FEATURE
SO, YOU WANT TO LAY A CABLE Going from Proposal to Permitted
A FABLE BY STEPHEN NIELSEN
I
had a bit of a windfall lately. A new, previously absolutely untapped market to the submarine cable industry became open to the possibility of a new cable route in the Atlantic Ocean; the lost city of Atlantis is finally ready for hi-speed internet. I won’t lie. I’m fairly new to the installer side of the industry, as I’ve mostly just reported on it as a SubTel Forum journalist. That said, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I immediately began taking all the steps nec-
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essary to get my first new cable project underway. So, here I am, my system is designed. I have a tentative landing sight to link with a terrestrial system that feeds Atlantis’ largest city, the Council of Elders has my award ceremony scheduled, and I even have some real prospects for financing. Things are going about as smoothly as I could have possibly imagined and I’m hoping my new cable could hit the water in under 12 months. Then, suddenly, I hit the unique install challenge known as “Permitting.”