an international forum for the expression of ideas and ... 11.pdf · 2004-04-01 · an...

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Issue 11November 2003

An international forum forthe expression of ideas andopinions pertaining to the

submarine telecoms industry

Second

Anniversary

Issue

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Contents

Advertisers

Editor’s Exordium 3

Emails to the Editor 4

NewsNowA brief synopsis of current news items 5

Maintenance News 8

SubOptic goes from strength to strengthJohn Horne 11

New life discovered in the CaribbeanJulian Rawle 14

Reliability by designIn practice and in the fieldDr Barbara Dean and Dr Jeff Gardner 20

A unique eventThe PTC 2004: New Times - New StrategiesRichard Nickelson 27

Those other submarine utilitiesBill Wall 31

It’s not all a bed of rosesScott Griffith 35

Tracking the Cableships 38

Letter to a FriendJean Devos 41

Upcoming Conferences 42

C&W GOES 5,6,40OFS 7Global Marine 8,9,10SubOptic 2004 13Great Eastern 19Tyco Telecommunications 24STF Reprints 25PTC 2004 26Fugro 29CTC 30Lloyds Register 30Caldwell Marine 32STF Marketplace 34Nexans 37 WFN Strategies 40

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ExordiumExordiumExordiumExordiumExordiumSubmarine Telecoms Forum is published quarterly by WFNStrategies, L.L.C. The publication may not be reproducedor transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without thepermission of the publishers. Liability: while every care istaken in preparation of this publication, the publisherscannot be held responsible for the accuracy of theinformation herein, or any errors which may occur inadvertising or editorial content, or any consequence arisingfrom any errors or omissions.

Submarine Telecoms Forum is an independentcommercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forumfor professionals in industries connected with submarineoptical fibre technologies and techniques. The publishercannot be held responsible for any views expressed bycontributors, and the editor reserves the right to edit anyadvertising or editorial material submitted for publication.

© WFN Strategies L.L.C., 2003

Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to theManaging Editor: Wayne F. Nielsen, WFN Strategies,19471 Youngs Cliff Road, Suite 100, Potomac Falls,Virginia 20165, USA.Tel: +[1] 703 444-2527, Fax:+[1] 703 444-3047.Email: [email protected]

General AdvertisingTel: +[1] 703 444 2527Email: [email protected]

Advertising - Europe/ME/Africa - Hildegard PeltierTel: +[33] 1 47 82 61 74Email: [email protected]

Designed and produced by Ted BreezeBJ Marketing Communications, Colchester, UK..

November’s issue marks the second anniversary of Submarine Telecoms Forum, and

what a ride it has been, not only for us your humble editors, but the industry

as a whole.

In our first issue, we set out a few principles, which we have tried to hold

firm.

Submarine Telecoms Forum was dedicated to providing an international medium

for the communication of ideas and opinions pertaining to the dynamics and

technologies of the submarine telecom industry. We envisioned Submarine Telecoms

Forum as being a platform for discourse on submarine telecom cable and network

operations where industry professionals can provide guest commentary and

information on system and service provision.

We promised then, and continue to promise 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.

It’s not a perfect medium, and we have surely made our share of mistakes, but

we hope in the long run that we have supported our industry in a small way

through some rather troubling times. We do appreciate that such times are not

entirely behind us, and that we must continue to fight the good fight.

And in a year from now when we are all sitting around fat and

happy, we can look back at these times with some amusement, and

congratulate ourselves for our prowess and fortitude - at least

let’s hope we can.

Bon appetit

Wayne

mailto:[email protected]



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Emails to the Editor

....................................

Thanks and great issue! Goodstuff.

Sara L. PrattTyco Telecommunications

I just saw, yet again, anothergreat issue.

Elaine StaffordThe David Ross Group

Excellent magazine, which I haveused a lot to research somethingI am doing at present.

Coming back into the industryafter a long break, it surprisesme that one area that you and therest of the industry have coveredin parts but not as a whole isbusiness continuity. Whilst itis a well-developed tool for onland networks, it seems relativelynew to sub cables, although itshould not be as we roughly usedthe principles years ago. I haveonly found one reference to itand wonder if you should run an

Thank you for producing yet anotherinteresting and thought provokingissue of Submarine Telecoms Forum.It is a crucial link in keepinginformation flowing in a highlydisrupted environment.

My attention was drawn particularlyby the list of round table subjectslisted in the SubOptic survey,which showed cable-laying analysisat the head of the list. This haslong been a subject of interestto me, and one in which I haveparticipated and attempted toimprove over a number of years.If you have any further informationfrom the survey regarding thenature and level of the interestin this subject it would be usefulto me in considering future waysto address the issues to assistin meeting industry performanceobjectives.

Alan JordanSpectral Solutions Limited

[While we don’t have furtherindustry survey details about thesubject, one can make directcontact with the secretary to theSubOptic Executive Committee, JohnHorne, at [email protected], whowould welcome all good ideas.]

article on it sometime in thefuture, as it fits with some recentarticles you have done aboutgetting better use and availabilityfrom existing assets.

This seems particularly relevantto your readers when largeorganisations such as ACMA seemto be moving towards justpenalising suppliers for failure,instead of running a balancedscorecard, which can reward orpenalise in direct relationshipto the way in which they improveor worsen the fortunes of theircustomers.

I guess the other area of concernI have found in the example I havebeen looking at is that, whilstplanners may do an availabilityand contingency management studyprior to implementation, these maynot be monitored regularly toassess whether in practice changesand upgrades need to be made.

John PockettPockettbook Associates Ltd

....................................


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A brief synopsis of current news itemsfrom NewsNow, the weekly news feedavailable on the Submarine TelecomsForum website.

From business case to operation, from satellite networks to submarine, from Alaska to Bahrain to New Zealand

Asia Netcom Migrates Indonesian ISPsTrafficAsia Netcom has announced that PT DyviacomIntrabumi has completed migration of its Internetconnection to Asia Netcom’s global IP network.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/21_september_2003.htm

Carrier Survey Indicates SpendingUpswingTelecom carrier responses to KMI’s 2003 OpticalNetworking Equipment Survey indicate that carri-ers plan on increasing their optical-networkingequipment spending in 2004 and beyond.


Demand for submarine cable rising inCaribbean and Latin American countriesThere is already a requirement for new submarinecapacity within the Caribbean region and a lack ofcapacity designed to handle intra-regional LatinAmerican traffic, say Pioneer Consulting.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/26_october_2003.htm

Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia Unitsto CollaborateInternational Carrier Sales and Solutions, andTelecom Italia Sparkle SpA, a subsidiary of TelecomItalia SpA, have agreed to collaborate.


FLAG Telecom Sold to Indian CompanyFLAG Telecom Group Limited has entered into anAgreement with Reliance Gateway Net Private Lim-ited, a subsidiary of Reliance Infocomm Limited.Reliance Gateway will acquire 100% of the compa-ny’s common shares on a fully diluted basis for anaggregate purchase price of $207 million.


France Telecom Expands in PacificFrance Telecom has opened a point of presence atEquinix’s Singapore Internet Business Exchange toimprove connectivity for carriers and ISPs in Asia-Pacific and for customers on its global network.


http://www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/21_september_2003.htm



http://www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/26_october_2003.htm



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Global Crossing Announces First Trans-European 10 GigE ConnectionGlobal Crossing is supporting the first trans-Euro-pean 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection between theDutch national research network (SURFnet) in andthe European Organization for Nuclear Research.

www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/2_november_2003.htm

Level 3 Announces New ServicesLevel 3 Communications, Inc. has announced thatit has leveraged its award-winning ONTAP(SM)system to launch a new wholesale private line serv-ice in the U.S. and Europe.


North American Telecom MarketShowed Continued StabilityAccording to RHK, the North American telecom mar-ket continued to show stability in the third quarter of2003, with revenue 2% over the second quarter.


Singapore Technologies, Global CrossingDeal Approved by FCCGlobal Crossing and Singapore TechnologiesTelemedia have announced that the Federal Com-munications Commission has approved Global‘sapplication for transfer of control to ST Telemedia.


Sri Lanka allows SEA-ME-WE-3 purchasePursuant to the investigation by the Telecoms Regu-latory Commission of Sri Lanka all operators per-mitted their own international transmission infra-structure could now purchase IRUs in the cable ca-pacity of the SEA-ME-WE-3.


SWIFT Picks Sprint for IPLsSprint has renewed its 10-year relationship withSWIFT, the cooperative providing secure messagingservices for 7,500 financial institutions worldwide.


Trans-Tasman IP VPN Service LaunchedTelstra and TelstraClear have launched a joint InternetProtocol Virtual Private Network service, Trans-Tasman IP, between Australia and New Zealand.




http://www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/2_november_2003.htm





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OFS innovates today’s major submarinenetworks with fibers that support longerdistances and higher capacities than everbefore. The results? Lower system costsand unrivaled performance.

OFS has the optical fiber to support allyour emerging system design needs –

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To unleash your system’s fullcapabilities while keeping yourcosts competitive, choose OFSfiber for your next submarinecable project.

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MAINTENANCE NEWSMAINTENANCE NEWSAlcatel Adds DWDM Platforms for Long-Haul, Unrepeatered NetworkAlcatel has reinforced its family of dense wavelengthdivision multiplexing (DWDM) products with the in-troduction of the Alcatel 1626 Light Manager, a newcore DWDM platform.


Alcatel Completes Portugal DomesticSystemAlcatel and PT Comunicações — a subsidiary ofthe Portugal Telecom Group, the largest telecom-munications and multimedia business organizationin Portugal – have announced that a new opticalundersea cable network, named CAM Ring, hasentered service.


ALSTOM Sells ROV UnitALSTOM has sold its Robotics business located inDavis, California in a management buyout.


Dutch Sea Cable in Wind Farm ProjectTwelve km off the east coast of Ireland, Dutch SeaCable is taking part in the construction of a pilotwind farm on the Arklow Bank.


East African Leaders Support EASCSEast African leaders are touting the recently pro-posed East African Submarine Cable System as akey to economic development in the region.


First Cable for East Africa AnnouncedA consortium of Southern and East Africa carriersplan to build a system from South Africa to Djibouti.


FOG Cable RepairedThe damaged FOG cable that has slowed BahrainInternet browsing speeds for the past few weekshas been fixed, announced Batelco head of corpo-rate affairs, Ahmed Al Janahi.


Global Marine Launches JADEGlobal Marine has announced a revolutionary tech-nology to improve the quality of cable jointing.










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MAINTENANCE NEWSMAINTENANCE NEWSMore Cable Ships Use Makai OceanEngineering’s Monitoring SoftwareMakai Ocean Engineering Inc. reports that a numberof cable ships have now added the company’sMakaiLay At-Sea Cable Lay Monitoring Systemsoftware.


NAZ Picks Tyco to Survey Cables inCalifornia WatersThe North America Zone (NAZ) MaintenanceAgreement has recently announced that it has se-lected Tyco Telecommunications to conduct under-sea survey and inspections of two submarine tel-ecommunications cable systems off the Californiacoast.


Nexans Straps Cable to Pipeline forInnovative Placement SolutionNexans of Norway recently supplied a URC-1 DA2cable with 96 cores G655 to the Dutch installer Jande Nul, now Boskalis, for one of the segments forthe PGN project in Indonesia.


Parkburn Precision Handling ReceivesMajor Cable Handling Order From E-MarineParkburn PHS recently announced the award of aContract from Emirates Telecommunications &Marine Services FZE (e-marine) of the United ArabEmirates for an 18 Wheel pair AC Drive LinearCable Engine (LCE) and Emergency Cable Brake.


Pirelli To Supply Submarine Fiber-OpticCable To Link Kuwait And IranEmirates Telecommunications & Marine ServicesFZE (e-marine) in the United Arab Emirates hasawarded Pirelli the contract for supplying subma-rine and land fiber-optic cables, terminal transmis-sion equipment, and accessories for a prestigiousproject which will link Kuwait City with Ganeveh inthe Iran.


Polar Network Moves ForwardPolarnet is an ambitious submarine cable projectthat will link Europe, the United States and the Pa-cific Rim with a cable running along Russia’s ArcticCoast.








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MAINTENANCE NEWSMAINTENANCE NEWSRPS GROUP Acquires HydrosearchRPS, Europe’s leading environmental consul-tancy, announced the acquisition of HydrosearchAssociates Ltd, a significant provider of geologi-cal and other environmental services to the en-ergy sector.


SEA-ME-WE-3 BU to Be Repaired inOctoberPakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd.(PTCL) reports that submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-3 will be out of service from 05-15th October2003 due to the replacement and repair of faultybranching unit (BU) on Segment 5 in the IndianOcean.


SMD Set To Acquire Ongoing Business OfHydrovisionIn a joint press release issued recently by SoilMachine Dynamics and Hydrovision it was con-firmed that Heads of Agreement have beensigned for SMD to acquire the ongoingHydrovision business subject to the usual dili-gence and contract.


SMD Completes The Acquisition OfHydrovision’s Ongoing BusinessIn a recent press release, John Reece, MD of SMD,confirmed that SMD has completed the acquisitionof the ongoing business of Hydrovision.


Tyco to Sell TGNTyco International Ltd. intends to sell the Tyco Glo-bal Network (TGN), its undersea fiber optic telecom-munications network, as well as to exit more than50 other businesses.


WFN Strategies Establishes StrategicAlliance With KW Tunnell FederalServices GroupWFN Strategies recently announced the establish-ment of a strategic alliance with the K.W. TunnellFederal Services Group of Springfield, Virginia forthe joint marketing of submarine cable managementservices to the US government.








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With the launch of the PreliminaryProgramme for SubOptic 2004, the planningfor this event, the principle InternationalConvention for the Subsea Communicationsindustry goes from - Strength to Strength.

SubOptic 2004, which will be held inMonaco, from 29 March to 1 April 2004, will

Why so? I can already hear the cynical ones amongst yousay this man is clearly on something?

Well what is the evidence?At the end of August the SubOptic ProgrammeCommittee were inundated with well over 200abstracts for papers to be submitted at Monaco.This number was almost identical with thenumber submitted for Kyoto, which attracted anaudience of nearly 1200 attendees.

These abstracts covered a diverse range oftopics and came from well over 60 organisations.So there is an industry out there who havesurvived or are new entrants and are interestedin telling their message to others in thecommunity.

The Programme Committee after reviewingthese abstracts, a task supported by over 60referees - another sign of the strength of ourcommunity - have decided upon a programmeof 60 oral presentations in 12 sessions and onelonger sessionof 100 poster presentations.

These sessions will cover topic areas suchas Market Place, Business and Commercial,Network Architecture and Design, Equipmentand Component Technologies, Cable Design andMarine Operation, and Network Operation andService Level.

Our aim at the start was to try to strengthenthe programme in the Market and Business/Commercial areas and I am pleased to say that

SUBOPTIC 2004 goes fromstrength to strength

clearly be the “must attend” Convention of ourindustry.

Despite the dramatic downturn theindustry has experienced since Kyoto in 2001, itis becoming clear that Monaco will be a success.This will help to give the industry the launchpadoccasion it so clearly has been looking for.

by John Horne

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our target of achieving about 1/3 of thepresentations in these areas has been achieved.

In support of these presentations the PChave also prepared a range of Tutorial and ShortCourse presentations. These cover 12 areas asdiverse as Financing and Business Casepreparation at one end to Fibre Non-linearity atthe other. So all requirements will be catered for.

What about the Keynote Speakers andRoundtable Sessions? Well these have not been

overlooked. We have invited an impressive rangeof Keynote Speakers who will give the audiencesomething to think and talk about. These includeSerge Tchuruk, Chairman and CEO of Alcatel andPhil Metcalf CEO of Global Marine who havealready accepted. We will keep you updated aswe receive the acceptances from the others.

Two Roundtable Sessions have beenorganised and in another first for SubOptic,individuals still working in the heart of ourindustry will moderate these. The first to discussthe “Future Shape and Size of the Industry” withan operator/carrier/financial perspective will bechaired by Leigh Frame (Alcatel). We have invitedBrian Rousell (WCI) to chair the second to discuss“How to ensure competitive supply” from amanufacturing/services perspective.

So that’s the outline of the formalprogramme. The opportunities to socialise,network and discuss what has been presentedhave not however been overlooked.

The Convention will be supported by anExhibition, which has already attracted, at thetime of writing, nearly 50 booths and by a widerange of sponsors. Another sign of the strengthof the industry, supporting SubOptic 2004.

As another innovative feature, SubOptic isalso launching a Market Corner initiative. Thisis aimed at small organisations or new entrantsto the industry who want to promote themselvesin the Exhibition Hall, but without the expenseof taking a conventional booth.

So there you have it, at this stage SubOptic2004 has already attracted:

As many abstracts as Kyoto, which had1200 attendeesA programme that is as rich and morevaried than Kyoto and will be supportedby Keynote Speakers and Roundtablesyou will not wish to miss.An attendance base which is larger atthis time than at a similar time for KyotoAn Exhibition Hall representative of ourindustry.Unparalleled networking opportunitiesprovided by our sponsorship and socialprogramme.

So that’s the evidence that makes me saythat SubOptic 2004 will be a success in achievingour objective, which quoting from ourConstitution is: “To promote the interests of theSubmarine Telecommunications Cablecommunity by exchanging ideas andinformation, educating within the Communityand fostering debate.”

Our website http://www.suboptic.bizprovides all the information you need aboutSubOptic 2004, so it only leaves me to say:

“IF YOU WANT YOURORGANISATION TO PARTICIPATE

IN SHAPING THE FUTURESTRENGTH OF OUR INDUSTRY,

JOIN US IN MONACO”

John Horne has been in-volved with the develop-ment, planning, andimplementation of Sub-marine CommunicationsSystems since 1969. Inthe 1980’s he was re-sponsible for the devel-

opment activity, which supported the introduc-tion of BT’s first optical fibre submarine sys-tems. He later took responsibility for ProjectManaging the major International TransmissionCentres at the heart of BT’s Digital Transmis-sion Network. He left BT in 1996 and has sinceworked as a Consultant. At SubOptic 2001, hewas one of the Vice-Chairmen of the PapersCommittee and took on the role of Secretaryto the SubOptic Executive Committee, the bodythat provides strategic management to theSubOptic series of International Conventions.

http://www.suboptic.biz

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A friend of mine recently said to me, “Youknow, when the telecom market picks up, itwon’t be a ‘turnaround’, it will be an entirelynew and different market.”

Nowhere is this truer than in theCaribbean. For, while the submarine cablemarket itself went into a coma, other driversin the commercial environment, such as freetrade agreements, privatisation, de-regulation,market liberalisation, and broadbandpenetration have continued to operate.

So what is the demand forecast for theCaribbean?

Where are the growth opportunities andhow attractive are they?

The Caribbean MarketThe Caribbean submarine cable market isfragmented.

With the exception of concerted action bythe Organization of Eastern Caribbean States(OECS) to end the monopolies of Cable &Wireless, each Caribbean state generally followsits own telecom development strategy.

As a result, there is a broad range of growthrates for the 21 Caribbean nations included in arecent study by Pioneer Consulting.

Demand for submarine capacity on eachisland is forecast to grow at anywhere between12% and 34% per year.

Most of this growth is coming fromInternet demand.

New life discoveredunder water in theCaribbean Basin

bbbbby Jy Jy Jy Jy Julian Rulian Rulian Rulian Rulian Raaaaawlewlewlewlewle,,,,, Pioneer Consulting Pioneer Consulting Pioneer Consulting Pioneer Consulting Pioneer Consulting

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A ntigua and B arbuda D om inica S aint K itts and N evis S aint L ucia T rinidad and T obago

H igh L ow

L ow

H igh

Internet P enetration

G D P per H ead

A ruba B erm uda

C aym an Islands M artinique P uerto R ico

U S V irgin Islands

B aham as N etherlands A ntilles

B arbados C uba D om inican R ep. G renada G uadeloupe H aiti Jam aica S t. V incent and the G renadines

Of the 21 Caribbean states studied:15 have privatised PTT’s (with Bahamasgoing through the process now).5 have totally open telecom markets.3 maintain state monopolies.13 are in the process of liberalising theirtelecom market.14 retain monopolies on ILD (10 ofwhich are controlled by C&W).

Segmenting The MarketExhibit 1 throws up some interesting

anomalies :

All countries with a relatively low GDPbut relatively high Internet penetrationare served by C&W. Could it be thatmonopolies have a beneficial role toplay in helping people get online ?GDP’s in Bahamas and NetherlandsAntilles are inflated by banking and oilrevenues respectively.Countries in the “Low/Low” categoryrepresent 82% of the Caribbeanpopulation. Of these, 89% live in Cuba,Haiti, or the Dominican Republic. Fora variety of reasons, Internet markets in

Exhibit 1 : Caribbean Internet Market Segmentation

these three countries have notdeveloped as fast as elsewhere.

End of C&W’s monopolyCable & Wireless remains the dominant playerin the Caribbean region, especially in terms ofinternational traffic and submarine connectivity.However, the drive towards free markets hasexposed C&W businesses, traditionally regardedas “cash-cows”, to new competition.

Given the disastrous forays into the globalIP market and cable TV in the UK, Cable &Wireless needs to continue to generate cash fromits Caribbean assets. C&W still holds monopolieson ILD service in a number of Caribbean islands.These monopolies will gradually be broken downbut C&W will maintain a strong presence andoffer stiff competition to any new entrants.Success in competing with C&W in the ILDmarket will depend mainly on price. This meansthat next generation network infrastructure willbe required to provide a cost advantage overC&W’s existing cable assets.

Development of BroadbandThe rate at which Internet users transition fromdial-up to broadband is key to providingopportunities to install new submarine fibreoptic capacity. Broadband take-up in theCaribbean has so far been relatively slow.However, some governments are recognizing theimportance of this technology for the

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development of the economy and a number of“e-initiatives” have been taken. Pioneer forecaststhat 13% of Caribbean Internet users will have abroadband connection by 2013.

Bandwidth Usage and Access SpeedsHow much bandwidth each Internet userrequires to drive their favourite applications andthe amount of bandwidth available in the accessloop are both critical factors in estimatingsatisfiable Internet demand.

Caribbean access infrastructure is clearlyinadequate to support demand for Internetconnectivity (see Exhibit 2). The accessbottleneck is constraining demand growth,limiting it to an average of 30% per year acrossthe region.

This restricts the size of attachments whichcan be sent via e-mail, it sends dynamic webpages into slow motion, and multi-mediaapplications, such as games and musicdownloads, become an exercise in futility.

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

bps

Average Access Speed Average Bandwidth per User

Exhibit 2 : Forecast Caribbean Average Access Speed and Bandwidth per User 2003-2013 Obsolete cablesThere are six relatively modern ultra-long haulcable systems serving the rim of the CaribbeanBasin (see Exhibit 3) but “Americas-2” is the onlyultra-long haul connection available from apoint inside the Caribbean region. Within theCaribbean Basin itself, there are only tworegional submarine cable systems with multiplelanding points.

The Eastern Caribbean Fibre System (ECFS)was commissioned by Cable & Wireless in 1995and has a design capacity which is less than halfof the total estimated demand for Caribbeanregional connectivity today. TCS-1, whichconnects Puerto Rico with the DominicanRepublic, Martinique, and Colombia, was builtin 1990 and has a capacity of only 100 Mbps.Together with “Cayman-Jamaica” (CJFS), theseregional systems are regarded as a compositebackbone connecting the Western Caribbean tothe Eastern Caribbean via Puerto Rico. None ofthese systems has the technology to meet futuredemand either in terms of quality or capacity.

Opportunities in the CaribbeanDemand forecasts indicate that new submarinecable systems will be required in Antigua &Barbuda, Barbados, and Guadeloupe over thenext ten years. High demand growth rates havealso been forecast for Cayman, NetherlandsAntilles, Puerto Rico and USVI. Internet trafficin the Caribbean is driven mainly by demand

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Exhibit 3 : West Caribbean Submarine Cable Systems

To Puerto Rico

CJFS (10 Gbps)

Alonso de Ojeda (15 Gbps)

Antillas-1(3.7 Gbps)TCS-1

(140 Mbps)

To Miami, USA

ARCOS (960 Gbps)

To Puerto Rico

To Florida, USA

ARCOS(960 Gbps)

Emergia(1.92 Tbps)

To Mexico & California, USA

PAC(40 Gbps)

To USVI & Venezuela

Maya-1 (20 Gbps)

ARCOS (960 Gbps)

To Ecuador

Panamerican (20 Gbps)

To PeruSAC (80 Gbps)

To USVIPAC (40 Gbps)

Source : Pioneer Consulting, LLC

for North American content and yet there is nodirect North American submarine cableconnection to Barbados, Dominica, Grenada,Guadeloupe, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia,and St. Vincent & Grenadines (see Exhibit 4).

Privatisation & Market Liberalisation createopportunitiesThe sale of TeleBermuda International, resultingfrom Brasil Telecom’s acquisition of the“360americas” cable system, has causedquestions to be raised about the island’sdependence on a single cable system. A debateis currently raging in the Netherlands Antillesover the privatisation of incumbent Antelecom.A Free Trade Agreement between the UnitedStates & Dominican Republic is expected in 2004.

Cuba has no submarine cable connectivityto the outside world but it has attracted foreigninvestment in its telecom sector from Italy andCanada. If either the Castro regime collapses orthe U.S. government lifts its economic embargo,the significant Cuban population wouldcertainly have an impact on the regional demandprofile.

Similarly, if the political situation in Haitiever stabilizes, there is significant pent updemand from the large population for basicInternet connectivity which cannot currently besatisfied by the existing international satellitelinks.

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40%

6%13%8%

2%

31%

P uerto R ico H aiti D om inican R ep. Jam aica C aym an Islands O ther

Exhibit 4 : Estimated Current Market Share of Demand for North AmericanConnectivity in Leading Caribbean Countries

New Systems ProposedAlready a number of new systems have beenproposed to meet growing demand within theCaribbean. Island Fibre are proposing to build“East Caribbean-1” (EC-1) a repeaterless 6-fibrepair SDH ring connecting Puerto Rico withTrinidad via most of the other East Caribbeanislands. West Indies Network – I, LLC hasproposed an almost identical route for “WIN-1”,a repeaterless 16-fibre SDH ring. Telkom Caribehas proposed a two-phase project for “Calypso-1”, initially connecting Barbados and Trinidadto the South American continent and then

extending north into the East Caribbeanarchipelago. All of these Caribbean networks aredesigned to carry at least 1 terabit of capacity.

The common link between these threeprojects is that none has been able to securefunding. Pioneer’s research suggests that there isindeed a need for new capacity along theproposed routes of these systems but insufficientdemand to support all three.

Bottom LineThe Caribbean region offers a number ofopportunities for investment in telecom

Since joining PioneerConsulting, JulianRawle has brought hisbroad internationalindustry experienceand his knowledge ofthe market to bear onissues facing the

submarine fibre optic industry today. He hascompleted a number of ground-breakingmarket reports, most recently focusing on AsiaPacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, andEastern Mediterranean regions. He has alsoled several projects for major corporate clientssuch as JP Morgan, C2C, Intelsat, andGeneral Dynamics.

Julian has a first degree fromManchester University, U.K. in RussianStudies and a MBA from Cranfield.

After initially pursuing a 10-year careerin the oil industry, Julian spent 4 years asCable & Wireless Representative Director inMoscow, building up a profitable business,based on aggregation of international PSTNtraffic and provision of managed data servicesto multi-nationals. He then accepted a postwith Global Marine as International MarketingDirector, Japan. He assisted Global Marine’sJapanese joint venture partner, NTTWEM, toimplement a new international marketingstrategy.

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infrastructure. However, in keeping with aworldwide trend, the scale of these opportunitiesis far smaller than the global initiatives whichhave dominated the market in the recent past.The business models used to take advantage ofthese opportunities will therefore be different.

Private investors are already making a playin the region but the major constraint is funding.Capital availability has been undermined by aloss of confidence in the telecom sector althoughthere are signs that financiers are becominguncomfortable with the lack of telecominvestment in their portfolios. System Supplierscontinue to fight shy of vendor financing whilethey struggle to realign their balance sheets.

It seems likely that the first source of capitalto come available will be from the major telco’s.C&W has a strong incentive to maintain its cashflow from the region and AT&T has a strongposition, particularly in Puerto Rico, a keyregional hub. America Movil is alsoimplementing a major expansion andacquisition strategy which may encompass theSpanish-speaking part of the Caribbean.

We may therefore see a model similar tothe one used for the “ARCOS” project, consistingof private investors taking the upfront riskbacked by guarantees from the major telco’s forfuture capacity purchases.

Whichever model is used and whatever thescale of development, there is indeed life inthe Caribbean Basin.

http://www.greateasterngroup.com

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Undersea telecommunications systemsrepresent a substantial investment to networkowners. Continuous operation of thesesystems ensures an on-going revenue streamand is a pre-requisite for end customersatisfaction and retention. There arenumerous ways in which the outage risk ofundersea systems can be reduced, includinggeographically diverse cable routes, judiciousarmoring and burial of cable, and advancednetwork protection switching protocols.

After proper route planning and networkarchitecture engineering, one of the most

important factors in minimizing outages isensuring high reliability of the submergedequipment, so that ship repairs are minimized.Ship repairs represent a considerable cost to thenetwork, since recovery and repair of the systemis a lengthy and expensive process during whichthe network owner typically purchasesrestoration capacity, incurring even greaterexpense. The reliability record of a supplier istherefore an important metric which guidescustomers in their choice of system supplier.

Reliability management at TycoTelecommunications is driven by the principle

of Reliability by Design. By this, we mean thatthe reliability impact of all design decisions, fromthe network architecture level to the equipmentcomponent level, is understood in terms ofphysics rather than merely statistics.

Through the use of this Reliability byDesign principle, we have consistently deliveredhighly reliable submerged equipment. Since thebeginning of the 980-nm repeater program in1999, we have installed more than eleventhousand 980-nm amplifier-pairs inapproximately 2,200 repeaters, accumulatingmore than 180 million component service-hours.To date, we have not had a single observedservice-affecting repeater failure or 980-nm laserdiode failure in these repeaters.

Typical Reliability Requirements forUndersea SystemsThe industry metric for the reliability ofsubmerged equipment is the expected numberof ship repairs over a 25 year system life. Thegeneral industry target is fewer than 2 shiprepairs, excluding faults due to externalaggression, for a 7,000-km long system with fourfiber pairs.

To interpret what this target means in termsof submerged equipment reliability, if this 7,000-km system were deployed using a typical networkdesign, each repeater in the network wouldrequire a probability of failure of less than 1%over the life of the system.

Dr. Barbara Dean and Dr. Jeff Gardner

Tyco Telecommunications Laboratories

Reliability byReliability byReliability byReliability byReliability bydesign – indesign – indesign – indesign – indesign – inpractice andpractice andpractice andpractice andpractice andin the fieldin the fieldin the fieldin the fieldin the field

21

Our Reliability PhilosophyReliability management at TycoTelecommunications includes the implemen-tation of Reliability by Design across all aspectsof system supply, including robust networkarchitecture, resilient transmission design, andreliable equipment designs. Network reliabilityrequirements at the highest level are addressedvia network architecture and are cascaded downto transmission design requirements, such as theallocation of sufficient system performancemargins for system aging over life. Wherenecessary, the prudent use of redundancy ofcertain components adds additional reliabilityand removes single points of failure. TycoTelecommunications’ transmission designphilosophy ensures the resiliency of the systemto submerged equipment degradation, includingdegradation of amplifier power due tocomponent failures in the amplifier pump path,without affecting end-to-end transmission. Thisgoal is achieved by operating the repeateramplifiers in significant gain compression, wherethe strength of the transmitted optical signal isnaturally self-regulating. For example, shouldone span in a chain of repeaters experience agreater than expected loss, subsequent amplifiersautomatically compensate by increasing theirgains. In this way, the system performance ismore tolerant to submerged equipmentdegradation.

Tyco Telecommunications’ Repeater DesignA repeater consists of one or more amplifier-pairs— one for each fiber pair in the system —contained within a strong housing of BerylliumCopper which protects the electro-opticalequipment from the undersea environment.Figure 1 shows a simplified diagram of a repeateramplifier-pair. Incoming signals are amplifiedby passing through the coil of erbium-dopedfiber (EDF) which is excited by several pump

lasers. Discrete optical components in theamplifier include combiners and splitters whichcouple the light from the pump lasers togetherand then divide it evenly between the outgoingand incoming paths, and isolators which preventdownstream reflections from interfering withamplifier operation.

With the exception of the pump lasers andtheir associated controller electronics, allcomponents of the amplifier-pair are passive.

Figure 1: Simplified schematic of a Tyco Telecommunications undersea amplifier-pair.

22

This is important, since passive components ingeneral have fewer failure modes and hencelower failure rates than active components. Forcomponents which are directly in thetransmission path, such as the isolator shown inthe figure, demonstration of ultra-high reliabilityis required, since the failure of any of thesecomponents would result in transmission loss.

The reliability of the parts of the amplifierthat depend on active components, such as thepump unit, is dramatically improved by theprudent use of redundancy. Such designs allowfor failure of one or more redundant componentswithout failure of the amplifier. Thus, theamplifier is robust to single failures in the pump

Table 1: Failure rate allocations for repeater components.

unit, so that multiple simultaneous failureswould be needed in order to affect systemperformance. This results in an effective failurerate which may be many orders of magnitudesmaller than the individual component failurerates.

Repeater Reliability BudgetWe have developed a Reliability Budget for theTyco Telecommunications 980-nm repeater,summarized in Table 1.

These allocations include historicalestimates for the passive components gainedthrough more than 15 years of experience indesigning undersea optical repeaters. Here, 1 FIT

Barbara Dean joined Bell Laboratories in theearly 1980s after receiving the Ph.D. inChemical Physics from Ohio State University.At that time, she contributed to thedevelopment and reliability analysis of opticaltransmitters, receivers and passivecomponents for both terrestrial and underseaapplications, authoring several papers on theconcept of functional reliability.

During the introduction of optically-amplified systems, her engineering team wasresponsible for the qualification andcertification strategy for the first-generationundersea pump lasers. In the late 1990’s,Barbara joined the undersea system division(now Tyco Telecommunications) and iscurrently Managing Director, responsible forQuality Management Implementation andReliability Management and assessment.

Component Type Effective FIT Target(95% Confidence)1

Pump Lasers 75Discrete Optical Components 0.1—0.2Splices 0.05Integrated Circuits 0.2Discrete Electronics 0.01—0.2

Total Transmission-Affecting Failure 3.9Rate Allocated for a single Amplifier Pair

Repeater Mechanical Integrity 3

Total Transmission-Affecting Failure Rate 6.9Allocated for a Repeater containing 1 Amplifier Pair

1 Confidence bound of 95% applies where acceleration of the key failure modes is possible.

23

Figure 2: Measured failure rate at 90% confidence as a function of service device hours withoutany observed failures (Chi-Squared Statistical Model).

(Failure in Time) represents one failure in onebillion device operating hours.

As explained above, the pump lasers andtheir associated control electronics are redundantin this design. Because of this, the failure rate ofthe components in the pump unit, especially thepump lasers, may not simply be added to thefailure rates of other components in the repeaterto determine the total failure rate. Rather, pumpfailures must be treated separately to determinethe probability of a given number anddistribution of pump laser failures over systemlife, and thus, the resulting effect on systemperformance. The failure of a single pump laserin any given amplifier-pair would not generallybe cause for a repair. Only in the case of multiplesimultaneous pump laser failures, and then onlyfor certain combinations of failures, would animmediate ship repair be necessary. Thesecombinations include, for example, the loss ofmore than 3 dB of pump power in a singleamplifier-pair, or the loss of 3 dB of pump powerin consecutive amplifier-pairs of a fiber pair in arepeater chain. This robustness to certain classesof failures is a benefit of the self-regulatingtransmission design of these systems.

Verification of Repeater ReliabilityThe philosophy of Reliability by Design dictatesthat, to the extent possible, failure modes inequipment and components be eliminated bythe product design through a detailed

understanding of the underlying device physics.As part of this process, potential failure modesare identified through theory, exploratorytesting, and experience with manufacturing andfield use of similar devices.

We utilize a thorough regimen of testingand surveillance in our product design and

manufacturing processes including: DesignCapability Testing, Design Maturity Testing,Qualification Testing with and withoutAcceleration Models, and on-going surveillanceof component reliability metrics in both thesuppliers’ and our own manufacturing facilities.Perhaps the most direct data on reliability,

24

however, is gained through actual fieldexperience with installed systems.

Field ValidationTyco is a leader in system supply and has more980-nm amplifier-pairs in operation than anyoneelse in the industry. Because of our role as botha leading system supplier and network operator,we are able to monitor reliability directly throughdata from the Tyco Global Network (TGN) as wellas through feedback from our system customers.Thus, we are in a unique position to supplementqualification and manufacturing results withactual field experience.

The large number of devices installed in thefield, combined with continuous use over the longterm, makes it possible to infer component failurerates even though expected rates are extraordinarilylow. For ultra-high reliability components, themost likely result is the observation of zero failuresover a long time period. The translation of this

observation into a failure rate at a given confidencelevel is a well-known statistical problem with anequally well known solution. For the case of 90%confidence, Figure 2 shows a graph of the measuredfailure rate versus the number of elapsed devicehours without an observed failure.

The graph illustrates an important principlein trying to measure the failure rate of ultra- high

Confidence Measured FailureLevel Rate (FITs)

95% 17.2

90% 13.0

60% 5.3

50% 3.9

Table 2: Measured failure rate of 980-nmamplifier-pairs based on field data.

reliability devices. The observation of zero failuresin any finite time period provides an upper boundof the failure rate for a given confidence level. Theonly way that this upper bound can be reduced toapproach the actual failure rate, while maintaininghigh statistical confidence, is by accumulatingmore device hours.

Given a few thousand devices in the field fora few years, one could accumulate a few hundredmillion device hours, which is the time periodnecessary to demonstrate failure rates of 1 FIT orless.

Experience and ResultsTable 2 shows the failure rates for 980-nmamplifier-pairs as measured directly by our fielddata for various levels of statistical confidence.

To date, we have deployed approximately2,200 repeaters based on 980-nm pump lasers fora total of over 11,000 amplifier-pairs in service.Given the approximately 180 million amplifier-

25

pair hours accumulated with zero failuresobserved, we deduce a maximum measuredamplifier-pair failure rate of 17.2 FITs, with 95%confidence. For a 50% confidence level, themeasured failure rate is 3.9 FITs. This result showsthat we are close to demonstrating that ourreliability design target of 3.9 FITs per amplifier-pair has been fully proven in the field.

ConclusionSystem reliability continues to be one of the mostimportant metrics by which customers evaluatepotential system suppliers. At Tyco, we haveaccumulated an outstanding reliability recordover several decades and across numeroustechnology changes by successfully applying theReliability by Design philosophy.

Using this philosophy, we remove potentialfailure modes from our products byimplementing designs that are based upon theknowledge of the failure physics. Rigorousqualification programs combined with on-goingsupplier surveillance ensure consistent reliabilityof components, while continuous analysis offield data for indications of failures helps furtherenhance our knowledge of componentreliability. The result of this philosophy has beenimpressive — to date, there has not been a singlereported traffic-affecting failure of our 980-nmrepeaters.

Our experience and knowledge of systemreliability is continually expanding as our

Jeff Gardner re-ceived Bachelor ofArts and Master ofScience degrees inPhysics in 1986,and a Ph.D inAtomic, Molecular,and Optical Physicsin 1993. His post-

doctoral research centered on using semicon-ductor lasers to create and study ultra-coldatomic samples as well as experimental stud-ies of optical amplifiers. He has co-authored anumber of articles in these and other areas ofinterest to the optics community. His experi-ence carried over to his research at TulaneUniversity, where he was an Assistant Profes-sor of Physics. Jeff joined the Reliability Man-agement group at Tyco TelecommunicationsLaboratories in 2001 as a Distinguished Mem-ber of Technical Staff. His primary focus re-mains on optics, particularly the reliability ofsemiconductor pump lasers used in Tyco Tel-ecommunications’ undersea amplifiers.

systems accrue more and more operating hours.This knowledge will be used to its fullest extentas we consider new technologies, components,and product designs driven by the continuedmarket need for ultra-high reliability, lowcost system solutions.

The following prices are for digital reprintsof editorial pages from SubmarineTelecoms Forum magazine, withoutalteration. Page size is 8-1/4" x 11-3/4"on 28lb paper stock. Shipping cost is inaddition to reprint price.

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New Times- New Strategies:ICT Rising from the Ashes

26th Annual TelecommunicationsConference & Exhibition

11-14 January 2004 • Hilton Hawaiian Village BeachResort & Spa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

New Times - New Strategies, the theme for PTC’04, emphasizes theopportunities that currently exist in the global marketplace for informa-tion and communication technologies (ICTs). While North America andEurope still struggle to reinvigorate their economies, several Asian coun-tries have surged ahead in leadership positions with new technolo-gies. PTC’s annual conference offers a congenial venue to interactwith major players in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference has longbeen the most important event that ties Asia to the Americas and therest of the world.

Seize this golden opportunity to maximize your total participationin PTC’04:• register early and save • exhibit • sponsor • advertise

Please contact Dolores Fung at +1.808.941.3789, email: [email protected] visit the PTC’04 website at www.ptc2004.org for more information.

PTC members enjoy 40% discount on the conference fee. If youare not a PTC member and are interested in joining, please emailJustin Riel at [email protected].

www.ptc2004.org

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27

The Pacific Telecommunications Council(PTC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental membership organization withglobal membership that was founded inHonolulu in 1980 to bring together all thosewho have an interest in telecommunicationsin the vast PacificHemisphere. It serves thedigital information agethrough a major annualconference, regionalseminars, a respectedquarterly magazine and avariety of other activities.

PTC’s annual PacificT e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n sConference in January hasbecome one of the mostimportant regular events heldin Hawaii. Its impact extendsfar beyond the participantswho attend, as it serves tofocus the attention of themajor providers, operators,manufacturers and users of

information-age services in the Pacific on Hawaiias the geographic center and natural meetingplace of the region.

The Council attracts virtually all providersand major users of telecoms and informationsystems and services, as well as manufacturers,

policy-makers, regulators, technologists, lawyers,scientists, academics and others who share aninterest in the development and beneficial useof telecommunications in the region.

The Council prides itself on being a“people-centered” organization. The personal

contacts formed through theCouncil in the amicable andinformal environment of theannual conference and seminarsare a primary benefit of mem-bership. Important business andacademic relationships areestablished. In past years,hundreds of millions of dollarsworth of contracts resulted frommeetings and contacts duringPTC’s annual conference.

In many ways, PTC isunique in the ICTworld. It servesas a focal point and a meetingplace to iron out otherwiseintractable problems and totransact business. In short, PTCis the place to be in the world’s

A UNIQUE EVENTPTC’04 : New Times – New Strategies: ICT Rising from the Ashes

by Richard Nickelson, Senior Advisor, Pacific Telecommunications Council

Hilton Hawaiian Village

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Richard Nickelson re-ceived BEE and MSEE de-grees in electrical engineer-ing from the Georgia Insti-tute of Technology and has40 years of experience ininternational telecommuni-

cations. Starting in 1963, he participated in aseries of pioneering satellite communication ex-periments with the U.S. Army Satellite Com-munications Agency. From 1967 to 1971 hewas on the staff of the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology Lincoln Laboratory and contrib-uted to major experiments in digital mobile com-munications by satellite. He held several sen-ior positions with the International Telecommu-nication Union (ITU), Geneva, Switzerland,from 1971 until 1995, including five years asTechnical Coordinator for the ITU/UNDP por-tion of the Satellite Instructional Television Ex-periment (SITE) in India. From 1981 until 1995he was Senior Counsellor and head of the ITU/CCIR department dealing first with broadcast-ing and later including frequency managementand monitoring. He returned to his native UnitedStates in 1995, where he is currently SeniorAdvisor at the Pacific TelecommunicationsCouncil in Honolulu and has also been Editorof the Pacific Telecommunications Reviewsince 1995. (See http://www.ptc.org/library/ptr/index.html .)

most dynamic growth region in telecoms. (Visitwww.ptc.org. )

PTC’s 26th annual conference will open inHonolulu on Sunday, January 11th at the HiltonHawaiian Village in the heart of Waikiki. Thefour-day event offers unparallel opportunities toexhibitors and attendees.

Submarine cablesSubmarine cable systems provide Hawaii’slifelines to the world. Partly because of Hawaii’slocation as a landing and transit place for majortrans-Pacific cables, PTC’s annual conferencefeatures special sessions on submarine cables andsystems. The SubOptic Executive Committee hasorganized a high-level session on Wednesdaymorning, 14 January, that will examine funding

and managing international infrastructure forthe industry.

Satellite communicationsThe Global VSAT Forum has organized an all-dayAsia-Pacific Satellite Communications Summitthat will highlight the opening of the conferenceon Sunday, 11 January. Luncheon panels onMonday and Tuesday will examine thecommercial satellite launch services industry andthe private sector’s role in military satellite com-munication requirements in the Pacific,respectively. Concurrent-session panels will dealwith an analysis of the new reality of the satelliteindustry and satellites as the backbone of the“intelligent community” in Asia. Tuesdayafternoon will feature a high-level satellite CEOroundtable organized by the Satellite IndustryAssociation and PBI Media, LLC.

Other topicsThe conference will include all topics of currentinterest in the information and communicationtechnology industries. The ITU Regional Office forAsia and the Pacific is organizing a session thatwill include participants from the highlysuccessful ITU Youth Forum. Workshops andpanels will focus on a number of country,regional or global issues and means for financingneeded developments.

Alternative sessions will include topictables, round tables, panels and workshops.

Students at PTC

http://www.ptc.org/library/ptr/index.html

29

Education, including distance learning, will betreated in concurrent sessions and pre-conference associated meetings of regionaldistance-education organizations on Saturday, 10January.

The Federation of Regional Associations(FORA) roundtable on Sunday afternoon, 11January, will focus on the role of the Internet inthe management of regional organizations andhow to bridge the digital divide.

Exhibits and other activitiesPTC’s annual conference exhibits of newtechnology, products and services for the regionwill be open from Sunday morning until Tuesdaynoon. The conference attracts numerousperipheral activities sponsored by PTC membersand exhibitors.

There are also pre- and post-conferenceworkshops and other activities sponsored byrelated organizations, as well as PTC executiveand committee meeting. Social activities,including the traditional lagoon-side openingreception and the closing reception are alwayswell attended.

Featured speakersFeatured high-level speakers at plenary andsuper sessions include: MICHAEL BINDER,Assistant Deputy Minister – Spectrum,Information Technologies andTelecommunications, Industry Canada,

Canada; FRED BRIGGS, President, Operationsand Technology, MCI, USA; MICHIO FUJISAKI,Member of the Board and CTO, Fujitsu Limited& President, Fujitsu Laboratories Limited,Japan; AMBASSADOR DAVID GROSS, U.S.Coordinator, International Communicationsand Information Policy, U.S. Department ofState, USA; SALMA JALIFE, Chair of APEC-TELand Senior Consultant to the Telecom-munications Authority, Mexico; JOHN LEGERE,

CEO, Global Crossing, USA; OLOF LUNDBERG,UK; TADASHI ONODERA, President, KDDICORPORATION, Japan ; VIRGILIO PEÑA,Undersecretary for ICT, Philippines; TADAOSAITO, Professor, Chuo University andHonorary Professor, Tokyo University, Japan;NOAH SAMARA, Chairman and CEO,WorldSpace Corporation, USA; KENNETHTOMLINSON, Board of Directors,Corporation for Public Broadcasting, USA.

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During this somewhat rather slow market forsubmarine telecom cable installers I amconstantly reminded on a daily basis of thebusy times of bygone days. (Actually thosedays were not that long ago).

I reside in Manasquan, New Jersey USA.Manasquan is a pleasant beachfront (Seaside forthe Brits!) town on the Jersey Shore about 60miles south of New York City. During the summerit is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of“Bennies”1 from New York and North Jersey whogo “Down the Shore” for their week-end R&R.

During the winter it reverts to a pleasantbeachfront town with a genuine “HometownUSA” atmosphere.

Manasquan is also a major terminus fortransatlantic submarine cables on the US EastCoast; numerous systems (PTAT, Tat-14, Gemini,TGN, Apollo etc) come ashore at beach landingsabout a mile from my house. I park my car eachnight on top of a C&W manhole housing theApollo South land cable. As it makes its way fromthe beach to the terminal station Apollo runsright along my street a mere twenty feet from

my front porch steps. I have spent countlesshours explaining to neighbors how this thinstrand of glass, copper & steel runs down the roadto the beach and then pops over the AtlanticOcean to the northern coast of France where itonce again meanders down a suburban road to aterminal station, amazing they say.

So after driving over Apollo in the morningI head to my office in Toms River NJ, which isabout ten miles north of Tuckerton NJ, anothermajor East Coast terminus of transatlantictelecom systems. At the week-end I coach mysons soccer team which plays on a field directlyin front of the TAT 14, Gemini & PTAT terminalstations. Cap this with the fact that almost 70%of my company’s revenues were derived from theinstallation and maintenance of submarinetelecom cable during the period 1998 thru 2001and the pessimist in you could say that we werein for troubled times from late 2001 onwards.

Other Marine MarketsHaving started my marine career on a C&Wcableship and then spent the next 12 yearstraveling the world repairing, laying or buryingsubmarine telecom cables I was under theimpression that these copper & steel (coax) linkswere the only submarine utility (or at least theonly one worth worrying about).

THOSE OTHERSUBMARINE

UTILITIES

by Bill Wall

1 Bennies: a nickname used by Jersey Shore locals for out

of town visitors who come for the “Benefits” of the shore

32

In 1983 after leaving the staid & starchedworld of the big white wire boats I served mypenance in the oil field conducting drillingsupport, subsea pipeline surveys and platformconstruction with ROVs out of Grand IsleLouisiana. (I say penance because you tryswitching from your own cabin and a mahoganylined dining salon to 4 to a bunkroom and a steelbox called a canteen!) This opened my eyes toother submarine utilities: oil & gas pipelines,flexible umbilicals, power cables etc. It wasobvious that there was a whole other submarineinfrastructure outside of the submarine telecomworld where the skills learned in the submarinetelecom world could be put to good use. I spentthe next 15 years helping to build a submarineinfrastructure service company that although itspecialized in submarine telecom systems alsodeveloped a whole new market of submarineutility services to the alternate submarinemarkets of energy pipelines, power cables, sewers

and outfall lines. Detecting minute fluid leakson high voltage Self Contained Fluid Filledsubmarine power transmission cables, buildingand operating an active tracking system so atowed high pressure water jet sled can guide itselfalong a 345Kv submarine power transmissioncable during a Post Lay Burial Operation, laying,splicing and burial of 15Kv distributionsubmarine cables for the US Navy, locating andsurveying the terrestrial section of a river crossingpipeline buried over seventy feet deep; all thesetasks completed utilizing techniques originallydeveloped for use on submarine telecom cables.With the current state of the telecom market thisperiod was definitely time well spent.

Stretch MarketsAnother learned contributor2 to this publicationrecently coined the phrase “Stretch” markets inan article. This term describes other submarineutility markets that submarine telecom cablecontractors can turn to during this downturn.These stretch markets include offshore pipelines,submarine power cables, offshore wind farms,river, lake, bay, harbor crossings and regionalrepeaterless systems. I agree with all the stretchmarkets except maybe the offshore pipelinemarket which could require too much of aninvestment in new and larger equipment to seeany return within a reasonable amount of time.So discounting the offshore pipeline market most2 Thanks Tom Soja

(We also do short and medium haul systems)

The name Caldwell has been synonymous withsubmarine cable installation and repair for over 40 years.

The Caldwell Group is a marine construction groupspecializing in submarine cable operations worldwide.

Pre-Laid Shore EndsRoute ClearancePre-Lay Grapnel RunsRepeaterless SystemsCable Clearance

Cable Burial to 10mDepth of CoverCable repairsDiving/Vessel ServicesHDD Operations

IN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THELONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!IN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THEIN FOR THELONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!LONG HAUL!

1433 Hooper Avenue, Toms River, NJ 08753, USA732-557-6100 (Tel) 732-341-3078 (Fax)

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http://www.caldwellmarine.com

33

Bill Wall has spentover 30 years in thesub-sea cableindustry. Starting atBritish Telecom(then GPO), for a 3-year apprenticeshipWall then spent 12years with Cable &

Wireless Marine staff, (now GMSL) where hewas very active in the development of cableready ROV systems. He was a member of theoriginal Scarab 1 operations team. Wall thenspent 18 years at Margus Co. where he wasVP Operations.

He has a broad background in sub-seaoperations and project management includingShore Ends, ROV operations, Plowing, repairoperations. After a short stint with GeneralDynamics he is currently the BusinessDevelopment Manager at Caldwell MarineInternational in New Jersey.

of the alternate submarine utilities are withincoastal or inland waterways. Also apart from afew long distance pipelines most othersubmarine utilities are relatively short distancecompared to the inter-continental routes of thesubmarine telecom world.

In North America alone there is a wholenetwork of submarine power cables bothtransmission (High Voltage) and distribution(Low & Medium Voltage). These cables cross riverestuaries, bays, harbors; they interconnectoffshore islands with the mainland and providebarrier islands with power without having todepend on local generation. As a great testamentto the power industry laboratories and cablemanufacturers a lot of these systems wereinstalled during the late 60’s and early 70’s and,if untouched by external aggression, most if notall of those systems are still operating today. Theinland submarine utility market suffers from thesame threats of external aggression that haveplagued the international telecom arena, mainlyfishing and vessel anchoring. Fishing activitiesare not as big a concern as they are to telecomoperators but vessel anchoring and marineconstruction activities can cause heartburn.

On the shorter inland power cable routesmarine route surveys are not given the attentionthat they are in telecom. The changes inbathymetry in a 5Km bay-crossing route areusually negligible and most burial assessmentrequirements can be taken care of in a diver

survey. That’s not to say that all inland powerprojects have a very brief survey specification justthat most are quite straightforward. Permittingregulations are as, if not more, stringent and timeconsuming than the offshore telecom counterparts.This is especially true in the USA if the utility is aninterstate line crossing a state border underwater.

Offshore wind farms, wave turbines andcurrent generators probably represent the largestsegment of a new stretch market. A short length ofsubmarine power distribution cable mustinterconnect each turbine in a wind farm, then alonger length of transmission cable would beutilized to “Export” the power from the wind farmashore. The marine construction applications aremulti-faceted including civil, electrical and telecomdisciplines. Also “Merchant” power providers arenow discovering the possible usage of submarinelinks to deliver their product to market. (Lets hopethey don’t saturate the market?)

Inland submarine pipelines are veryabundant in any medium to large port city thathas petroleum refining facilities within itsboundaries. A number of 8" & 12" producttransport lines criss-cross the busy harborconfines. During a recent project we had todredge material from above a buried, abandoned12" product pipeline in order to remove that lineso that the owner would be compliant with hispermit requirement. This pipeline was crossingone of the busiest commercial shipping channelsin the world. Not such an easy task when there

are 20 other submarine utilities crossing the sameharbor channel and any as-built surveys were 20or more years old. The line had no coating leftand as such would not support a tracking signal.In order to ensure that we had the right line andto guarantee that we dredged material fromdirectly above this line we reverted to an oldtelecom technology. A pig was sent through the

34

line pulling a 10 gauge insulated copper wire, a25hz tone was injected onto the wire and ahandheld diver probe was used to pinpoint theline utilizing GPS. The dredge was brought inand eight to ten feet of cover was removed for athousand linear feet and the line was recoveredand removed without incident.

Fiber RequirementsA large number of inland infrastructure linesrequire either Supervisory Control And DataAcquisition (SCADA) facilities or straight telecomapplications. Either a composite fiber within apower cable or an external submarine fiber cable“Wrapped” around the utility can fill theserequirements. High fiber count, repeaterlessoperation is usually the norm.

SummaryWayne Nielsen recently mentioned TangierIsland in the Chesapeake Bay in one of hiseditorials herein and then a reader wrote aboutduck hunting memories of Tangier Island. I alsohave memories of Tangier Island but not fromhunting or fishing but from locating andrepairing the submarine power cable that feedsTangier Island from the Eastern Shore mainland.

When and if this current slump in thesubmarine telecom industry ever ends then theresourceful, the nimble and the downright luckywill still be around to carry on the goodfight, in the meantime carry on stretching!

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Let’s face it, there are a multitude of ways toprotect cables and flowlines along the seabedranging from trenching to sheathing throughto rock dumping, etc., but let’s take a step backfor a moment and ask why protect them andwhat are we protecting them from. Again anumber of reasons spring to mind fromprotection from trawling to dropped objects,etc.; but what do you do when none of all theavailable solutions suffice? This was thedilemma faced by Petrobras not too long ago.

Petrobras, a committed user of Uraduct®,a half shell cable protection system, found thatin the ultra deep waters of the Campos Basinregion (offshore Brazil) there was a commonoccurrence of Coral reefs.

Dead coral, with its razor sharp fingersabrades the outer sheath of unprotected flexiblepipes and umbilicals in a matter of months. Forseveral years, Uraduct® has been fitted with itsspecially developed abrasion resistant PU shellsand Inconel banding, boasting high tensilestrengths and suitability for long term sea waterimmersion. A concern remained with the

standard Uraduct® design in that the exposedmetallic banding would also be prone toabrasion.

A solution had to be found that stillallowed the flexibility to fit an enhancedprotection system in specifically targeted areas,but would not compromise the installation timeor costs and would be ecologically friendly.

CRP commenced a three-year developmentand qualification program specifically aimed ataddressing this problem and meeting all ofPetrobras’ stringent requirements.

The coral would abrade very hard materialsyet would tear softer more pliable ones, andwould regenerate around the pipe or cable,leading to an exhaustive supply of abrasivematerial; hence the potential for proportionatelyshort life spans of the unprotected flowlines andumbilicals.

In turning internally to its R&Dlaboratories and bringing in external expertisein the form of marine biologists, CRP evaluatednumerous materials with varied propertiestesting each variant in specially built abrasive

Its Not AlIts Not AlIts Not AlIts Not AlIts Not All A Bed Of Rosesl A Bed Of Rosesl A Bed Of Rosesl A Bed Of Rosesl A Bed Of Rosesby Scott Griffith

36

centres. CRP’s chemists tuned and honed basematerials, formulating significantly improvedpolyurethane, which offered the characteristicsneeded to provide a longtrouble free life.

Focus wassimultaneously given tothe metallic bandingsystem that is used withinthe Uraduct® range ofcable and flowlineprotection systems.

Without the aid ofalchemists, there are onlyso many metals that canbe used in a strip-bandingconfiguration, and CRPhad over the yearstailored its product

Formally working for Dresser for nearly adecade, Scott Griffith joined the CRPGroup over six years ago. In his role ofGroup Marketing Manager Scott isinvolved in the day-to-day marketingactivities of each of the groups divisions –CRP Group Ltd, OCP Cable ProtectionLtd, CRP Group Inc., Emerson & CumingComposite Materials, Inc., CRP BalmoralInc. and several divisional offices in Franceand Norway.

offerings to only a handful of the most suitablevariations.

While a new more resilient polyurethanehad been developed, Inconel 625 remained thematerial of choice for its banding system,however if exposed to the coral it wouldpotentially suffer from similar abrasion patternsas experienced on unprotected umbilicals.

Around 6 years ago, CRP had developed aband seal sleeve system for a client who wantedto encapsulate the seal prior to deployment. Thisconcept speared the development of acompletely new cable protection system,heralded as Uraduct®+, and the new product wasan evolution from a internationally usedUraduct® protection system that had been used

by the majority of cable layers over the past 10years.

Uraduct®+ was constructed using the newrange of abrasion resistant polyurethane, andencapsulated the Inconel banding within themain moulding leading to over a 90% reductionin the area of banding exposed to the coral.Petrobras recognised that the solution not onlymet and exceeded all of its stringent criteria, butthey would also further benefit from potentiallyreduced installation times as the banding wasboth pre-cut and preinstalled within the factoryenvironment.

Uraduct® has now been adopted byPetrobras as their first choice system and havealready installed several kilometres on a numberof projects beyond depths of 1000MSW.

37

At submarine depths, goes deeper

500 m

Nexans was the firstto manufacture andinstall 384 fibersubmarine cable.Nexanshas qualified andinstalled their URC-1cable family for fibercounts up to 384 fibers.

For furter information, contact:Telecom: Vegard LarsenTel: + 47 22 63 76 47 E-mail: [email protected] & Gas: Jon SeipTel: +47 22 63 88 25E-mail: [email protected]

Nexans Norway AS P.O Box 130 Økern, N-0509, Oslo Norway Tel: + 47 22 63 88 20 Fax: + 47 22 63 74 55US Contact:Les ValentineTel. +1 281 578 6900 Fax: +1 281 578 6991 E-mail: [email protected]

Global expert in cablesand cabling systems

exans1500 m




38

A global guide to the latest known locations ofthe world’s cableships, as at NOVEMBER 2003.

SAILING DETAILS (or last known location)Vessel Name Built Parent Company GT Speed

Sailed Date Port Country

Arcos 2002 BOHLEN & DOYEN 3790 0 Singapore Republic of Singapore

Asean Explorer 2002 SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS 14988 14.5 Singapore Republic of Singapore

Asean Restorer 1994 SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS 11156 16 24/09/03 Songkhla Thailand

C.S.Wave Mercury 1982 GLOBAL MARINE SYSTEMS 10105 16 25/09/03 Kobe Japan

Cable Innovator 1995 GLOBAL MARINE SYSTEMS 14277 11 10/09/03 Vigo Spain

Cable Protector 2002 SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS 2935 0 Singapore Republic of Singapore

Discovery 1990 FRIARY OCEAN 8248 12 21/09/03 Stavanger Norway

Elektron 1969 STATNETT ENTREPENOR 1628 0 18/09/03 Norrkoping Sweden

Etisalat 1990 EMIRATES TELECOMMUNICATIONS 2221 13 27/09/03 Fujairah Anch. United Arab Emirates

Giulio Verne 1983 V. SHIPS GROUP 10617 10 27/09/03 Panama Canal Panama

Havila Skagerrak 1976 HAVILA SHIPPING 7172 10 19/09/03 Forsmark Sweden

Ile de Batz 2001 NOT APPLICABLE 13973 15.4 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates

KDD Pacific Link 1993 TOKYO LEASE 7960 13 26/09/03 Hakata Japan

Leon Thevenin 1983 FRANCE TELECOM 4845 15 25/09/03 Las Palmas Canary Islands

39

SAILING DETAILS (or last known location)Vessel Name Built Parent Company GT Speed

Sailed Date Port Country

Lodbrog 1985 ALCATEL SUBMARINE NETWORKS 10243 14.5 19/09/03 Bristol United Kingdom

Maersk Defender 1996 MOLLER A.P. 5746 16 Calais France

Maersk Recorder 2000 MOLLER A.P. 6292 14 Falmouth United Kingdom

Maersk Reliance 2001 MOLLER A.P. 6292 14 15/09/03 Montevideo Uruguay

Maersk Responder 2000 MOLLER A.P. 6292 14 11/09/03 Curacao Netherlands Antilles

Miss Clementine 1996 BROOKLYN SHIPPING 3637 9 Singapore Republic of Singapore

Miss Marie 1998 BROOKLYN SHIPPING 3639 0 12/09/03 Jebel Ali United Arab Emirates

Nordkabel 1969 NOT APPLICABLE 395 10 09/09/03 Harstad Norway

Oceanic Pearl 1997 FISHER & SONS 7429 13.5 Barrow-in-Furness United Kingdom

Pertinacia 2003 NOT APPLICABLE 12100 14 06/09/03 Dover Strait United Kingdom

Pleijel 1972 TELEVERKET 1650 11 03/10/03 Stockholm Sweden

Provider I 1978 MARINE SURVEY 10493 14 27/09/03 Dover Strait United Kingdom

Segero 1998 KOREA SUBMARINE TELECOM 8323 15 24/09/03 Okpo Republic of Korea

Teneo 1992 TRANSOCEANIC CABLE SHIP 3051 14.5 01/10/03 Valencia Spain

Thalis 1961 GREECE (GOVT.) 1025 11 19/09/03 Kalamata Greece

Tyco Decisive 2002 NOT APPLICABLE 12184 13.9 07/09/03 Port Everglades United States of America

Tyco Durable 2002 NOT APPLICABLE 12130 13.9 25/09/03 Astoria United States of America

Wave Sentinel 1995 GLOBAL MARINE SYSTEMS 12330 18.25 28/09/03 Dover Strait United Kingdom

Wave Venture 1982 GLOBAL MARINE SYSTEMS 10076 16 Singapore Republic of Singapore

40

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41

Letter toa friendfrom Jean Devos

My Dear Friend,I was on my way to tell you in this letter

that the submarine cable activity may have seennow the worse, and that one can hope thatthings will start to catch up somewhat. We havemany signs of this. But today I am reading inmy favourite economy newspaper that Alcatelchairman told the analysts “the submarine cablemarket is virtually dead,” and that “further costsreduction needs to be achieved in this sector.”Can we reconcile both statements?

My friend, as you know perfectly,everything takes time, even in our fast movingworld! It takes time to admit the obvious, like avirtually dead market! When you have benefitedfor years of the beauty of a booming and thenprofitable activity, when such an activity is atthe heart of your company culture and capability,I can understand that it is painful and timeconsuming to finally accept the reality. But themarket has been clearly dead for nearly 3 yearsnow, and it is hard to believe that costs have notyet been cut up to the rock bottom!

Does this Alcatel statement announcesomething else? Some other form ofrestructuring?

It would make a lot of sense!The important point for the supplier

industry is that the future market will probablybe modest, nothing to compare with the lastyears of the last century! Something like 1 or 2billion dollars a year globally, i.e. 50,000 kms ofsystem length a year! Not enough for so manyplayers, and more importantly, not enough fordedicated units.

We may see tomorrow the big telecomequipment suppliers (Alcatel, NEC, Fujitsu andwhy not Lucent, Nortel, etc.) providing the“Network electronic and software”, and othercompanies providing the “submerged plant”portion. Two very different set of skills! TheJapanese model, more adapted to the low tideperiod could finally prevail.

So, my dear friend, yes, there is clearlygoing to be a future submarine cable marketthanks to the wide band Internet. It will stilltakes several years before the thick traditionalroutes will need new investment, but in themeantime, India and China are clearly emerging,and represent more than two billion inhabitants!

But this does not contradict the idea thatthe supplier industry needs some restructuring.

President AXIOM.Jean Devos

42

DiaryDiaryDiaryDiaryDiary FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITIONS

17-20 November 2003 Shallow Survey 2003, Sydney, Australia, www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/conferences/swsurvey/

24-26 November 2003 Hydro 2003: 4th Australasian Hydrographic Symposium,Christchurch, New Zealand, www.hydrographicsociety.org.nz/conference.htm

11-14 January 2004 Pacific Telecom Conference 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii USA. www.ptc.org/ptc2004

17-19 February 2004 Underwater Intervention 2004, NewOrleans, Louisana, USA. www.underwaterintervention.com

16-19 March 2004 Oceanology International 2004, London, UK, www.oceanologyinternational.com/

28 March - 1 April 2004 SubOptic 2004, Principality of Monaco, www.suboptic.biz

6-9 April 2004 International Cable Protection Committee Plenary, Southern France, www.iscpc.org

3-6 May 2004 Offshore Technology Conference 2004, Houston, Texas USA, www.otcnet.org/2004/

15-18 June 2004 CommunicAsia 2004, Singapore, www.communicasia.com

24-27 August 2004 Offshore Northern Seas 2004, Stavanger, Norway, www.ons.no/

14-16 September 2004 Offshore Communications 2004, Houston, Texas USA, www.offshorecoms.com

21-23 September 2004 Submarine Networks World 2004, Singapore, www.carriersworld.com

10-15 October 2004 SEG International Exposition & 74th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado USA, www.seg.org/meetings/calendar/

2-4 November 2004 Hydro4, Galway, Ireland, www.hydrographicsociety.org

9-12 November 2004 Oceans 2004 MTS/IEEE, Kobe, Japan, www.oceans-technoocean2004.com

http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/conferences/swsurvey/

http://www.hydrographicsociety.org.nz/conference.htm

http://www.ptc.org/ptc2004

http://www.underwaterintervention.com

http://www.oceanologyinternational.com


http://www.iscpc.org

http://www.otcnet.org/2004/

http://www.communicasia.com

http://www.ons.no/

http://www.offshorecoms.com

http://www.carriersworld.com

http://www.seg.org/meetings/calendar/

http://www.hydrographicsociety.org

http://www.oceans-technoocean2004.com

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