the competitive market for international bandwidth continues. With telcos and ISPs keen to take advantage of the opportunities presented by developments in Africa, buying behaviours will continue to evolve in the market for international connectivity into, within and out of Africa.
Mike Last Director, Marketing & International Business Development at WIOCC
As a result, purchasing in the international African capacity market has recently begun to evolve a step
For African and international telcos and ISPs, a powerful combination of factors – including the explosion in mobile broadband uptake and huge
Back Reflection
by Stewart ash
Other Atlantic Telegraph Cables
Aficionados of the history of our industry will probably be familiar with the famous story of the Atlantic Telegraph. This traditionally covers the period from the initial attempts in 1857-58 to the finally successful 1865 and 1866 cables. However, this was by no means the end of the story.
In 1866, the two working transatlantic telegraph cables were owned and operated by the Anglo-American Telegraph company, which had bought out the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company in 1864. It had a working relationship with the Atlantic Telegraph Company up until the two companies merged in 1873. For a few years they enjoyed a monopoly over trans-Atlantic telegraphy and with it a virtual license to print money.
In France, thoughts quickly turned to direct communication with the USA.
Frédéric Emile Baron d’Erlanger (18321911) and Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (1816-99), backed by British finance, launched a new company, the French Atlantic Telegraph Company (La Société du Câble Translantique Française), in 1869. This company laid a cable between Brest and St Pierre (a French territory off of Newfoundland), with an extension to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This cable was manufactured and installed by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon).
In 1873, the French Company was absorbed by Anglo-American. At the time of the take-over, the French Company already had another transAtlantic cable on order from Telcon, it was intended for Brest to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Anglo-American diverted this
to a Hearts Content to Valentia cable, and Telcon laid it in 1873. This left a residue from the original order of approximately 1,000nm of cable and so a further order for 976nm was placed with Telcon and a new NewfoundlandValentia cable was laid in 1874.
In 1873, John Pender (1816-96), with significant support from Siemens Brothers set up The Direct United States Cable Company with the intention of directly linking the UK and the USA. However, it soon became clear that, with the available technology, the transmission speed would be too slow to compete with existing cables and so the direct route was abandoned. An intermediate landing was essential and so, in 1874, the Faraday, on its maiden voyage, laid the cable from Rye Beach, USA to Tor Bay, Nova Scotia and on to Ballinskelligs in Ireland. John
Pender and William Siemens had a significant financial investment in this company, which was originally intended to compete with the AngloAmerican group, of which Pender was then the chairman. However, as the direct route proved impractical, the Direct Company very quickly came to a revenue sharing arrangement with Anglo.
In 1879, a French financier, Monsieur Augustin Thomas Pouyer-Quertier (1820-91), was behind the formation
of La Compagnie Française due Télégraphe de Paris à New York. A trans-Atlantic cable was ordered from Siemens Brothers and was laid between Brest and St Pierre with extensions from St Pierre to Cape Cod and Brest to Cornwall. The company came to be known as the P-Q Company, after its founder. Shortly after the cable went into commercial service, P-Q negotiated a commercial arrangement with AngloAmerican. Their agreement was for the pooling of all earnings, the income from the pool to be divided in proportion
to the respective contributions. This was similar to the deal agreed with the Direct Company earlier.
In 1881, Jason “Jay” Gould (18361892) set up the American Telegraph and Cable Company that installed a Siemens Brothers manufactured, transAtlantic cable between Nova Scotia and Sennen Cove in Cornwall. A second Siemens Brothers trans-Atlantic cable was laid for the company in 1882. The Western Union Telegraph Company was the pioneer of land telegraphy in the USA and it entered submarine telegraphy when it acquired a majority share-holding in the International Ocean Telegraph Company, in 1873. In 1881, Western Union entered the transAtlantic cable market when it made an agreement to lease the American Telegraph and Cable Company’s cables. Weston Union very quickly established a close working relationship with Anglo-American, a co-operation which was destined to survive for some decades.
By 1882, there were four companies operating telegraph cables across the Atlantic but, because of the agreements in place between them, they were all effectively under the control of AngloAmerican and Western Union. This
meant that there was no competition and consequently pricing was high and very similar, on all routes
On 28th September 1883, a copartnership was entered into between John William Mackay (1831-1902), an American mining magnate, born in Dublin, who had made his fortune in Gold and Silver mines; first in California and then Nevada; James Gordon Bennett (1841-1918), proprietor of the New York Herald, and Arthur Edmund Denis Dillon (1812-92), 16th Viscount of Costello Gallen, in County
Mayo, Ireland. On 3rd November 1883, the partners accepted a proposal from Siemens Brothers for two transAtlantic cables. On the 10th December 1883, the Commercial Cable Company (CCC) was incorporated in New York, and took over the rights of the Siemens Brothers contracts. A new and significant player had entered the arena. As a newspaper owner, Bennett recognized the importance of telegraph in obtaining news from Europe and was perturbed by the high cost of obtaining it over the existing
cables. Consequently, the CCC was set up with the duel intention of providing the Herald with preferential rates and to compete with the Anglo-American, Western Union cartel. The main links were from Waterville to Nova Scotia, with an extension on the American side to New York and on the European side, extensions to Weston-super-Mare and Le Havre. The main trans-oceanic cables opened for traffic on Christmas Eve 1884 with the extensions being in place by 1885. The aggressive pricing of the CCC immediately captured a lot of traffic from the incumbent carriers. This initial success was to start a price war that would rage for several years. But that is another story, and for that you will have to wait until the next edition.
where
it’s never been done before
Conferences
ICPC
21-23 May 2013
Miami, USA
Website
Submarine Networks Africa 27-30 May 2013
Johannesburg, South Africa Website
Submarine Networks World 10-12 September 2013
Singapore Website
Submarine Cable Forum 4-5 November 2013
Miami, USA
Website
Issue Themes:
January: Global Outlook
March: Finance & Legal
May: Subsea Capacity
July: Regional Systems
September: Offshore Energy
November: System Upgrades
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by Kevin G. Summers
So, did you enjoy SubOptic in Paris?
I hear that the food and wine in that part of the world are passably good and the scenery is pleasent. They even say that the language is fairly romantic. I also heard that SubOptic was spectacular. I wish I could have been there, but lucky for me, I was able to keep tabs on the conference thanks to STF-Today.
That's right, SubTel Forum had people on the ground at SubOptic. They were blogging live from various sessions, interviewing panelists and ending each day with a recap of that day's news and events. I almost felt like I was there, except for the Châteauneuf-du-Pape. I was able to check our site every morning and learn about the highlights of the previous day.
Did you use STF-Today? What did you think? Do you have any suggestions
that could improve the service for future conferences? As always, we at SubTel Forum want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. I also want to thank Stephen Jarvis and Kacy Nielsen, whithout whom our SubOptic coverage would not have been possible.
Thanks for reading, and we'll see you in July with our next issue.
