SubTel Forum Issue #122 - Global Outlook

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

FORUM ISSUE 122 | JANUARY 2022

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

EXORDIUM FROM THE PUBLISHER WELCOME TO ISSUE 122, OUR GLOBAL OUTLOOK EDITION!

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had a chance to go to my beach house in North Carolina between the holidays and enjoy unseasonably mild weather for the week. Normally this time of year a cold wind and rain lashes the coast for days. But instead, we enjoyed weather, which was more like a pleasant April, prompting us to spend much more time outside and in the sun.

2021 was another unprecedented year and the beach was a welcome break from the increasing Omicron news.

But last year was also very good in many ways.

Our industry accomplished a lot after adapting to the new realities imposed in 2020. Systems continued to be built; installation work continued in the field; fibers got lit up. Looking ahead, 2022 and beyond look as busy as ever if not more so, which is certainly a good thing.

SubTel Forum has equally been busy as ever with a few new changes in store.

We are very pleased to announce that in partnership with the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks Initiative, Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine has created an ongoing article, entitled Sustainable Subsea. Authored and edited by Professor Nicole Starosielski of NYU, Sustainable Subsea will explore issues and topics impacting future submarine cable systems, specifically those focusing on the sustainability of the global subsea telecommunications

We are very pleased to announce that in partnership with the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks Initiative, Submarine Telecoms Forum Magazine has created an ongoing article, entitled Sustainable Subsea.

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network. From this issue going forward, Dr Starosielski will be authoring with other subject matter experts forward looking articles on the carbon footprint impact of the submarine cable industry and areas of potential mitigation. We are particularly excited to be working with Nicole and SubOptic’s Sustainable Subsea Networks Initiative. SubTel Forum magazine is the perfect forum for discussing such an important issue as submarine cable sustainability, and Nicole is the perfect spokesperson on the topic.

We also updated our Q&A piece going forward, asking about company plans for sustainable operations in the next 5 years. It is only a single additional question, but it speaks volumes about the future direction of our industry.

A Publication of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com ISSN No. 1948-3031 PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER: Wayne Nielsen | wnielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-2527 VICE PRESIDENT: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845 SALES: Teri Jones | tjones@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 471-4902

This issue we discuss the 21 most viewed NewsNow articles from 2021 – those announcements that caused the most stir in viewers on our website last year – and if nothing else it is a simple, non-scientific bell weather for the last 12 months.

We also included an article on a number of industry players predictions for 2022, and they talk about everything from the future of working at home to high fiber count cables. It is a very interesting and widespread read.

Thank you to the excellent Authors who have contributed to this edition!

Thanks also for their support to this issue’s advertisers: Ellalink and Southern Cross. Of course, our ever popular “where in the world are all those pesky cableships” is included as well.

Thank you as always readers, and supporters for honoring us with your interest.

And as always, save me a seat at the Mai Tai bar. STF

PROJECT MANAGER: Rebecca Spence | rspence@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 268-9285 EDITOR: Stephen Nielsen | snielsen@subtelforum.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Weswen Design | wendy@weswendesign.com DEPARTMENT WRITERS: Gil Santaliz, Philip Pilgrim, Nick Silcox, Nicole Starosielski, Rebecca Spence, Terri Jones, and Wayne Nielsen FEATURE WRITERS: Alex Vaxmonsky, Chris van Zinnicq Bergmann, Chris Wood, Dave Crowley, Glenn Hovermale, Greg Varisco, Jennifer Ruch, Jerry Brown, Jim Fagan, John Schulz, John Tibbles, Kristian Nielsen, Mattias Fridström, Patricio Rey, Robert Lingle, Jr., Sean Bergin, Simon Webster, and Tim Doiron

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

FORUM

ISSUE 123 | MARCH 20

FINANCE & LEGAL

NEXT ISSUE: MARCH 2022 – Finance & Legal AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INDEX: www.subtelforum.com/onlineindex Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/corporate-information BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Margaret Nielsen, Wayne Nielsen and Kristian Nielsen SubTel Forum Continuing Education, Division of Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc. www.subtelforum.com/education CONTINUING EDUCATION DIRECTOR: Kristian Nielsen | knielsen@subtelforum.com | [+1] (703) 444-0845

Wayne Nielsen, Publisher Contributions are welcomed and should be forwarded to: pressroom@subtelforum.com.

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

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

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OF T HE

responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions, and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication.

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

Copyright © 2022 Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.

I NDUSTRY

IN THIS FORUM ISSUE

SUBMARINE TELECOMS

ISSUE 122 | JANUARY 2022

features

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28

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36

7 QUESTIONS WITH GIL SANTALIZ

THE CARRIER GUIDE TO 2022

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2022

DIGITISING AFRICA

By Chris Wood

By Mattias Fridström

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TOP 21 FOR 2021

By Subtel Forum Staff

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EVOLVING REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIENT REPRESENTATIVES

By Glenn Hovermale

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EQUINIX AND AT&T COLLABORATE TO HELP CUSTOMERS MEET CLIMATE GOALS

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OUTLOOK 2022

By Greg Varisco and Dave Crowley

By Jennifer Ruch and John Schulz

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THE PRICE OF FAME

THE CLIMATE, CABLES AND ADVOCACY: AN OPINION

By John Tibbles

By Kristian Nielsen

departments EXORDIUM................................................................................................................................................................ 2 SUBTELFORUM.COM.................................................................................................................................................. 6 STF ANALYTICS.......................................................................................................................................................... 8 CABLE MAP UPDATE.................................................................................................................................................10 WHERE IN THE WORLD.............................................................................................................................................12 SUSTAINABLE SUBSEA..............................................................................................................................................14 BACK REFLECTION................................................................................................................................................... 68 ON THE MOVE.......................................................................................................................................................... 74 SUBMARINE CABLE NEWS NOW............................................................................................................................... 75 ADVERTISER CORNER.............................................................................................................................................. 76

SubTelForum.com

VisitSubTelForum.com SubTelForum.com to to find find links resources Visit linkstotothe thefollowing following resources

FREERESOURCES RESOURCESFOR FORALL ALLOUR OUR SUBTELFORUM.COM SUBTELFORUM.COM READERS FREE READERS The most popular articles, Q&As of 2021.

TOP OFyou 2019 FindSTORIES out what missed!

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

NOW RSS FEED Keep on top of our world of coverage with our free News NEWSdaily NOW industry RSS FEEDupdate. News Now is a daily RSS feed Now Keep on top of our world of coverage with our freehighNews of news applicable to the submarine cable industry, Now daily industry update.

News Now is a daily RSS&feed lighting Cable Faults & Maintenance, Conferences As-of news applicable to the submarine industry, highlighting sociations, Current Systems, Datacable Centers, Future Systems, Cable Faults & Maintenance, Associations, Offshore Energy, State of the Conferences Industry and&Technology & Current Systems, Data Centers, Future Systems, Offshore Upgrades.

Energy, State of the Industry and Technology & Upgrades.

PUBLICATIONS PUBLICATIONS Submarine Cable Almanac is a free quarterly publica-

Submarine Cablethrough Almanacdiligent is a freedata quarterly publication made available gathering and tion madeefforts available through diligent data gathering and mapping by the analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics,

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum. This reference mapping analysts at SubTel Forum Analytics, tool givesefforts detailsby onthe cable systems including a system map, a division of Submarine Telecoms Forum.

This reference landing points, system capacity, length, RFS year and other tool givesdata. details on cable systems including a system map, valuable landing points,Telecoms system capacity, and free other Submarine Industrylength, ReportRFS is anyear annual valuable data. publication with analysis of data collected by the analysts of Submarine Report is an annualanalyfree SubTel ForumTelecoms Analytics,Industry including system capacity publication of data collected by the of analysts of sis, as well aswith the analysis actual productivity and outlook current SubTel Forum Analytics, including system capacity and planned systems and the companies that serviceanalythem. sis, as well as the actual productivity and outlook of current and planned CABLE MAP systems and the companies that service them.

The online SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry CABLE MAP standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel The online SubTel Cable Map is built withthe theprogress industryof Forum Submarine Cable Database.

It tracks standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel some 300+ current and planned cable systems, more than Forum Submarine Database. tracks46 thecable progress 800 landing points,Cable over 1,700 data It centers, shipsof

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

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

VIDEO STREAMING AND TUTORIALS

SubTel Forum tutorials teach how to use the ever growing SubTel Cable Map, including various map layers for data centers, cable ships, etc.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

SubTel Forum designs educational courses and master classes that can then appear at industry conferences around the world. Classes are presented on a variety of topics dealing with key industry technical, business, or commercial issues.

See what classes SubTel Forum is accrediting in support of the next generation of leaders in our industry.

AUTHORS INDEX

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

EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION FOR SUBSCRIBERS OF MARKET SECTOR REPORTS SUBTEL FORUM ANALYTICS MARKET SECTOR REPORTS

SubTel Forum Subscribers have exclusive access to SubTel Forum online MSRs updated quarterly: DATA CENTER & OTT PROVIDERS: Details the increasingly shrinking divide between the cable landing station and the backhaul to interconnection services in order to maximize network efficiency throughout, bringing once disparate infrastructure into a single facility.

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

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

Capacity pricing trends and forecasting simplified.

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

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

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

SUBMARINE CABLE DATASET: details 400+ fiber optic cable systems. Including physical aspects, cost, owners, suppliers, landings, financiers, component manufacturers, marine contractors, etc. STF

ANALYTICS

BY REBECCA SPENCE

WELCOME TO 2022!

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kay, so it’s a couple weeks late, but the sentiment still stands. A new year, a new slew of projects to look forward to. As is custom, this month we look at what the industry achieved over the past year, as well what we have to look forward to in the future. The data used in this article is obtained from the public domain and is tracked by the always advancing SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database, where products like the Submarine Cable Almanac, Submarine Cable Map, and Submarine Telecoms Industry have their foundations.

WHERE DO WE STAND?

No one can ever say the submarine telecommunications industry is anything but resilient. Over the past two years global health regulations and travel restrictions have been in a constant state of flux and in spite of that, the industry has remained steady on with the purpose of increasing global internet connectivity. In the second year of the pandemic, vessel crews and management teams found ways to keep cable laying projects moving forward, regardless of the strict protocols established in ports and countries around the world. With some projects still feeling the effects of initial international shut down, progress can clearly be seen across social media platforms, year end wrap ups, and announcements.

Compared to new system activity in 2020, system output in 2021 was slightly lower but not unexpectedly so.

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In 2020, 19 systems were implemented, a higher number than the SubTel Cable Database was able to confirm at this time last year. This number was consistent with the previous year thanks in part to the months of work crews were able to complete before the pandemic hit. But when that progress came to a screeching halt, several projects were pushed in to 2021. System output in

2021 fell slightly with a total of 14 new systems implemented. Originally there were over a dozen more systems slated for implementation in 2021 that have now been pushed into 2022. Globally we see that 60 percent of regions saw a decline in activity except for the Americas and Transatlantic thanks to EllaLink going live mid-2021.

WHAT’S COMING?

Looking back, 30+ systems were originally expected to enter service in 2021, a few had been carried over from 2020. Though the global maritime shut down has lessened significantly, 20 of those 2021 planned systems have now been pushed back into 2022 leading to an anticipated 37+ systems expected this year. With 22 more systems announced for 2023, it will be interesting to see how many systems go into service in the next 12 months.

SubTel_Ad_Nov2021_v2wBleeds.pdf 1 15/11/2021 5:35:52 PM

Several systems are close to completion as seen in the multitudes of landings publicized in the last few months of 2021. Grace Hopper, Equiano, and Southern Cross NEXT are among a few that seem to be nearing the end of their wet plants and will likely go into service this year.

Over the next three years, a total of 71 new submarine cable systems have been announced. While it is unlikely that all 37 systems planned for the coming year will enter service as the

industry continues to deal with the aftermath of the shut down and an overall project backlog, the probability that most of these systems will eventually enter service remains high. STF REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum. Rebecca possessed more than 10 years’ experience as an analyst and database manager, including for the small business division of prominent government contractor, General Dynamics IT. She is a regular contributor to SubTel Forum Magazine and is based out of Hillsborough, North Carolina USA.!

POWERING THE CLOUD, FROM UNDER THE SEA

Low latency, resilient connectivity to Data-Centres across Sydney, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Seattle.

How critical is your data?

JANUARY 2022 | secure ISSUE 122 9 fast. direct.

FEATURE

SUBTEL CABLE MAP UPDATES

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he SubTel Cable Map is built with the industry standard Esri ArcGIS platform and linked to the SubTel Forum Submarine Cable Database. It tracks the progress of over 500 current and planned cable systems, 45+ cable ships and over 1,400 landing points.

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

This interactive map is a continual work in progress and is updated on a weekly basis. With pertinent data captured by analysts at SubTel Forum and feedback from our users.

Our goal is to make easily available not only data from the Submarine Cable Almanac, but also more and more new layers of system information.

NEW FEATURE!

With the removal of visual and organizational clutter, we have made the map easier to navigate.

Clicking on a cable system on the left side tabs now zooms the map to the location, visualizing only that system.

To return to the full map, simply click on the system name again and you see the global view.

As you can see, we have also updated the color scheme and simplified the system lines. Cables in their first 15 years are a solid orange line, 16 years and older are a nice gray, and planned systems are a dashed light gray.

In the coming weeks you will also see some changes to the tab options and cableship tracking data, map views, and more. So stay tuned!

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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE

If you are the point of contact for a system, please reach out and let us know if there are any changes or updates in your system! We always strive to keep the map as up to date as possible. We hope you continue to make use of the SubTel Cable Map to learn more about the industry yourself and educate others on the importance of submarine cable systems.

Please feel free to reach out to our Project Manager, Rebecca Spence, should you have any questions, comments, or updates at rspence@subtelforum.com

LIST OF ADDED/UPDATED SYSTEMS AS OF JANUARY 2022 IS AS FOLLOWS:

Updated: NO-UK –In Service as of December 2021 CrossChannel Fibre – In Service as of December 2021 TEAS updated route EXA Express & EXA North/South – Name change after Acquisition Added: Hawaiki Nui STF

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WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE PESKY CABLESHIPS?

BY REBECCA SPENCE

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he global cableship fleet absolutely took 2021 by the horns and it definitely shows in the amount of progress made. As you might have seen earlier in the analytics article of month’s issue, 14 systems were implemented last year. While lower than the previous two years, it is still greater than the number of systems prior to 2019. Not to mention the number of systems that churned through landings in 2021 that are working on their final steps before commissioning can occur.

In the last half of 2021 alone, the following systems completed landings around the world.

Grace Hopper landed in Bude, UK, OAC landed in Perth, Australia, PEACE cable landed in Marseille, and Southern Cross NEXT in Takapuna, Kiribati, Tokelau, and Coogee Beach! This is by no means an exhaustive list, but talk about progress!

So this month, take a look at some of the amazing images shared by crews and cableship aficionados around the world. As always, please tag @SubTelForum with your cableship posts, so we can highlight them in an upcoming issue of SubTel Forum Magazine! STF REBECCA SPENCE is the Project Manager from Submarine Telecoms Forum.

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

Figure 1: Bold Maverick landing PEACE in Malta

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November 2021

Figure 2: Raymond Croze completing repair in East Mediterranean

Figure 4: Rainbow seen by Bold Maverick PEACE cable work courtesy of Captain Bruce Sharp

Figure 3: CS Dependable, OAC –

Cocos Beach Landing, Photo Courtesy of Subcom

Figure 5: Ile de Re laying Southern Cross NEXT in November 2021

Figure 7: Ile de Sein Southern Cross Next August 2021

Figure 6: Limin Venture laying BaSICS October 2021

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sustainable SUBSEA A BLUE INDUSTRY GOING GREEN

BY NICOLE STAROSIELSKI AND NICK SILCOX

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n 2021, the Sustainable Subsea Networks research project was launched. This was one of the first projects of the newly-formed SubOptic Foundation, a charitable arm of the SubOptic Association that is working to advance education and research initiatives for the subsea cable industry.

The Sustainable Subsea Networks research project grew out of SubOptic’s Global Citizen Working Group, which focuses on developing ways for the subsea cable industry to better itself and the world. This research project’s focus is on the investigation of the cable system’s energy use and impact across various sectors, from supply to recycling.

Even though the industry is already relatively green, industry and academic members of the research project are working to enhance environmental sustainability as much as possible--a crucial project given the devastating impacts of climate change.

Over the past decade, many companies have begun to investigate green data centers, but very little attention has been paid to subsea

cables’ role in a greener telecommunications future--possibly because cables clock in at a smaller footprint. This is something that many in the industry already know, but it needs to be documented especially as green regulation and legislation is rolled out globally.

From talking to companies, the research team has found several already ahead of the curve on

The Sustainable Subsea Networks research project grew out of SubOptic’s Global Citizen Working Group, which focuses on developing ways for the subsea cable industry to better itself and the world.

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greening their operations. Below, we share some of these best practices to generate inspiration and conversation about the path forward.

ABOVE AND BEYOND: ORANGE MARINE TAKES STEPS TOWARD A GREENER INTERNET

Some companies have begun to consider the environment at nearly every level of their operations and practices. This is certainly the case with Orange Marine, a subsidiary of the French telecommunications company Orange. Since 2017, Orange Marine has prioritized sustainability and made significant strides toward reducing their environmental impact in both technical and business practices.

Installing and maintaining subsea cables is a fuel-intensive component

of the industry. These tasks often require ships that are often powered by fossil fuels at every stage of the process. To combat the carbon density of their fleet, Orange Marine powers some ships in port using the onshore electrical grid rather than the fuel stores to reduce overall emissions. In at least one port, Orange Marine has installed solar panels to generate and store their own electricity to power these stations.

Furthermore, they have begun to consider sustainability in designing the newest ship in their fleet--it will be fuel efficient and have reduced atmospheric pollutants.

In addition to these initiatives, Orange Marine has partnered with several French and European organizations and initiatives, including act4nature, the Souffleurs d’Ecume association, and Euro Argo to pre-

serve biodiversity and to minimize local environmental disturbances, as well as to contribute to ongoing monitoring of the ocean environment for scientific study of climate change’s impact on the ocean. Some of Orange Marine’s other efforts include powering their cables with low sulfur fuels to minimize pollution, improving their workplace QSE management system, and reducing waste in their offices.

Orange Marine’s efforts were propelled by existing and anticipated regulation, but the real catalyst was a shared commitment of the company and the individuals who work there to improve the sustainability of their work. Bénédicte Bigot, Orange Marine’s Sales & Communication Development Director, took the initiative to pursue many of these opportunities. While these ef-

forts demonstrate the ways Orange Marine has gone above and beyond, it also suggests that these kinds of initiatives are possible in other parts of the cable industry where there is a willingness to make it happen. In fact, similar efforts are happening in other corners of the subsea cable industry all around the globe.

REDUCING EMISSIONS, INCREASING EFFICIENCY: NJFX GOES CARBON ZERO

In the United States, the New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX) cable landing station campus recently chose to go carbon-neutral. They signed a multi-year contract to power their station with nuclear energy generated in nearby Pennsylvania, a decision that moves the broader telecommunications network toward a more sustainable future. The decision to go carbon-neutral was the

Orange Marine is constructing a new vessel, the Sophie Germain, which will specialize in cable repair and replace their oldest vessel in the fleet, the Raymond Croze, launched in 1984.

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sustainable SUBSEA culmination of NJFX’s efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint.

A new landing station on the NJFX campus was designed in 2016 with environmental impact and energy efficiency as a central concern. The campus offers direct access to multiple independent subsea cable systems interconnecting North America, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. The design of the new station was in part a response to the challenges posed by the 2012 devastation of Hurricane Sandy. In particular, it was equipped with an electrical cooling system that doesn’t rely on access to water. Rather, the facility is regulated by sustainably designed cooling units installed on its roof and powered by carbon neutral energy. It also uses energy efficient LED lights that are timeset and motion sensitive to reduce energy consumption. With all of these updates, the CLS Campus is part of a new generation of sustainable network hubs. In contrast, as NJFX CEO Gil Santaliz observes, the downtown carrier hotels, built in “seventy-five year old one-time office and department store buildings with hundreds of windows were never meant for energy efficiency.”

The NJFX station is natural gas free, which allows them to ensure safety while advancing their commitments to sustainability initiatives--instead of using natural gas for heat, they use the energy from the customer equipment to heat the landing stations. NJFX has plans to install solar panels this year to expand their sustainable energy resources and they hope that New Jersey moves forward with proposed investments in wind power. In

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Operations Specialist Brad Graves rides his bike every day weather permits to NJFX.

addition to these design and energy choices, business operations are also calculated into the company’s green mindset: employees of NJFX live on average only seven miles away from the facility and some of them are able to bicycle to work. To further

incentivize sustainable transportation for employees, NJFX installed charging stations for electric vehicles in 2020.

Cable landing stations like the ones operated by NJFX are already more efficient and less energy

The NJFX station is natural gas free, which allows them to ensure safety while advancing their commitments to sustainability initiatives--instead of using natural gas for heat, they use the energy from the customer equipment to heat the landing stations.

intensive than other elements of the broader telecommunications infrastructure. However, NJFX’s efforts to increase the overall energy efficiency of their work and their facility, as well as their choice to power their campus with carbon neutral energy sources, is evidence that the subsea cable industry can still contribute in many ways. Cable landing stations can play an important role in the development of a more sustainable Internet.

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS: THE SOLOMON ISLANDS SUBMARINE CABLE COMPANY

Access to telecommunications infrastructure is not distributed equally.

Many smaller countries, particularly islands, are the most dependent on subsea cables because they are limited by their geography. Likewise, countries with limited economic resources are often unable to secure consistent access to the Internet.

These obstacles can make sustainable initiatives for telecommunications companies in these areas difficult.

However, the work of Andrew Joel Siru of the Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company suggests that, even in situations where sustainability programs may not be easily realized, small steps are still possible.

The Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company began operations in 2020 after many years of planning and development. By 2021 Andrew Joel Siru, an employee at SISCC, started to work on developing a green agenda for the organization to act responsibly for the environment.

This included measures to increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption, taken after consulting with people who developed similar

programs at other companies. As a start, Siru helped to launch company initiatives to turn off lights, air conditioners, and devices in the offices of SISCC when these were not in use. He was able to install nozzles on sinks in the facility to reduce water consumption. In addition to these initiatives, Siru started the process of tracking energy usage for SISCC.

These cases reveal how sustainable initiatives are attainable across every scale and sector of the industry.

These efforts might not seem to compare to the construction of a cable ship, but it is important to remember that every little bit counts.

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE STARTS NOW

These cases reveal how sustainable initiatives are attainable across every scale and sector of the industry. There are many models for how different companies with vastly different resources can approach sustainability. In taking these steps, Orange Marine, NJFX, and the Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company have already helped to shape a more sustainable future, a task that is urgent and critical given the realities of climate change. These companies have been able to get ahead of the curve and often take

steps without being forced, or even asked, to do so.

However, regulation is on the horizon because of the many environmental challenges facing the world today. As is true for much regulation affecting the industry, environmental regulation is often crafted without much consideration for the unique features of subsea cables. This makes it all the more important to document what is already happening.

Even if the subsea industry is one of the most sustainable elements of the global network infrastructure, there is still an opportunity for the industry to think creatively and proactively. A sustainable future for the subsea cable industry starts now. STF This article is an output from a SubOptic Foundation project funded by the Internet Society Foundation.

NICOLE STAROSIELSKI is Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. Dr. Starosielski’s research focuses on the history of the cable industry and the social aspects of submarine cable construction and maintenance.

She is author of The Undersea Network (2015), which examines the cultural and environmental dimensions of transoceanic cable systems, beginning with the telegraph cables that formed the first global communications network and extending to the fiber-optic infrastructure.

Starosielski has published over forty essays and is author or editor of five books on media, communications technology, and the environment. She is co-convener of SubOptic’s Global Citizen Working Group and a principal investigator on the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks research initiative.

NICHOLAS R. SILCOX is a research assistant on the Sustainable Subsea Networks project and a Ph.D. student in the English department at New York University where he studies issues related to media and the environment.

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FEATURE

7 QUESTIONS WITH GIL SANTALIZ Talking Technology Trends with NJFX’s CEO

1.

WHAT IS NJFX’S MISSION?

Our Mission is to grow our existing secure layer-one fiber ecosystem infrastructure providing global reliability and diversity to the foundation of the internet and global mission critical connectivity. Today, NJFX serves over 30 network operators across five subsea cables, 20 terrestrial cables interconnecting Europe, South America and the Caribbean and over 300 ASN’s in a global internet exchange from Wall, NJ in the USA.

2.

HOW DOES NJFX PARTICIPATE IN THE SUBMARINE CABLE MARKET?

NJFX is a Communication Infrastructure marketplace where layer one submarine providers, terrestrial fiber networks, Internet Exchanges, CDN’s and global networks interexchange network traffic. The Submarine cable market can depend on this carrier neutral existing collocation CLS infrastructure to deploy its SLTE operating with a higher rate of availability and performance than extending out on a single terrestrial backhaul ring system. These extensions to other network hubs which aren’t purpose built introduce new failure points reducing uptime and exposing national security threats to subsea systems. As an active participant in this subsea industry, NJFX actively

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participates in trade shows to grow an ecosystem supporting the diversity of the subsea systems it hosts. In 2021, NJFX reached critical mass with physical carrier infrastructure assets of subsea, terrestrial cables & carriers POP’s to support the needed diversity for “Never Down” solutions.

3.

IS NJFX CURRENTLY INVOLVED WITH MANY NEW SUBMARINE CABLE PROJECTS?

NJFX is always active with multiple new subsea projects working their way to “CIF” Contract in Force. These development projects look to eliminate risk and provide a clear path to deployment with a 25 year horizon of operations. Our design allows for decades of concurrent maintainability without planned outages for a layering of subsea systems at various stages of their life cycles.

4.

WHAT MAKES NJFX UNIQUE IN THE SUBMARINE SYSTEM MARKET?

NJFX is the only Tier3 Carrier Neutral CLS Campus in North America. The CLS was purpose built in 2016 at 64 ft above sea level with a Hurricane 5 resistant design, Tier3 electrical & cooling infrastructure, 2N electric distribution & UPS, four diverse POE’s, profes-

sional Meet Me Rooms for carrier-neutral interconnectivity and access to existing diverse North & South front haul conduits to beach manholes with bore pipes. Understanding the critical importance of security, our collocation Tier3 by the Subsea CLS collocation facility includes mantraps, level 3 ballistic proof walls, dual authentic biometric access system and redundant site access control rooms with closed circuit BMS/Security Cameras. It is uniquely designed for secure collocation with high density options offering a variety of fiber routes by-passing the non-purpose built traditional carrier hotels.

5.

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF NJFX’S SUCCESS?

Patient capital is important in the development of the right infrastructure. Willingness to spend capital upfront with the end in mind is not the norm in the communications industry today. Concerns over the bubble of the “dotcom” days speculative capital is scarce and traditional business cases don’t support long-term infrastructure. In addition, supporting the subsea industry which is cross connect intensive by not charging MRC’s is fundamental for the ecosystem success.

Maintaining carrier neutrality and not competing with your customers allows for the trust required to collaborate in growing a healthy ecosystem.

6.

Proactively auditing and coordinating threat assessments, this relationship is supported locally at the state & federal level and is a partnership that conforms to U.S. critical infrastructure.

AS SUSTAINABILITY HAS BECOME A HOT BUTTON ISSUE IN OUR INDUSTRY, WHAT ARE NJFX’S PLANS FOR SUSTAINABLE OPERATION FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS?

Sustainability and being eco-friendly is an obligation we have to our future generations. NJFX is proud of its current carbon free utility service and looking forward to NJ completing the largest offshore wind project in the US. Today LED lights with motion sensors, roof top cooling units with economizer options to support 4 months of free colling, cold isle containment and 17ft ceiling heights on each floor provide efficiency in maintaining consistent temp & humidity SLA’s.

7.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR NJFX?

additional physical NJFX redundancies. Our operations team has a deep understanding and experience level on the various Ciena, Infinera and new Cisco SLTE & DWDM platforms. Certifications from the manufacturers to support their OEM warranty services would lower customer costs and expedite response time. In addition, NJFX actively participates in hardening its facility with our U.S. Department of Homeland Security protective services teams. Proactively auditing and coordinating threat assessments, this relationship is supported locally at the state & federal level and is a partnership that conforms to U.S. critical infrastructure.

Using these security standards and coordinating backbone breakouts of internet traffic with over 20 physical routes will provide the internet a higher level of reliability than the traditional carrier hotels in urban environments. The internet is no longer a nice to have in our society as everything goes online. In 2022, NJFX will support the latency sensitive market by deploying wireless infrastructure for microwave and cellular services. STF

Celebrating our customers success and growing the NJFX ecosystem is always front and center. As we continue through our master plan of phased growth, we look forward to adding new facilities, providing

GIL SANTALIZ is the Founder and CEO of NJFX, as well as the visionary behind the development of NJFX as North America’s preeminent international hub for subsea communications. By interconnecting OTT’s, international carriers and multinational enterprise networks across three continents with over 20 US physical backhaul fiber options is unique.

In order to satisfy the market, Mr. Santaliz developed the concept of “Tier 3 by the Subsea,” with a concurrently maintainable design for cooling and power.

Keeping NJFX focused on the carrier neutral business and security it can provide enhanced interconnection reliability with a professional “MMR” Meet Me Room services and colocation for its subsea systems. The worlds largest global backbone networks can securely transition across the various unique metro and long-haul fiber network assets with bypass options around cities and non-secure carrier hotels. This is a paradigm shift from traditional backhaul to the nearest non-purpose-built Carrier Hotel bottlenecks found in congested areas such as New York City and northern New Jersey.

Mr. Santaliz was previously the CEO, Founder and Managing Member of 4Connections LLC, a metro fiber network provider he founded in 2001. Under Mr. Santaliz’s leadership, 4Connections pioneered the deployment of carrier-neutral dark fiber services for both New Jersey and New York City. In 2008, Mr. Santaliz successfully exited the business in a pre-emptive transaction with Lightpath, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cablevision. Prior to founding 4Connections, Mr. Santaliz, who has over two decades in the communications industry, was General Manager of a joint venture company between GPU Telecom and Telergy, which leased dark fiber network. During his early career, Mr. Santaliz held several management positions at the Williams Company and PSE&G. He began his career at MCI in New York, Atlanta and Mexico City. Recently, Mr. Santaliz served as a member of the Foundation for Morristown Medical Center Board of Trustees as well as the Morristown-Beard School Executive Board. He has also served as Interim CEO of fiber companies such as 24/7 Fiber Network and supported private equity groups such as Spire Capital through acquisition strategies. Today he also a member of the Submarine Networks EMEA and the PTC Advisory Council Mr. Santaliz received his Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

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FEATURE

THE CARRIER GUIDE

TO 20 TRAFFIC, TECHNOLOEGSY AND UNSUNG HERO

BY MATTIAS FRIDSTRÖM

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ccording to the Chinese Zodiac, 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. In Chinese culture, tigers are considered brave, competitive, unpredictable and confident. They are very charming and liked by others, but sometimes they can be irritable and overindulgent. In many ways, I can’t help but think this is a good metaphor for most telecom companies in our industry in general. Most of the time, you enjoy working with most players in the telecom ecosystem, but from time to time, you just cannot stand your supplier as you do not understand why things happen the way they do.

Our world was turned upside down in 2020 and continued to be un-normal throughout 2021 with an added “chipmageddon” to complicate the picture further. The growth continued from a traffic perspective, and many challenges will persist into 2022. Addressing these, we’ll need to relentlessly pursue our mission to ensure reliable, fast and secure connectivity across the globe. And in keeping with our traditional ‘Top 3’ predictions for the year ahead, here are a few thoughts about 2022.

022

THE TOP 3 GLOBAL CARRIER INDUSTRY TRENDS

1. Security is increasingly important. With the massive increase of traffic during the pandemic came a flood of attacks on various parts of the network. Hackers seem to find new ways of attacking their targets, and our industry needs to be at its very best to keep up with protecting networks from these anomalies. While security awareness has increased, 2022 will be the year when every service provider or operator will have to have a plan for protecting their network. From DDoS protection to firewalls and everything in between.

2. Public Internet and raw bandwidth can take you a long way. The circa 70,000 active AS networks that currently form the Internet has proven to be a great underlay for most network services needed by the industry. The great scale of a few solid global Internet backbones combined with regional and local networks form a great platform to grow services. With this in mind, paired with the increasingly skilled workforce in many Enterprises, means the services they buy should

be less and less sophisticated. Less managed solutions and increasingly more “raw” bandwidth between data centers is the best way forward for many Enterprise customers.

3. The future is open and disaggregated. If we believe the current component shortage will ease during 2022, we are in for a great year changing the way networks are built. While the traditional long-haul optical business is still slowly changing towards more disaggregation, the addition of 400G ZR optics has changed the playing field. Fully standardized pluggable components bring a wealth of opportunities to mix and match between different suppliers and still keep the operational side under control. In 2022 we will see most Operators and Service Providers dip their toes into this new world of building networks.

THE TOP 3 TECHNOLOGY AND TRAFFIC TRENDS

1. More intelligent. Performance data is pouring out of networks, yet very few service providers know what to do with all this data. The traditional skillset in an operations department is more technical, with loads of knowledge about how to physically repair cards and ports in the best way. With networks becoming increasingly dependent on software, these skillsets need to be replaced and supplemented with software engineer skills. In 2022 we will see companies focusing a lot to close this Figureknowl3: The 2Africa edge gap without replacing their entireSubmarine teams. The right Cable System withand the Pearls extension. company support paired with education an openness to change among the workforce will result in far more intelligent networks prepared for the future.

2. More Automated. More automation has been a target for many Operators for at least the last five years, yet many things are still dealt with completely manually. A lot of this falls back to unclear or unclean data in various systems. Weak and unstructured inventory systems, complicated delivery tools, and stand-alone billing systems are just a few examples of areas that could prevent telcos from becoming more automated. The past few years have shown signs of trueFigure automation, 4: The Echo andand Bifrost there are no signs that 2022 willdiverse not be an evenSubmarine better trans-Pacific Systems. year for automating many manual functions.Cable Finally, AI and ML provides some tangible results around running network services.

3. More Connected. Ericsson predicted back in 2009 that 50 000 000 000 devices will be connected 10 years later. While we still have not reached that number, at least more than 10 000 000 000 devices will be connected by the end of 2021. With more connections JANUARY 2022 | ISSUE 122

21

FEATURE comes more traffic and an increased awareness of how important telecom/Internet networks have become.

Politicians and other Authorities are finally becoming aware of the importance of great connectivity for practically every function in today’s society. With this comes the obvious increased vulnerability to cyber-crime and the increased tension between Countries around asset ownership and cyber espionage.

“Telecom” will again become a top topic for politicians.

THE TOP 3 AREAS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CARRIER BUSINESS

1. The network itself. For years it seemed like the only way for a Carrier to become more sustainable on the network side was to beg your colocation provider to buy more “green” energy. The data center industry has come a long way in their green thinking, focusing on renewable energy sources, smart cooling, and even heat recovery to reduce CO2 emissions. Still, the rest of how we build and operate networks is far behind. In 2022 there will be more focus on CO2 calculations, circular economy discussions and why we still “dig” networks as we did 30 years ago.

2. Your workforce. Parts of our industry have traditionally been very male dominant with an aging workforce as a result. With the industry more focused on software, it is a perfect time to use the advantage of a workforce diverse in both gender, age and nationality.

In 2022 many more companies will realize that a diverse workforce adds better decision making and becomes a much better place to work within. Initiatives like “Women in Tech” and “Fiber splicing summer schools,” among others, will be increasingly important.

3. The way you conduct your business. With the world becoming more connected and open comes further responsibilities for telco operators. With the public Internet being a trust-based network, every AS network needs to focus on its role. Anti-bribery, freedom of speech, limited corruption are just a few examples of areas that will play an even more important role during 2022. Companies that do not have trust from

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their customers or peers will disappear faster than ever before.

THE TOP 3 THINGS WHERE THE COST DOES NOT GO DOWN

1. Space. With real estate pricing more or less increasing every year, the spill-over effect on telecom colocation space is inevitable. As most data centers are located in prime locations close to large city centers where space is both scarce and costly, the problems seem to persist.

During 2022 we will see an increasing focus on smaller equipment and, more importantly, the removal of older and more sizeable gear.

2. Power. The cost of power (OPEX) is one of the largest challenges operators face today. Some of this is due to general power price increases on the electricity market, but some are driven by legacy equipment that is complex

“YOU CAN’T PREDICTU THE FUTURE, BUT YO CAN BE READY! and fragmented. Many operators run older gear simply because it still works. Why change it if it isn’t broken? The problem is that outdated equipment was not designed with efficiency in mind. In the past, increased performance was much more important than the efficiency or cost of Watt/ Mb. This is changing, and in 2022 Service Providers and Operators will challenge their Suppliers even further to have power on their minds when designing the next generation of equipment.

3. Skilled people. Without people who understand the mathematical complexities of network automation and streaming telemetry, it is unrealistic to assume that the major hurdles of true automation can be overcome.

While machines and software will do more and more for us, they still need to be designed and programmed to perform what we ask them to do. Skilled labor who combine industry expertise with software knowledge

does not come for free. In 2022 it will be even more important to have the workforce in place to meet all challenges the industry will force upon you.

THE TOP 3 SKILL GAPS IN THE CARRIER INDUSTRY

1. Finance people that know IP. Measuring IP traffic on a single port is not that difficult. Measuring traffic over many IP ports in many different time zones at 90 seconds intervals and then combining it into one understandable overview that ends up in an invoice to a customer is very different. The future of billing for IP services has become an art in itself. We need to find more financially skilled people to understand the IP business and continue serving customers with accurate data to back up the invoices sent to them.

2. IP people that know Optics. Recent developments around the 400G ZR and ZR+ area, the open ROADM initiative and XR optics have created a new world where IP and Optics are no longer two distinctly different “business”. Adding lasers to pluggables and, in some cases, just ignoring the optical layer between routers have identified the new need for more optical skills within the IP knowledgeable people. They previously only needed to know how short the distance was to the closest DWDM box, they now need to handle completely different distances and optical parameters.

In 2022 we will see major developments and installations here.

3. Optical people that understand finance — this is not so much of a skills gap as it reflects the cost scenario we have seen on optical gear the last couple of years compared to the developments within the IP business.

The use of merchant silicon and standardization have pushed down the cost of IP components, thus supporting the ever need by Carriers to lower the cost / Mb. The perceived lack of competition in the optical industry has forced Carriers to push for more disaggregation and openness. In the end, this will be solved and progress will really be made during 2022.

THE TOP 3 UNSUNG HEROES

1. The office cleaner. With one more year of people working from home you must admire the cleaning staff that has to clean a 2,000-man office that typically hosts 50-100 employees a day. Unfortunately, with new mutations of the coronavirus constantly appearing combined with a new view of working from anywhere, we may never fill the offices as we did before. Let’s hope we have enough people coming for the office

cleaners to have a job.

2. The sea cable diver. Taking a swim close to the shore in the Mediterranean Sea to locate a broken cable sounds like a job anyone of us would love. However, doing the same in a frozen Baltic Sea is something different.

Unfortunately, not all sea cables are cut in the warmest waters closest to the shore. For deep water recovery and repair, we have remotely operated submerged vehicles, but for cuts in very shallow water you simply need divers with no fear of freezing to death during recovery and repair.

3. “The spaghetti planner”. Most of the current networks have developed during the last 20-25 years. During those years, many cable routes have been added, each to connect two or more buildings / Point of Presence (PoPs) inside a city area with many times “as short as possible” as the only guidance. With new demands coming and some customers asking for triple diversity out of a city to another city, todays route planners need “Sherlock Holmes” skills to find three fiber routes that do not cross each other in any section of their way between different PoPs. City networks looking like spaghetti is not uncommon these days.

Predictions are, of course, just predictions, and we wish everyone in the telecom ecosystem – from business partners to end-users and the companies in between, a brighter year ahead, with health and prosperity. Though, one thing is certain that 2022 will be full of excitement and change. As we always say here at Telia Carrier, “You can’t predict the future, but you can be ready!” STF MATTIAS FRIDSTRÖM is Chief Evangelist of Telia. With over 20 years in the telecommunications industry, Mattias Fridström can be considered a veteran – but his enthusiasm hasn’t faded.

Mattias combines expert knowledge with anecdotes from behind the scenes and deep insight into the networked economy: What are the challenges of tomorrow for network providers? How can we meet ever-increasing traffic demand and customer quality expectations within the same cost frame?

Mattias holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Since joining Telia in 1996, he has worked in a number of senior roles within Telia Carrier and most recently as CTO. Since July 2016 he is Telia Carriers Chief Evangelist.

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FEATURE

21

TOP FOR 2021 The Most-Read Submarine Cable Industry Stories of the Year

BY SUBTEL FORUM STAFF

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D

espite the ongoing challenges that 2021 placed in their paths, companies and their people everywhere made a positive impact on the submarine cable industry during the past year, such as building interesting new systems and practicing leadership in some rather tough times.

And SubTel Forum tried to cover it all with at least one new post every business day in NewsNow — 347 posts in all — sharing breaking submarine cable industry news.

We are proud to report that you responded in a big way.

SubTel Forum’s website averaged more than 1,020 page views a day in 2021, amounting to nearly 371,000 views

NUMBER VIEWS 17,847

DATE

CATEGORY

1/11/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

Reliance will construct the IAX and IEX submarine cable systems to enhance international connectivity to and from India.

5,487

5/17/21

Future Systems

The IONIAN submarine cable will connect Crotone, Italy, with Preveza, Greece and compliment two terrestrial fibre rings in Italy and Greece.

SEAIOCMA Extends Global Marine has completed Global Marine more than 600 repairs in its Maintenance 35-year history with SEAIOCMA Contract a contract that is now renewed for another 5 years.

AAG Still Not Fixed The APG submarine cable, just And APG Now Has repaired last month, broke again Another Fault December 13, and AAG has had a fault for several months.

4,591

5/18/21

Future Systems

2,399

7/20/21

State of the Industry

1,873

12/20/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

1,584

6/23/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

#

TITLE

DESCRIPTION

1

Two international undersea optical cables, IA and APG, had problems

Problems with IA & APG cable systems, that make up the majority of Internet connection capacity from Vietnam to international.

Reliance to Construct Submarine Cables to India

2

3

4

5

6

this year. We know that 2022 will bring even more news worth sharing.

But before we step boldly into the new year, let us look back at the posts that interested you most in 2021. Here is how this list works: We have calculated the 21 NewsNow posts that received the most page views in 2021 and were published in 2021.

Where did we get all these stories? Many came directly from you, our loyal SubTel Forum reader. And so, in 2022 and beyond, please keep sending in stories. You might just see your story become a future News Now post.

New IONIAN Cable System Will Connect Greece And Italy

AE-1 Undersea Fiber Repairing work was initially Optic Cable Repairs scheduled to start on June 22 Delayed and finish on July 13. The the timeline has now been shortened.

IMAGE

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FEATURE SednaLink will connect Iqaluit, NU and Clarenville, NL with 2,104 km fibre optic submarine cable.

1,390

1/5/21

Future Systems

The repairs on the Sea-Me-We cable system are scheduled for January 31, 2021 and are scheduled to last only a few hours.

1,271

1/25/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

Pakistan The work to remove the fault Experiencing in the SEA-Me-We-5 system Another Cable Fault continues, and ISPs are being shifted to spare capacity maintained by the company

1,121

2/18/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

Dare-1 Cable System Now In Service

The 4,900 km long DARE-1 submarine cable system connects Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya and is now active after more than 5 years of work.

1,102

3/30/21

Current Systems

2020 SAT-3 & WACS Faults Possibly Caused by Massive Mudslide

A just published study has shown mudslide off West Africa as the possible cause for the the SAT-3 and WACS faults.

1,072

6/2/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

Telecom Egypt Plans Launching HARP Submarine Cable

Telecom Egypt announced its plans to launch the Hybrid African Ring Path (HARP) submarine cable system by 2023.

1,051

3/3/21

Future Systems

A timeline of when will the IMEWE submarine cable will be restored has not been disclosed but could take hours or even days.

994

2/12/21

13

Pakistan’s IMEWE Submarine Cable System Offline

Cable Faults & Maintenance

Mauritius Telecom announced the problems are due to repair work off the coast of West Africa and should be complete

by June 1.

984

5/27/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

14

Internet In Mauritius Will Be Slow until June 1

7

8

9

10

11

12

26

CanArctic Inuit Networks’ SednaLink Fibre to eliminate Nunavut and Nunatsiavut Connectivity Crisis

by November 2022 Sea-Me-We-5 to Undergo Repairs This Week

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18

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Internet Resumes After Repairs To IA and APG Complete

Vietnam’s internet speed is back to normal after repair work on IA and APG submarine cables successfully completed.

980

3/1/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

AAE-1 Fault Repairs Two errors on the S1H branch Not Anticipated of the AAE-1 submarine cable Until November are scheduled to be fixed on November 2-14, a local Internet service provider.

Brazil Joins Chile Chile announced that Brazil had for Humboldt Sub- signed on as a partner to build marine Cable the first submarine fiber optic cable to connect South America with Asia.

Vietnam Internet A fault was detected along the Cable Cable Broken S1i branch of the AAG that conThird Time In A Year nects Vietnam and Hong Kong, the third time the cable had been broken this year.

TOPAZ Submarine Topaz consists of a main cable Fibre-Optic Cable between Port Alberni, BC and, in Update Japan, Shima to the South, and Takahagi to the North.

858

9/23/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

815

5/13/21

Future Systems

812

11/1/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

780

7/15/21

Future Systems

Alcatel Submarine Networks Signs Contract With Equinor To Build A DC/FOTM Subsea Control Infrastructure For Northern 20 Lights CO2 Transport And Storage Project

ASN DC/FOTM will provide independent high electrical power and fiber connectivity to the subsea CO2 injection wells.

770

1/7/21

Data Centres

Asia-Africa-Europe 1 Undersea Cable Has Problem Again

The AAE-1 undersea fiber optic cable had a problem on the S1H section on September 4, affecting Internet connection from Vietnam to Singapore.

772

9/8/21

Cable Faults & Maintenance

21

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FEATURE

LOOKING FORWARD We recently took the opportunity to reach out to a number of industry colleagues and asked them to scry with crystal balls and reveal their prognostications for the year ahead – and this is what they foretold!

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D to 2022 Industry Predictions for the Year Ahead

SIMON WEBSTER DIRECTOR, SUBMARINE NETWORKS EMEA NEC Simon Webster has a degree in Physics from Oxford University, plus master’s and Business qualifications from the University of London and Henley Management College, respectively. He has been with NEC since 1994, and currently heads NEC’s business in EMEA for submarine cable networks and ocean observation systems. He has held many previous roles over this time, in areas including terrestrial optics, access networks and mobile applications.

A Strengthened Virtuous Circle - As a result of the way we have adapted to travel limitations in the last two years, we can expect changes in our working styles to have long-term effects. For many people, video calls and home working will be features of business life for years to come, and that of course means more live streaming content. 5G networks are now a reality for many, and we expect that the virtuous circle formed between; (a) the availability of global end-to-end capacity, and (b) the appetite for users and developers to consume that capacity, to strengthen in 2022.

Growing Content and Global Capacity Demand Looking forward, new ways of connecting people are being imagined and developed which will demand ever more connectivity and capacity from communication networks.

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FEATURE Game-changing technologies such as AR and VR are advancing at pace, along with other co-enablers in the realms of commerce, privacy, and other areas. It is perhaps unlikely that 2022 will be described by future historians as “the year of the metaverse”, but there is every reason to expect growing demand for content and global capacity in the current decade.

Growing High Fiber Count Cable Demand - Given the above, the outlook for international subsea capacity demand is highly positive. In technology terms, this demand will be mainly met in 2022 by high fiber count cables. We are currently manufacturing 24 fiber pair cables for imminent deployment on transoceanic trunk systems, with other innovations such as multicore fiber following along shortly afterwards – subject as ever to considerations of techno-economic viability, which underpin our industry.

Proving Corporate Social Responsibility Credentials Finally, on a different level, we are seeing increasing demands from cable investors to prove our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) credentials, not just in terms of headline environmental sustainability numbers, but also in demonstrating leadership in deeper supply chain management, covering issues such as health and safety, resilience to rapidly-changing market conditions, and so on. 2022 will see no change in this direction of travel.

PATRICIO REY GENERAL MANAGER DESARROLLO PAIS Patricio Alberto Rey Sommer is General Manager of Desarrollo País (Fondo de Infraestructura S.A.) and an industrial civil engineer, with a master’s degree in engineering sciences from the Pontif icia Universidad Católica de Chile. In his professional career, he has worked in operational and f inancial areas of various companies such as Procter & Gamble, Budnik and Prize. He has also worked in the public sector, planning for the Regional Ministerial Health Authorities and Mayor of the Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins Region, where he led reconstruction projects after the earthquake of February 22, 2010. Previously, he covered the role of Manager of the National Network, of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (the union that brings together the main Chilean builders, contractors, and concessionaires). He currently holds the position of General Manager of Desarrollo País (Fondo de Infraestructura S.A.) from where he seeks to

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promote the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure for Chile.

Hybrid work is here to stay - We have tasted the benefits of combining remote with onsite work. This will keep pressure on the global network requirements and even increase traffic as new innovative solutions will be offered to workers and companies. We are seeing companies selling part of their offices aiming on keeping this model. More extreme solutions could allow workers to work from very far away blurring national borders and lightening pressure on real estate markets.

Living with the Pandemic - We will have to find a way to live with the pandemic. Booster shots will be provided every semester and the fastest we resume business as usual and leverage our new routines with communication technology the most competitive we will be. Business travel should resume at a lower (more essential) level but arrive to some normality.

Antarctica Connectivity - Serious projects to connect the last continent to be reached by High Speed Fiber optic networks (Antarctica) will be in place to be executed ASAP. Either from the southernmost part of the South American continent or from the New Zealand area, Antarctica will be conquered, and 2022 is a crucial year to forge the initiatives.

Science organizations are looking at this very closely and are eager to chip in.

TIM DOIRON SENIOR DIRECTOR SOLUTIONS MARKETING INFINERA Tim Doiron is Sr. Director, Solution Marketing at Infinera, where he focuses on innovative networking solutions that include open optical networking, disaggregated routing, next-generation mobile transport, and intelligent software automation. In this role, Tim leads the global marketing team responsible for go-to-market strategies and communications programs. Built upon open, disaggregated, and programmable network innovation, Infinera’s solutions enable network operators to increase networking capacity and visibility while accelerating service velocity and simplifying operations.

Tim brings more than 25 years of networking and telecommunications experience across business and technical organizations, including roles in marketing, product management, and

LOOKING FORWARD engineering in executive and managerial roles at vendor and service provider companies, including Coriant, Tellabs, ARRIS, Cadant, Ericsson, and AT&T Mobility. Tim was also a Principal Analyst at ACG Research. Tim is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has authored numerous articles. He holds an MBA from Webster University, an M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University. He also holds eight patents and is a member of IEEE and the Optical Society (OSA).

Supply Constraints Will Continue Into 2022 - If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is about the nature and dependency of our global supply chains. From construction materials to the chips that power our phones, laptops, and automobiles; to servers that power the network. As we approach our second year with the pandemic, companies are rethinking the resiliency and diversity of their supply chains, as well as the amount of vertical integration they have internally and under their direct control.

While supply constraints will continue into 2022, by creating supplier diversity and more deeply integrating their solutions, vendors should emerge with an enhanced ability to supply products to customers on time and within budget.

800G Goes Big - The mass adoption of 800G coherent technology in 2022 will create new opportunities for service providers and their networks. Legacy submarine networks will get lifespan and capacity extensions, while modern cables will push capacity to an incredible 28 Tb/s per fiber pair. 800G also enables the cost-effective transport of 400G client services literally everywhere. 2022 is also the year that 400G interfaces hit routers. The combination of programmability and advanced technologies like 96 Gbaud symbol rates, second-generation digital subcarriers, and long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping is enabling superior performance vs. prior generations at 800 Gb/s, but also at 700 Gb/s, 600 Gb/s and 400 Gb/s. Programmability also means 800 G transmission technology is applicable to more networks at any reach, including fixed- or flexible-grid channel spacings and legacy or modern fiber optic cables.

The ability to provide increased capacity per fiber with fewer wavelengths and less equipment creates compelling economics for accelerated 800 Gb/s coherent adoption in submarine, long-haul, DCI, and metro networks with limited fiber availability.

Submarine SDM Cables Hit Their Stride - After an initial surge in demand for submarine network capacity triggered by Covid-19, the underlying trend in subsea shows

no signs of slowing down. But one of the challenges is that 800G coherent technology is also pushing ever closer to the theoretical limit (also known as the Shannon Limit) for submarine cables of all types. The industry foresaw this challenge several years ago and has been developing a new cable architecture dubbed Space Division Multiplexing (SDM).

While it takes several years to plan and deploy a submarine cable, the first SDM systems are now coming on-line and carrying live traffic. More of these systems are due to go live in 2022 and the additional capacity they bring in routes like the Atlantic Ocean will soon exceed the total capacity of all existing transatlantic cables combined. New cables also increase capacity to the rapidly developing African continent by a factor of four. The roadmap for future SDM designs isn’t stopping either as new designs are already describing Petabit scale cables in the foreseeable future.

Open Optical Networking (OON) Becomes a Requirement - While open optical networking (OON) is common in subsea networks today, OON has been less common in terrestrial. With a variety of optical engine technologies coming from multiple suppliers deployed in heterogeneous environments with diverse network elements, including routers and optical transponders, network operators realize that they cannot afford to miss out on the next generation of pluggable or embedded optical engine technology. They must embrace open optical networking to avoid missing out and hurting network competitiveness. Since increased operational complexity is a top OON concern, advanced software solutions that ease the insertion and operationalization of next-generation transponders onto third party line systems Manager will emerge in 2022. OON is also an imperative to enable optical engine sourcing from multiple suppliers, reducing supply chain risk.

Carbon Neutral Goals Will Be Prioritized in the Boardroom - Companies are no longer just thinking about incremental improvements when it comes to carbon neutral goals. With countries and companies focused on reducing their carbon footprint and overall power consumption, 2022 will be the year when green network initiatives move onto network operator executive dashboards. While nearterm achievements are necessary, network operators are also beginning to set ambitious long-term goals. These ambitions will require both incremental improvements for today’s network architectures and vision to re-imagine tomorrow’s. Technology innovations like XR optics with support for point-to-multipoint architectures can provide leapfrog or step-function improvements in power and footprint by reducing the number of transceivers by almost JANUARY 2022 | ISSUE 122

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FEATURE 50% and eliminating the need for intermediate electrical aggregation. If you don’t set goals and objectives, you’re going to miss out. Demand for network capacity will continue to grow, from the access edge to metro, long-haul, and submarine networks, traffic growth is putting pressure on our networks and our supply chains. Increased bandwidth growth at the edge of the network, whether coming from residential broadband, 5G, or enterprise services, is causing network operators to rethink their network architectures and management. Despite the delays and the challenges we expect to see in 2022, advances in 800G embedded optical engines, additional SDM submarine cable activations, and an embrace of open optical networking in terrestrial networks, I am incredibly excited about the future of optical networking in 2022 and beyond. I wish you a safe and successful year to come.

JIM FAGAN CHIEF STRATEGY AND REVENUE OFFICER GLOBAL CLOUD XCHANGE Jim Fagan is Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer at Global Cloud Xchange (GCX).

He is a transformative and proven Technology Executive with 20+ years of experience spanning across private & public companies, private equity owned to large publicly traded multinational companies across the US, Asia Pacific, and China.

Track record of cross functional success with a strong financial background, deep technical product, operations, sales, and general management expertise. Ability to create strategy and operationally deliver while also building and driving disruptive technologies into the market. Possesses experience in Capital Markets, bond and equity with strong M&A experience including integration. Considered an industry expert in Cloud, Data Center and Software Defined Networks (SDN), frequently speaking at industry leading events.

APAC, Middle East Subsea Capacity Demand to Grow on 5G, Content - Global internet and cloud capacity is growing fast, and subsea cables provide the backbone to support that growth. In 2021, the industry witnessed continued growth and significant upticks in Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East capacity demand. We see that trend continuing. This is driven by accelerating demand for content in these markets combined with delays in planned additional capacity in the market. As hyperscalers expand

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closer to the end-user, enterprises still need seamless connectivity back to their primary cloud. That’s the only way the product works. Enterprises in countries where providers don’t have a cloud presence need to go subsea to connect.

In 2022, the industry can expect a continued focus on Europe, the Middle East, and India as well as APAC, driven by accelerating 5G rollouts in these markets. At the heart of this growth is increasing content consumption, including popular social media platforms, streaming, and gaming.

DR. JERRY BROWN TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OCEAN CABLES LTD. Dr. Jerry Brown, Technical Director, Ocean Cables Ltd., provides solutions and independent consultancy services to the subsea cable industry. He has held Technical positions with Hengtong Marine, Ocean Specialists Inc., JDR Cable Systems and Alcatel Submarine Networks.

Jerry has 30+ years’ experience in the subsea industry. Working in R&D, Engineering design, Marine Operations (onshore and offshore), in Project Management and most recently with umbilical and fiber optic cable manufacturing has given Jerry a rounded experience of wet plant systems.

He was responsible for the start-up of the JDR umbilical manufacturing facility in Thailand and for working with OSI & Chevron on the CAT-Submarine-Cable-System providing connectivity to 9 offshore-platforms.

Subsea Cable Maintenance - The subsea cable maintenance sector is expected to produce some surprises, with more new build vessels and conversions announced in the next 12 months. The industry will see new owners and operators enter the industry especially in shallow water services and with modular spreads for fiber optic repeatered cable repairs in remote areas.

System Design - The first 32 fiber pair repeatered telecoms system will be announced this year!

Subsea Cable Owners and Suppliers - System owners will become more diverse with additional (yes even more) investment from Data Center Operators to secure capacity for their own Networks. Mergers & Acquisitions will be a regular feature in the weekly news updates. Don’t be surprised if there is another shake up in the ownership of key system suppliers / manufacturers.

LOOKING FORWARD SMART Cables - This will be the year marked as the real start of SMART cable networks. The dual use of submarine cable systems for Scientific Monitoring and Reliable Telecommunications termed SMART systems will be turned into reality with new project announcements and new technical solutions to facilitate the construction of new regional systems.

SEAN BERGIN CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT APTELECOM Sean Bergin is Co-Founder and President of APTelecom. Sean has been instrumental in building APTelecom into a globally recognized leader in telecom and due diligence consulting, elevating from a start-up business to an award-winning global organization which has generated over US $400 million in sales for clients.

Sean has significant management experience at both national and international levels at Telstra & BT. Bergin has also served as Director of Sales for Australia Japan Cable, an international wholesale submarine cable system linking Australia and Japan.

Sean is also the President & Chair of the Board of Governors for Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) and is a frequent speaker and panelist within the ICT sector.

Sean has worked and resided in SE Asia for more than 20 years.

Post Covid World for Digital Infrastructure in 2022 and Beyond - From a global infrastructure / subsea point of view, the Internet has withstood the onslaught of increased demand generated as a consequence of Covid surprisingly well. Global growth in worldwide data consumption certainly spiked when Covid hit hard early on, and the subsea industry responded brilliantly, activating additional capacity as rapidly as possible. We expect however that although the subsea elements continue to provide content, services, and access reliably, the focus will shift towards enhancing last mile networks and edge access to support the ‘new normal’ with many organizations now embracing work from home environments.

Data Centers and Fiber - We anticipate seeing closer alignment between data centers and subsea cables. Data Centers typically offer open access environments providing rich ecosystems for subsea cables to directly interconnect with. This has a multitude of benefits from a com-

mercialization perspective, and we see this trend as taking further hold throughout 2022. Open access cables are the future, and this can only truly be achieved in open access Data Centers.

Nonuser Generated Demand - AI, Blockchain, Crypto and edge computing account for a significant portion of internet traffic / consumption. In 2018, 33% of all traffic was machine to machine. In 2021, this has jumped to 50% (ref: Gartner). We expect this trend to continue and accelerate in 2022. This creates opportunities for the industry as a whole but does place pressure on data center space and of course, the need for greener power consumption models.

ROBERT LINGLE, JR. SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKET STRATEGY OFS Robert Lingle, Jr. is Senior Director of Market Strategy at OFS in Norcross, GA and has served as Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has a research background in short pulse lasers and their application to fundamental processes in liquids and interfaces, with a Ph.D. in physics from LSU and a postdoc in surface physics at UC Berkeley. At Bell Labs and now OFS, he did research in glass science & fiber design and managed the development & commercialization of multiple new optical fiber types. He is currently responsible for helping his colleagues at OFS understand and influence market & technology trends that drive our industry. His team also conducts applications research in high speed interconnects over MMF, coherent transmission over large area, ultra-low loss fibers, including techno-economic analysis of space-division multiplexing for submarine cable systems. Dr. Lingle is chair of the IEEE P802.3db Short Reach Fiber Task Force, previously chairing the IEEE P802.3cm 400 Gb/s over MMF Task Force.

Higher Capacity At Lower Cost-Per-Bit - In 2022, we expect to see very strong interest in 24-fiber pair, trans-oceanic cables that continue to leverage large effective area, ultra-low loss (ULL) fibers, enabling 500 Tb/s cable capacity. The industry cut its teeth on SDM (space-division multiplexing) with 12 and 16-fiber pair systems over the past five years, and 24-fiber pair cables are now the practical state-of-the-art. The use of 110 or 125 mm2 fibers allows significant reduction in fiber loss vs. 80 mm2 fiber, which JANUARY 2022 | ISSUE 122

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FEATURE is critical to efficient electrical power usage in SDM cables, even with 18 kV power feed now available. This will continue to support higher capacity at lower cost-per-bit.

Interest in C+L Band Technology - We expect to see strong bid interest in C+L band technology in 2022, with selection of C+L band not later than 2023, as the next step beyond 24 fiber pair C-band only systems. The first – and only – C+L band system to date is the PLCN cable that terminates in Hong Kong, miring it in geopolitical turmoil and security concerns. Nevertheless, the technology itself is solid, providing a means to take another step in the direction of higher capacity and lower cost-per-bit. Low and stable fiber attenuation across the C- and L-bands, improvements to L-band erbium-doped fiber, and thinner fiber coatings (e.g., 200 mm) will enable cables to reach or exceed 1 Pb/s capacity.

Exploration of ULL Multi-Core Fiber - We also expect to see continued exploration of ULL multi-core fiber (MCF) in 2022, in preparation for the multi-Pb/s cables required to support future user experiences known as the metaverse, augmented reality, and ambient computing. MCF enables two or four cores in one strand of glass, turning a 24-fiber pair cable design into a 48- or 96-fiber pair cable. While MCF seems like an obvious way to increase capacity, its adoption will also add cost and complexity. Significant development is needed in all aspects of a submarine cable system to facilitate the adoption of this future technology, and forward-thinking companies may be wise to study it now.

ALEX VAXMONSKY DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR GLOBAL SERVICE PROVIDERS EQUINIX As the Director of Global Networks at Equinix, Alex Vaxmonsky is uniquely positioned to provide insight into datacenters and the ecosystems of service providers, web content and applications. He has significant in driving strategic partnerships and managing infrastructure installations for subsea and satellite deployments at Equinix. With a deep background in both wireless and wireline environments, Alex’s team is focused on strategies that support all varieties of networking connectivity to accelerate the monetization of services at the edge.

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Big Tech Companies Will Continue to Invest in Subsea Network Infrastructure, Particularly In Developing Markets - 2021 was one of the biggest years on record for subsea cable investments. As this investment boom continues in 2022, it will look different from the one we experienced several decades back during the dot-com era. Major content and application providers like Google and Meta will build on their advantages by investing in the infrastructure through which users access their content and applications. In particular, they’ll look to establish themselves in developing markets that feature huge user bases but have received little infrastructure investment before now. For example, Meta will use subsea cable investments to gain a foothold in markets like Indonesia, which is already the fourth-largest user base for Facebook (World Population Review, “Facebook Users by Country 2021”). By investing in digital infrastructure in places where governments and local telecoms may not have the resources to do so, Meta and other big tech companies will establish their presence in those markets for years to come. In most cases, they’ll start with subsea cables and grow from there.

The First Retail Satellite Communications Network Will Launch, But Challenges Will Remain - Satellite communications providers like SpaceX, OneWeb and Telesat are all working to prove the private space industry is more than just hype. The transport cost of launching a satellite—defined by the SWaP formula, which considers size, weight and power—has fallen quickly over the past few years. However, companies must also optimize the terminal cost of receiving signals back on Earth if they want to reach their intended market. A SpaceX antenna currently costs about $500; since satellite internet is primarily aimed at developing economies, this number needs to come down to about $300 before it really makes sense financially. SpaceX will launch a production retail communications satellite service by the end of 2022, but the challenges they’ll face around terminal costs and government regulations will ultimately lead them to decide their time and resources are better spent elsewhere. They will revert to a private network provider within the next three years, opening the door for OneWeb to emerge as the true winner in the retail communications space race.

The First Private Hybrid (RF/Optical) Communications Satellite Will Launch, Forcing Us to Rethink the Edge - In recent years, “edge” has become one of the most overused (and meaningless) words in enterprise networking. Thanks to new developments in space communications—such as the launch of NASA’s Laser Communi-

LOOKING FORWARD cations Relay Demonstration (LCRD) (NASA, “NASA’s Laser Communications Tech, Science Experiment Safely in Space.” December 2021) —we need a fundamentally new understanding of what and where the edge is. In the future, signals from space will be able to reach everywhere on Earth, which means we must also think of the edge as being everywhere. LCRD shows how converting RF signals to infrared lasers can help transport data 100 times faster and more securely. Within the next year, Commstar will build on the success of LCRD to become the first private company to launch an unprecedented hybrid (Optical & RF) communications satellite in cislunar orbit. There have been optical satellites launched before but none with converged platforms and absolutely none in cislunar. This new satellite will rely on an ecosystem of partners to help amplify laser signals and get them back to Earth; without amplification, the satellite simply wouldn’t be able to overcome the sheer distance (and latency) between the Earth and the Moon. In addition, ground stations will start to proliferate on Earth to enable an edge-anywhere approach.

CHRIS VAN ZINNICQ BERGMANN INVESTMENT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER WFN STRATEGIES Chris van Zinnicq Bergmann is an independent consultant and owner of VZB Consultancy B.V., based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Investment Development Manager of WFN Strategies.

Chris has 25+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry and has had postings in Europe, the U.S. and Asia with companies such as BT, AT&T-Unisource, Global Crossing, Pacnet and Global Cloud Xchange. His main areas of expertise are the commercial and financial aspects of subsea cable projects (funding and co-investment arrangements), M&A and business development. Chris holds a master’s degree in Dutch law from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK. A Return to More “Normal” Global Bandwidth Growth In the first place, the year 2022 will hopefully bring us what 2021 in the end could not deliver: a return to more “normal” conditions in so many aspects of our lives. While the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has elevated the role and importance of the telecommunications industry, one thing that (according

to TeleGeography) did return last year to its long term trend has been global internet bandwidth. After the momentous shifts in traffic patterns and volumes caused in 2020 by the consequences of the pandemic, global bandwidth growth in 2021 returned to its multi-year average growth trend of 29% (over the period 2017-2021). That said, this still represents an almost threefold increase of bandwidth since 2017 to a total of 786 Tbps and if growth stays on track this year, global internet bandwidth will exceed 1 Pbps for the first time.

Sustained Growth in Spending by Enterprises on Cloud Services - As business models and operations in all shapes and forms move more and more online, this will drive the underlying demand for enabling platforms and services in the cloud. According to Gartner, spending on public cloud services is expected to have grown by 23% in 2021 and based on a report from Cisco, cloud data centers will have carried 95% of total data center traffic globally in 2021.

Convergence of Virtualized Network Platforms and the Cloud - This trend is becoming evident in the implementation of 5G networks, particularly in the U.S. with examples such as AT&T outsourcing its platform to Azure and Dish building its platform from scratch on AWS. As this trend gets traction globally, another massive shift of data traffic into the cloud will continue to build in 2022 (an interesting question could be whether in the longer term this might lead to consolidation between cloud providers and telco’s (Microsoft acquiring AT&T…?) and how this would be viewed by regulators).

Combined Thrust of Increased Data Traffic from Content Streaming, Online Gaming, Edge Computing, AI, VR, IoT, Big Data, Etc. - As billions more devices get connected every year (the total count of all connected devices came to around 45 billion in 2021 according to some estimates), this will be another major driver of global bandwidth growth.

All these trends will drive significant further investment in data centers dispersed more and more across the globe (particularly in Asia and Africa). As strong connectivity between these data centers will be vital, this in turn will trigger further expansion of fiber infrastructure, from local networks to intercontinental subsea cable systems. Such infrastructure projects draw a lot of attention from the various players in the financial sector and many funds will be interested to invest in projects with solid business cases.

So, for the subsea cable sector in particular, it should see in 2022 a continuation of the positive trends that have been evident over the past years. STF

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he ongoing digitisation of Africa presents a significant opportunity for all organisations involved with the transportation and utilisation of digital data – from submarine cable owners, fixed-line/mobile telcos, content providers, application developers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), through to systems integrators, multinational corporations, enterprises and small businesses.

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BY CHRIS WOOD DEMOGRAPHICS

Africa is the second most populous continent in the world and has the fastest growing population, at 2.49%1 per annum. Indeed, UNICEF2 predicts that by 2050 a quarter of the world’s population and 40% of the world’s youth (those aged under 18), will be African.

1 Worldometer, 2021 2 UNICEF, August 2014. Generation 2030/Africa Report

CA

Whilst currently only 43.2%3 of Africa’s estimated 1.37 billion population use the internet (compared to 65.6% for the world as a whole), the number of users has grown by an eye-watering 13,058%4 since 2000.

Also, taking into account the greater propensity for internet usage among teenagers and younger adults, the use of internet-based services, applications and equipment is clearly set to continue to rise steeply - with more than 40% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population under the age of 15.

INTERNET-BASED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Driven by improved access to reliable, lower-cost, high-speed bandwidth and cheaper, high-specification handsets, the use of internet-based social networking applications, music and video streaming, online gaming, etc. is on a steep upward curve.

Africa is seeing significant growth in global streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as in offerings from national/regional streaming companies like Showmax.

This growth has been driven by a variety of factors, including improved accessibility, more African content and improved end-user experience resulting from the increasing migration of content to Africa.

Netflix is predicted to more than double its streaming subscribers in Africa to 5.84 million5 by 2026 – from an estimated 2.61 million at the end of 2021. The same research6 also fore3 4 5 6

Internet World Stats, 2021 Internet World Stats, 2021 Digital TV Research, Africa SVOD Forecasts, August 2021 Digital TV Research, Africa SVOD Forecasts, August 2021

cast that in the next five years the total number of subscription video-on-demand users in Africa would triple to 15.06 million, from the 5.11 million expected at the end of 2021.

Facebook provides a good insight into what is happening in the social networking sector, with 13.1 million subscribers added in Africa between December 2020 and June 2021, taking its total to 268.5 million7 subscribers.

There is also a wave of new high-speed, low latency, connectivity-dependent technology and services emerging onto the market which is further accelerating demand for high-quality, low latency bandwidth.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a phrase that was largely unheard of a few years ago, but it is rapidly becoming a part of everyday conversation as more and more physical objects, such as multi-media entertainment centres, security cameras and heating/cooling systems, are embedded with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies, communicating over the Internet or other communications networks.

There are now a myriad of drone applications – from mobility and transportation to security, exploration and photography - enabled by the more widespread accessibility of affordable, low latency connectivity.

Many other capabilities have also been made possible by improved connectivity, including e-health services and automated factory management.

These developments continue to enrich the lives of people throughout Africa, whilst underpinning ongoing increases in internet uptake and bandwidth utilisation across the continent.

MOBILE MARKETS

Mobile devices are by far the most popular way to access internet-based services and applications in Africa. As device costs and usage tariffs fall and average income levels rise, mobile service uptake - driven by the desire to connect to such applications - will continue its inexorable rise.

In 2020, the number of people in sub-Saharan Africa subscribing to mobile services increased by almost 20 million compared to 2019, to 495 million people8 (46% of the population).

The number of unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to continue to rise, further and faster, to 6159 million by 2025 - an increase of 24.2% from 2020.

AFRICA’S CHANGING DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

There are a number of factors at play which are changing the nature of the digital landscape in Africa.

7 Internet World Stats, 2021 8 GSMA, The Mobile Economy, 2021 9 GSMA, The Mobile Economy, 2021

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In addition to the fundamental, end-user driven rise in the popularity of internet-based applications and the increased number of digital products and services in use, Covid has recently forced many companies to provide employees with home working capabilities. The evolving deployment models of major content providers and cloud operators are driving change as they seek new opportunities on the continent, whilst greater regulation around data localisation and data residency/sovereignty is also impacting Africa’s digital landscape, driving demand for more local data storage capabilities.

To keep pace with exponential increases in demand for high-quality, low latency service performance, companies throughout the international connectivity supply chain are investing heavily in subsea and terrestrial network infrastructure, and in data centre estate and services for the storage, processing and exchange of digital data.

SUBSEA

Subsea cables are the fundamental cornerstone for the international transit of digitised information into and out of Africa.

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Africa’s international subsea capacity is being boosted in two ways: through construction of new subsea cable systems and the technology-driven upgrade of existing cables.

A number of new cable systems are currently under construction, with new capacity scheduled to come online from mid-2022 onwards. In total, this will add more than 350 Tbps to the continent’s subsea inventory, bring improved reliability - through the availability of new cable landing points and subsea routes - and reduce costs, through the increased application of open-access principles at landing stations.

1. The Google-led Equiano cable will run between Portugal and South Africa, landing at key points on Africa’s western seaboard and with a design capacity of 144 Tbps.

2. The Facebook-supported 2Africa cable, which will interconnect 33 countries including 18 in Africa, will have a design capacity of 180 Tbps.

3. The PEACE cable, which will run along Africa’s east coast and connect to Asia and Europe, will have a design capacity of up to 16 Tbps per fibre pair.

Further new cables planned for Africa over the next few years include SAEx, which will extend connectivity to South America from the west coast, and T3 which will improve connectivity on the east.

One of the key cable systems currently being upgraded is EASSy, which links South Africa with Sudan via landing points in Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comores, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti. This latest upgrade is expected to be completed in Q1 2022 and will provide an additional 4Tbps of capacity on the system.

TERRESTRIAL

Deployment of terrestrial connectivity continues apace, extending coverage to an ever-wider range of locations and enhancing service performance through capacity increases and improved route diversity.

1. Laying more terrestrial fibre and building hyperscale network infrastructure which links directly to the international subsea cables. According to Africa Bandwidth Maps10, over 75,000 km of newly-operational terrestrial fibre-optic network entered service in the 12 months to June 2021 – a 7.2% increase on the 1,072,648.9 km in service in June 2020.

2. Extending metro networks into new, high-demand locations, bringing additional services into key conurbations where need is greatest.

DATA CENTRES

New data centre deployment continues in a growing range of countries, enabling the wholesale and enterprise community to house and process digital content in conveniently located, shared facilities.

A variety of businesses are deploying large-scale data centres into specific markets in Africa, both standalone and in small clusters, attracting to each facility an ecosystem of associated cloud, content and connectivity providers and enterprises across a range of industry segments. To date, these deployments have largely been confined to one or a small number of countries and with limited interconnectivity, making pan-African rollout across the resulting ecosystem islands a complex task.

OPPORTUNITY AFRICA

What is missing from Africa’s digital ecosystem is a truly open-access, continent-wide digital infrastructure platform; one that encompasses centralised shared storage and processing facilities in key business hubs throughout the continent, interconnected over resilient hyperscale network 10 Africa Bandwidth Maps

links to enable advanced capabilities such as dynamic storage and workload allocation, ecosystem extension, multisite disaster recovery, etc.

The November 2021 launch of Open Access Data Centres, a transformational data centre provider promising an interconnected pan-African network of open-access, carrier-neutral data centres supporting interconnected, integrated ecosystems, will rapidly start to address this gap. The company, which will have three new Tier III data centres up and running during 2022, has a 20-plus site roadmap over the next five years.

Another eagerly anticipated next step in Africa’s digital journey is the rollout of edge data centres; small facilities located closer to the network edge. Providing many of the same features as traditional data centres, they are contained in a smaller footprint, closer to end- users and devices, able to deliver cached content and cloud computing resources to these devices and support rapid and local processing of large quantities of data.

AN INTEGRATED DIGITAL BACKBONE THAT GIVES BUSINESSES THE EDGE

By bringing content closer to the user, closer to the network edge, content owners are able to reduce their transit costs and the latency experienced by their customers. Edge caching enables edge data centre users to optimise user experience by delivering high performance with low latency critical for supporting the internet of things (IoT), 5G, big data, cloud and a variety of streaming services. Edge data centres are therefore expected to quickly become critical to Africa’s continuing digitisation journey.

With so many elements in this journey now aligning favourably to expedite further growth of connectivity-dependent products, applications and services, the business opportunities for companies throughout the connectivity supply chain – from subsea cable owners to cloud and content providers, ISPs and data centre operators – continue to look extremely promising. STF WIOCC CEO CHRIS WOOD has been instrumental in improving Africa’s global connectivity and key elements of its digital infrastructure and capabilities.

Since WIOCC’s founding in 2007, Chris has grown the company into Africa’s digital backbone, the organisation responsible for the continent’s first, truly hyperscale network infrastructure.

Chris’s vision is driving WIOCC’s strategic investments in major submarine cable systems serving Africa; deployment of a hyperscale terrestrial fibre infrastructure interconnecting key markets and international subsea cables; metropolitan network rollout; and the launch of a transformational data centre operator, promising a pan-African network of open-access, carrier-neutral data centres enabling interconnected, integrated ecosystems.

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FEATURE

EVOLVING REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIENT REPRESENTATIVES

BY GLENN HOVERMALE

T

he underlying general credentials for serving as an at-sea client representative have always included a 4-year degree in geomatics, marine survey or physical oceanography or relevant practical experience collecting survey data at sea or working in a survey capacity in a branch of the military. An individual can improve their chances of being hired by being familiar with survey and cable installation-specific software such as WinFrog or Makai. Of greatest importance, following technical and practical experience, is project history, where the more experienced individual has a higher likelihood of being chosen for a project. But modern marine technology and expanding marine industries have added new dynamic requirements to the marine industry at large and now additional credentials and licenses are required. However, nothing prepared the

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industry for the impact of COVID-19 and how it would change the admissible requirements for serving as a client representative at sea.

In 2018 the standard requirements for serving as a client representative on an undersea cable project included an active passport, documentation confirming one’s physical aptitude (typically an OGUK certificate, or general doctor physical confirmation), and some form of an at-sea safety certificate (such as BOSIET, SPE or FOET). More recently, it is the proof of having received the Covid-19 vaccination that is the primary and contract-breaking requirement for client representation positions. Simple proof of vaccination is only the beginning in some cases, where supplemental travel insurance and multiple RC-PCR tests at each country and/or point of embarkation may be

required. Additional precautions may be instituted by vessel owners/operators that require extensive quarantine/isolation periods of 2-15 days at hotels in countries of embarkation prior to boarding of a vessel for a specific operation.

The uncertain and wavering nature of Covid-19, and the pandemic variants, have also led to widespread travel and work lockdowns (spring 2020), creating a more acute uncertainty that has driven the industry to a more geographically regional approach to covering projects. Undoubtedly, safety measures will continue to grow and change, and the unpredictability of existing and future virus variants will ensure that the current state of affairs will remain the newly established standard.

The pre-Covid environment that issued in the at-sea safety and offshore physical requirements stemmed from the engagement of the submarine cable industry and the offshore oil and gas industry. The OGUK organization was created in 2007 and now is established as a baseline health requisite for the UK Offshore Oil and Gas industry. It has since become an international standard for health, ensuring that personnel are capable of hearing and performing basic physical tasks while at sea. The application of submarine fiber-optics within the oil and gas offshore platform industry came to fruition in the late 1990s throughout the Irish and the North Sea and eventually in the Gulf of Mexico. The likelihood of operating within a dynamic offshore oil field (requiring vessels with DP-2 or DP-3 redundancy) or traveling via helicopter ensured that the requirements of BOSIET and HUET were a necessity.

Over the past few years, the growth and expansion of the offshore wind industry has introduced a new set of standards, based on aerobic health, understanding HSSE, and working at heights, which go beyond those existing standard requirements. Specifically, the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) has developed a specific regimen for safety that applies to those working on the vessels that survey, install, and service turbines in all modes of operation.

Due to the climbing/vertical nature/requirements of wind turbines an additional component of aerobic fitness/capacity, known as the Chester Step test, is now a requirement in addition to the basic physical certification. Like the Oil

and Gas industry, the specific vessels are required to possess DP-3 redundancy and with the additional dynamic parts of turbines, safety has become paramount and there tend to be significantly greater numbers of representatives for individual operations.

With the arrival of the Covid pandemic in 2019, everything changed industry-wide. Neither technical nor practical backgrounds were sufficient for ensuring that an individual was a good fit for a project, rather their health and isolation from others was of paramount importance.

As the industry scrambled for solutions, the governments of the world and the travel industry established precedents that served the interests of their people and the global population.

One significant development was the practice of working in geographically distinct territories or the assigning of personnel to specific regional areas.

This approach minimizes testing costs and often, quarantine/isolation periods. Considering the European Union, which maintains extremely rigorous standards, individuals are allowed to travel between counties if they are fully vaccinated according to WHO and/or European Medical Agency (EMA) standards, assuming their travel is essential and with proof of an RT-PCR (Reverse-Transcript Polymerase Chain Reaction) test taken within the past 72-hours prior to travel (some exclusions exist). For an individual attempting to enter Europe from Asia, South or North America, or Australia an individual must anticipate an isolation period of several days before being allowed to proceed to an operational work site or vessel. In North America, anyone entering the United States from abroad is required to have an RT-PCR test at least 72-hours prior to arrival, although this does not apply to crossing the domestic borders of Canada and Mexico terrestrially. To enter China, an individual needs not only to provide full proof of vaccination but also the results of an RT-PCR test in addition to the results of an IgM antibody test (Immunoglobulin blood test. Furthermore, the Chinese embassy requires a 14-day quarantine period for all non-Chinese travellers immediately upon arrival in the country. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has closed its borders to all non-Honk Kong residents and requires a quarantine

With the arrival of the Covid pandemic in 2019, everything changed industry-wide. Neither technical nor practical backgrounds were sufficient for ensuring that an individual was a good fit for a project, rather their health and isolation from others was of paramount importance.

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FEATURE period of 21-days for those residents departing and hoping to return to the autonomous administrative region.

Regarding the basic ability to travel, 44 countries in the world required travel insurance prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. These included the 26 countries involved in the European Schengen Zone in addition to Cuba, Ecuador, Turkey, Morocco, Thailand, the UAE, and several other landlocked countries. Following the COVID pandemic, the countries of Aruba, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Seychelles adopted a travel insurance requirement intended to financially safeguard their nations from pandemic-related travel problems such as medical evacuation and infected flight cancellation. This is a trend that is growing, and it is anticipated that more countries will begin to require travel insurance to and sure minimal impact of travelers transiting their countries Despite the geographic testing requirements, many vessel owners and operators insist on a 14-day quarantine period for an individual to join a vessel in addition to being fully vaccinated. This is no surprise following the records of Covid-19 cases exploding on global cruise ships and in response to the general no-sail recommendation for all international vessels and request that passengers defer their travel until the pandemic is in hand Deferring survey and installation operations is not possible in many cases and so many individuals joining such vessels are required to undergo a 14-day isolation period in a regional hotel where all food delivery and all other individual interactions are managed by the hotel administrators. Typically, all vessel personnel are required to take an RT-PCR test before leaving the hotel and an antigen self-test (authorized for the detection of proteins from CoV-2) at the vessel gangplank before boarding the vessel. While these measures do defer the potential risk of the COVID-19 virus they do little to defer the cost to the vessel and or vessel owner Regardless of the urgency of a marine operation, health and safety are the highest priority today when crewing a

Regardless of the urgency of a marine operation, health and safety are the highest priority today when crewing a vessel.

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vessel. Regardless of location, crew density or specific job requirements, there are several basic precautions that all individuals should follow while transitioning to/from a work site or vessel. These include the use of a particulate filtering face mask (P95, N95, N99, P100, etc.), employing taxi/limousine services while alone, remaining the requisite 6-feet apart from others, and of course, being fully vaccinated. STF GLENN HOVERMALE is Construction & Marine Coordinator of WFN Strategies and possesses more than 20 years of consulting experience in undersea cables, including marine survey, Oil & Gas and offshore wind industries. He has held client representative, offshore project management, and survey positions, and he possesses experience working aboard SubCom, Alcatel, Korea Telecom, and Global Marine cable ships as well as Fugro and EGS survey vessels.

He received a postgraduate Master of Science in Fisheries and Aquaculture and Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and is a former employee of Tyco Electronics Subsea Communication and The New England Aquarium, and is an American citizen based in Boulder, Colorado USA.

STAY CURRENT

play for offshore wind.

Climate Change

While the telecom industry has been operating for quite some time and has made significant advances in our knowledge of benthic marine environments, climate change is one issue that we will have to face in conjunction with all offshore maritime industries and the wider world. The push for projects concerning environmental monitoring and communications is spreading throughout the industry, with a current focus on issues relating to marine megafauna and fisheries targets. Initiatives such as SMART cables and similar monitoring systems in offshore wind will go a long way towards narrowing existing knowledge gaps and ensuring that we have lengthy and reliable data records as our seas undergo this period of immense change.

As mentioned previously, interdisciplinary initiatives such as ROSA will be integral in encouraging data sharing and data tracking as some common fisheries and conservation target species exhibit spatial and temporal distribution shifts. By working together, industry and local stakeholders can broaden our collective knowledge of how the oceans around us will be impacted by climate change related phenomena. As such, we can hope to mitigate issues to the best of our abilities and focus on nurturing sustainable growth of both telecom and offshore wind industries, keeping the world connected and providing reliable sources of clean, renewable wind energy. Similarly, collective knowledge on natural system faults, both for subsea cables and offshore wind infrastructure, will contribute to our understanding of how best to shift future engineering and operation innovations to cope with an increase in strength and frequency of inclement weather events and other climatic factors.

Summary

those of public perceptions, will help to pave the way for community buy-in and long term success of these installations.

In the past century and a half, humans have come to understand a significant amount about our oceans and how they function. Through the course of hundreds of subsea cable installations, the telecom industry has been at the forefront of uncovering benthic knowledge. Our understanding of seafloor hydrology, shifting sediments, ecological interactions, and even earthquakes and tsunamis has greatly increased. By taking what we have learned and applying it to the burgeoning offshore wind industry, we can best position ourselves to reap the rewards of an extensive renewables network while mitigating social, environmental, and ecological impacts. We have extensive local fisheries and communities networks, professional guard vessels and crews, broad knowledge of the marine environmental and applicable requirements and legislation, and, above all, we have a vision for long-term, sustainable success in harnessing our renewable natural resources for clean energy. To our partners in the offshore wind industry— we are ready and willing to help you reach your goals.

Emma Martin is the Marine Systems Associate at Seagard. She has her BA in Biology from Boston University, USA and her MSc in Marine Systems and Policies from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

She has performed marine field work around the world and looks forward to continuing to support maritime infrastructure developments.

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Throughout both industries, a common theme is the importance of early and continued stakeholder engagement. “We stand by the idea that stakeholder engagement and outreach with other maritime users and operators is incredibly important,” Ryan Wopschall, ICPC GM states, “Raising awareness of subsea cables within the offshore renewable energy sector and encouraging developers and stakeholders to contact us in regard to new and ongoing projects will further facilitate safe and efficient use of marine resources and long-term protection of seabed infrastructure.” All marine users must be considered throughout project development, and these considerations, alongside

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MAP LEGEND LANDINGS (1044) OIL & GAS SYSTEMS IN SERVICE (19) PLANNED (6)

OFFSHORE FACILITIES (18) CABLE SYSTEMS AGE 16+ YEARS (130) 0–15 YEARS (231) PLANNED (62)

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Click here to request a complimentary map

FEATURE

EQUINIX AND AT&T COLLABORATE TO HELP CUSTOMERS MEET CLIMATE GOALS DELIVERING SOLUTIONS THAT CAN REDUCE CUSTOMERS’ SUPPLY CHAIN EMISSIONS

BY JENNIFER RUCH AND JOHN SCHULZ [Reprinted with expressed permission from Equinix.]

I

n today’s global economy, there is an increasing responsibility for companies to actively incorporate measurable sustainability targets into their corporate strategies. So much so that it is quickly becoming a prerequisite for business investments and customer requirements. According to Gartner®, “The pressure on organizations to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria is more widespread than most finance leaders might realize — 85% of investors considered ESG factors in their investments in 2020.”[i] To achieve ESG goals, businesses need to collaborate with socially responsible and sustainable

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vendors and partners with a commitment to reducing scope 3 emissions.

Today we are announcing a new collaboration between Equinix and the recently launched AT&T Connected Climate Initiative. By joining forces, Equinix is helping AT&T in their efforts to enable their customers to reduce 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2035.

Collectively accelerating digital transformation In addition to collaborating on environmental sustainability, Equinix and AT&T share a long history of

delivering sustainable high-performance network services that reduce latency and scale seamless data exchange across secure digital infrastructures to our customers. Our combined services have helped digital leaders sustainably modernize their networks through greater network optimization and agility.

As the world’s digital infrastructure company™ with more than 220 data centers worldwide and the largest, most active global ecosystem of networks, clouds, and IT service providers, Equinix enables digital leaders to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. AT&T Business is a valued reseller of Equinix colocation and interconnection services and has established direct on-net networking in most of Equinix’s data centers around the globe.

This collaboration provides enterprises with industry-leading connectivity solutions that accelerate digital transformation initiatives and facilitate the seamless and secure exchange of data, while reducing latency, increasing flexibility and improving overall network performance. One example of how Equinix and AT&T co-innovate is the development of an end-to-end metro edge infrastructure that delivers a consistent fan experience to live streaming and on-demand sports content.

COLLECTIVELY MEETING CUSTOMERS’ SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS

Equinix and AT&T are aligning with each other and their customers and partners on a common sustainability journey.

The newly formed AT&T Connected Climate Initiative is setting an industry-leading target to work with businesses collectively to use connectivity solutions to reduce a gigaton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is equivalent to nearly 3% of total global emissions in 2020, by 2035.

Through the initiative, AT&T will work with customers and technology leaders to identify best practices, develop new product offerings and support innovative startups to scale existing and develop new 5G- and broadband-enabled climate solutions.

Equinix will work with AT&T to provide highly secure access to energy-efficient sustainably designed and operated digital infrastructure, helping customers expedite their digital transformation and lower emissions.

In addition to collaborating on environmental sustainability, Equinix and AT&T share a long history of delivering sustainable high-performance network services that reduce latency and scale seamless data exchange across secure digital infrastructures to our customers.”

The energy used to power technology solutions is a growing part of a company’s carbon footprint. Many companies don’t have the resources to focus on the energy

This collaboration provides enterprises with industryleading connectivity solutions that accelerate digital transformation initiatives and facilitate the seamless and secure exchange of data, while reducing latency, increasing flexibility and improving overall network performance.

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FEATURE efficiency of their digital operations. Together, Equinix and AT&T can provide customers with high-speed, low-latency interconnectivity while also lowering emissions — and that’s attracting sustainable, like-minded companies.

When customers use our solutions, they can transfer the operational scope 1 and 2 emissions of their data center footprint to scope 3 emissions, which are attributed to Equinix and AT&T as the suppliers. With our carbon reduction goals, proven expertise in power efficiency, and commitment to renewable energy usage, we are able to reduce our customers’ scope 3 emissions.

COLLECTIVE DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY

Here are ways that Equinix and AT&T are reducing our own environmental impact on global operations and advocating for sustainable business across the industries we serve: Together, Equinix and AT&T can provide customers with high-speed, low-latency interconnectivity while also lowering emissions — and that’s attracting sustainable, like-minded companies.

EQUINIX

Together, Equinix and AT&T can provide customers with high-speed, low-latency interconnectivity while also lowering emissions — and that’s attracting sustainable, like-minded companies.

As part of our Future First strategy, Equinix is committed to reaching global climate neutrality by 2030 and achieving our science-based target which aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement 1.5 degree scenario. We have issued over $3.7 billion in Green Bonds to solidify our commitments and ensure the funding of our ongoing efforts to decrease our carbon footprint, improve our power usage effectiveness (PUE), and meet our pledge to use 100% clean and renewable energy across our global portfolio.

We are the only data center provider in our industry that is both working towards greening our own operations and supply chain, and also greening the supply chains of our customers who leverage our sustainable infrastructure. Our environmental commitments are important to our customers across both the private and public sectors — where environmental sustainability requirements are growing across their industries and showing up in their requests for proposal (RFPs). Our focus on customers will allow us to create a greener future for everyone.

Our commitments do not stop within our four walls; we are also committed to using our voice to influence our broader industry. By collaborating with like-minded companies, such as AT&T, to advance low-carbon energy

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policies, sharing renewable energy buying knowledge, driving sustainable supply-chain best practices and encouraging innovation in the design and operation of sustainable data centers, we are caring for the planet and doing our part to accelerate the world’s transition to a clean-energy economy.

Our environmental milestones include: • Achieving over 90% renewable energy in 2020 for the third year in a row.

• Reducing carbon emissions by 50% from 2015 to 2020, even as our global use of power has doubled.

• Leading the formation of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Operator Pact, which commits Equinix and its European data center peers to becoming carbon neutral across Scope 1 and 2 emissions in Europe by 2030.

• Issuing $3.7 billion+ in green bonds in the U.S. and Europe to support multiple areas of innovation in green buildings, renewable energy, energy and water efficiency, waste reduction and clean transportation.

• Being noted as the 6th largest user of renewable energy in the U.S. by the U.S. EPA.

AT&T

As one of the world’s largest companies, AT&T is playing a role in creating a better, more environmentally sustainable future. We’re acting to address climate change and prepare for its impacts because it is good for our customers, for our stakeholders and for our planet.

As part of AT&T’s ESG goals, the Connected Climate Initiative complements our efforts to pursue carbon neutral operations by 2035.

To eliminate our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, we’re: • Supporting the renewable energy marketplace – to date, we’ve purchased more than 1.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.

• Transitioning to a low-emissions fleet (hybrid and electric vehicles) and optimizing routes.

• Implementing thousands of energy-efficient projects across our networks and operations to reduce electricity use, emissions and costs. STF JENNIFER RUCH is Director, Sustainability & ESG at Equinix.

JOHN SCHULZ is Director Sustainability Integration at AT&T.

FEATURE

SUBSEA CABLES

THE PRICE OF FAME F

or my generation of cable people explaining our job to friends or even families as to why we spent many unsocial hours on conference calls or continually on airliners was often met with ‘Really, isn’t it all done by satellite nowadays?’

Few would react that way today, our once most discrete industry is often in the public eye. Even as I am editing this cable issues are making Sunday paper headlines, fame there is but does it come at a price for the industry and perhaps even society at large.

That’s a question too big for me to answer alone and I have been helped enormously by the responses from the contributors highlighted and their opinions from industry and academic perspectives.

As an introduction: Erick Contag, Executive Chairman Globenet and Trustee of the SubOptic Foundation.

“One of SubOptic’s main pillars is awareness. We believe awareness is critical to attract new talent to our industry but also to bring into the spotlight how critical Submarine cable systems are to the global communications fabric.

BY JOHN TIBBLES

One of the unintended - positive - consequences during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 is how acutely aware governments became of this critical digital infrastructure, resulting in some cases in much faster emergency permitting associated with cable repairs. We simply can’t be virtually connected across continents, holding endless hours of high quality and low latency video conferences, trading stocks in real time, or transferring petabytes of data without fiber optic subsea cable systems.”

TO OBLIVION AND BACK

In August 1858, the first commercial transatlantic telegraph cable started service It now took an hour to send and receive a message when it used to take weeks. It transformed commerce. In the 1950s cables could carry voice calls across the oceans, at a price, but much more clearly than HF radio. However, if you wanted to spend the money you could call your business partner in New York or your granny in Melbourne but only if you both lived in a country that had the new coaxial systems- no coastline no cable.

Cables are not by any means new!

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FEATURE For two decades INTELSAT made telecoms via satellite a practical proposition and did a truly amazing job. Its network of geostationary satellites allowed, mostly state owned, telecom operators to communicate with anywhere else in their hemisphere via huge dish antenna Earth Stations. Thirty-three metres across these were highly visible engineering marvels and looked like science fiction. Subsea cables which could not compete for capacity, cost or versatility quietly sank into the benign oblivion from which they have only recently emerged. To the public in 1980 global telecoms meant satellites.

In fact, while the Intelsat network was it its zenith the seeds of its demise were already being sown. A consortium of Trans-Atlantic carriers led by AT&T, to fund and build TAT8 using optical transmission to the equivalent of 40,000 simultaneous phone calls. It was forecast to take a decade to fill-it took just 18 months.

Such a breakthrough received some publicity especially in technical journals. The public were most interested in was the suggestion that sharks attacked it. In their view it was updated 19th century technology hanging on in the space age. However, their effectiveness and performance were game changers. Inexorably cables took on more and more intercontinental traffic to the point that today almost 100% of the global internet is cable borne, carries once unimaginable volumes of data and made possible what we call the Internet.

However, as most of us know, politicians and government officials alike the general public shared the general public mostly still thought the internet was carried by a combination of mobile phone technology and satellites. This begs the question-was that lack of awareness such a bad thing?

Sebastian Pantin Urdaneta is pursuing an MA in International Relations and Political Science in Geneva, (he asked me to comment on views he was developing how subsea cable impacted his studies) My interest in submarine cables began when I was looking into Internet Governance. In the academic literature Internet Governance now encompasses international organisations, cybersecurity, technical issues such as domain names and Internet Protocols, as well as the regulation of online content. Missing from all this was the fact that everything the Internet requires a massive and global physical infrastructure to exist. It was puzzling that this important area was not under study.

While other academics, particularly in media studies and political economy, have looked into global communication structures, few academics from in the social sciences study submarine cables specifically. Therefore, in looking

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at the submarine cable industry, I became interested in understanding the factors which influence how cables are laid, maintained, owned, and secured, and by whom.

In doing so, I wish to answer why these factors and their effects are important not just for the development of submarine cables, but for the Internet itself, and international politics more generally.

BIG DATA CHANGES THE WORLD

Technical developments like DWDM, aside next big thing in subsea cables was GOOGLE and of course everybody has heard of them. They entered the market at a most opportune time, the big carriers were no longer interested in cables (a poor decision in retrospect). Suppliers had order books on one sheet of paper and there was talent available disenchanted with their declining carrier roles or already looking around.

The big data companies had other important resources namely lots of money and management who understood that to achieve their ambitions a new hyperscale network was needed and were willing to back that judgment. They were right because there was limited resilience in the network and whole regions and countries suffered days with no internet or email (almost like a day without oxygen). New systems were built at a hitherto extraordinary rate with huge increases in capacity, lower latency and boost network redundancy Ed McCormack, an Advisor to Ciena, Reflecting on changes over the past few decades, “I don’t think the industry ever set out to achieve fame. It kept itself under the radar screen – or under the waves!

I suppose you could argue, that with incredible technological innovation, fame was inevitable. The industry now provides the “plumbing” to connect countries and continents and, ultimately to enable affordable high bandwidth links to business and consumers.”

When the plumbing fails, you get to know your plumber very quickly. When submarine cables break, you may get to know the media and politicians very quickly.

That’s the inevitable impact of providing critical infrastructure that touches the lives of so many people.”

The media began to cover stories about the subsea world, Google made a documentary about one of their systems and numerous articles were written linking the internet to the subsea network, A benign and wonderful technology.

But alongside all the good publicity about subsea cables as a foundation of the internet, social media email and all dig-

ital wonders suddenly there came some bad, very bad news.

Because as business, entertainment and communication became transformed and even dominated by digital services came the realisation what numerous governments around the world were doing with the information they could access and retain. Nothing new of course, state security organisations everywhere have tapped phones, intercepted mail and telegrams for decades. They were just updating past practice but the technology they used massively expanded their reach into people’s lives.

WEAPONS OF WAR?

Lars Gjesvik (student at Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, who had previously contacted me for some views on his PhD thesis and who I later asked why he had become interested in subsea cables I had a former colleague who wrote on it some years back, which at the time no one did, then a project came along on data flows, and it seemed like a natural fit to apply using submarine cables as a case. That coincided with growing political tensions over surveillance, digital sovereignty and weaponization of digital networks. I think all of those factors played in, and then also it being a topic that very few had written on was attractive in its own right, So I am writing primarily for the academic community and the literatures on economic statecraft/geopoliticization of economic networks. There is a growing literature on how states are using economic means coercively, and I wanted to couple that literature with a more deep dive into how the markets in question operate and work.

With cables now firmly in the public eye they became high profile issues in the politic skirmishing in international trade and security developing between China and the USA dragging other countries into taking sides. The first casualty was Huawei who were effectively barred from critical infrastructure in some countries and as far as the USA was concerned that included subsea cables as well. Almost overnight the manufacturing sector shrank from four to three suppliers. And in an unprecedented move the US refused permission to use a system that had already been completed. Lines were drawn.

Even as I was finishing editing this, UK newspapers are carrying a story from the newly appointed UK defence chief claiming interrupting submarine cables is an act of war. Strong words indeed and widely covered in UK media.

A genuine threat or un updated version of ‘the missile gap’ pleas for increased funding of the Cold War era?

In any event no government today would dispute the importance of the subsea network. It is critical to the world we live in. That realisation that has propelled them from obscurity into international politics and military strategy front and centre.

CONCLUSION

I had the idea to write this as something to stimulate thought about what our industry has done to shape the modern world, it did not set out to do that but nonetheless that’s whats happened and consequently the modern world is beginning to shape the subsea world.

It has been said many times that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but I doubt that this applies in today’s world with its mirror images of the information age and dis-information age. We are in the midst of maelstrom of commentary and content where veracity is very often in the eye of the beholder We now have trade sanctions impacting our industry and heightened regulation after years of deregulation. These are impacting who can use and who can build additions to the subsea network(s) over which information flows. The very real possibility exists that the ideal of a World Wide Web of not becoming not a single source of data, information and news. In its place a ‘Splinternet’ two or more webs aimed at controlling and shifting opinion and awareness using unconnected. even competing physical networks. for that dissemination. I hope that a ‘Digital Cold War’ is not the Price of Fame. But I leave the last words to: Nicole Starosielski: Associate Professor at NYU “The subsea cable industry built a network that enabled the global sharing of information and images.

It was only a matter of time before the network would turn its eyes back on the industry. Visibility itself isn’t inherently good or bad. The question isn’t whether to become visible, it’s about controlling that visibility and preventing the spread of misinformation. The easiest way to do this is to share stories, develop channels to get the right information to the right people, and to proactively engage with the public.” STF JOHN TIBBLES has spent a working lifetime in global telecoms much of it in the subsea cable arena where he held senior positions responsible for subsea investments and operations at Cable and Wireless and MCI WorldCom and as an internal advisor consultant to Reach and Telstra Reach. John spent many years working for C&W in Bermuda and established the first private subsea cable offshore company and has worked extensively with both consortia and private system models. He has a wide background and expertise in most commercial matters of international telecoms and since ‘retiring’ he has remained active in the industry as a consultant, commentator and at times a court appointed expert and has been a panellist and moderator at international events.

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FEATURE

OUTLOOK T

he Outlook for 2022 in spite of the corona virus difficulties seems that new international networks are being developed to expand services to under-served markets utilizing low latency routes and improving Global Hub connectivity. An example of the Indian Ocean Region’s continued development is the new TEAS-Trans Europe Asia System due to be completed during 2024.

TEAS comprises the installation and operation of a new fiber optic cable system based on a Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) subsea cable system, integrated with terrestrial segments to form an ecosystem utilizing two new and unique routes that span from India across the Middle East tying into major technology hubs in Marseille and Milan/Rome. TEAS is specifically designed to support large capacity users that need low latency and high availability solutions and applications.

The ecosystem will include greenfield technology hubs, in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the growing technology hubs throughout India. The ecosystem will be paired with a dedicated greenfield subsea cable system that is designed and fit for purpose based

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2022

BY GREG VARISCO AND DAVE CROWLEY

on researched and validated global key customer segments operating in Europe, The Middle East and Asia region.

TEAS will provide a true Open-Access cable system as well as the terminating cable stations, supporting its customers demand for increased security, carrier neutral points-ofpresence (POP), high capacity, high speed, and low latency for a safe passage to serve global multi-national corporations (MNCs) with mission critical data centric operations in The Middle East, Europe and Asia since the optical design does not require any optical re-generation between Mumbai and Marseille or Milan/Rome.

The ecosystem includes fifteen (15) cable landing stations (CLS) designed to include industry development requirements for multiple backhaul routes, provision by several different carriers, IP access, peering for cloud providers and high-capacity internet, and four (4) Power Feed Huts directly connected to DC’s serving as the CLS. In addition, TEAS is implementing a Remote Fiber Testing System (RFTS) that allows network operations managers to be proactive and monitor networks through use of Domains to deliver the highest levels of QoS, while

ensuring the optimal network security and reliability.

TEAS’s business model is to provide the infrastructure including pro-active maintenance support to its key carrier clients and foundational customers, therefore it does not provide lit services, but facilitates the means to connect, communicate, collaborate and participate.

Cinturion is leveraging its outsourcing business model and past project experience to work through existing strategic alliances with global industry experts to ensure the successful completion of TEAS.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

TEAS possesses attractive industry fundamentals, which are driven by significant and increasing global demand for data in the Middle East, North Africa and near Asia. The project strategically targets the increasing demand hub of global Hyperscalers and International Carriers with links to Europe’s major hubs.

Recent reports issued by industry analysts forecast strong growth in the Middle East and near Asia region in terms of ICT spending to grow 1.9% (Telecom services and IT) and estimated to reach around US$209.5 billion by 2022.

TARGET CLIENTS

TEAS sees opportunity with international and domestic connectivity clients, capturing global and Middle East and near Asia backup data hosting opportunities. As such, Cinturion is in discussions with potential customers and anchor clients for fiber pair capacity, specifically targeting: 1. OTT content providers 2. International Carriers 3. Large Capacity Enterprises & Governments

TEAS is attracting attention from global investors and lenders with a global fund-raising group presenting the opportunity to investors to provide up to US$300 million of senior secured debt to finance the construction of the project.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Greg Varisco, Richard Marshall and John Mariano are the Founders, with Greg serving as the CEO of Cinturion currently based in Houston, Texas and Bill Marra is the Chief Commercial Officer based in New Jersey outside of New York City, with Sammy Thomas as the Chief Financial Officer and Dave Crowley as Sr. VP EMEA. STF GREG VARISCO is Chief Executive Officer, Board of Directors of CINTURION. Mr. Varisco is a senior management executive and has provided professional services to the telecom and energy industries for more than +30 years on advanced network design, development, integration and implementation; market research and analysis; mergers and acquisitions; international contracting and business development; strategic business planning; project management. He has led the development of several domestic and international business initiatives in various business/company environments (start-ups, turnarounds, public, private and Fortune 100 organizations). He has fulfilled the responsibilities as Director, President, CTO, COO and CEO. DAVID CROWLEY is Executive Vice President/EMEA of CINTURION. David Crowley is a highly experienced executive in the worldwide network industry. He brings over 30 years of experience with unique and valuable perspectives regarding network design, architecture, capacity management, traffic engineering, deployment, scheduling and support for some of the world’s largest network infrastructures. He has managed the planning and deployment of complex subsea and terrestrial network projects. Mr. Crowley has served executive roles with several companies across the industry, most recently as Chief Technical Advisor to Microsoft and serves on the Board of several companies.

PROJECT STATUS

Design and construction of the subsea cable contract has been executed with SubCom, with DRG Undersea Consulting serving as Engineers and Project Managers for the wet plant consisting of 14,500 Kms and BTC Networks based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia serving as the Project Management Office (PMO) for the terrestrial builds consisting of 3,500 Kms. The construction of the cable will be executed concurrently with an estimated Ready-ForService (RFS) date of 2024.

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FEATURE

THE CLIMATE, CABLES AND ADVOCACY AN OPINION

By Kristian Niels

BY KRISTIAN NIELSEN

I

nnovation has always been a tricky subject in our industry.

Technologically speaking, new transmission materials, armoring methods, terminal equipment, and terminal equipment have seen tremendous transformations over the 170 some odd years we have been laying cables. As innovation has been driven by demand for better faster and safer communications, this literal industrial revolution marvel has remained mostly unchanged in its methods since the first telegraph was laid in the 1850s.

Sure, the core is faster, the armor stronger and we’re shooting light instead of electrical impulses over glass instead of precious metals. But the core of how a cable is laid and how said cable is operated has remained largely unchanged.

Even today, the primary concern for innovations has been how to keep systems secure and fast with reliable uptime. Power consumption is a concern insofar as how to acquire it and maintain it.

In other technology-based industries there has been a groundswell of support for a new normal, a cleaner one, a sustainable one.

In my opinion, this very well established, best kept secret of the telecoms world, niche industry is at an intersectional point in time - we have the opportunity to pivot and make this world a genuinely better place.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

On April 22, 2021, Earth Day, WFN Strategies was pleased to announce joining The Climate Pledge alongside Amazon, Verizon and over 100 other companies from across dozens of industries.

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WFN Strategies is a long-time innovator in the submarine telecommunications industry, this felt a natural progression for us. Since 2001, we have been at the forefront of Polar and Offshore Energy fiber cable engineering, as well as attaining industry-first ISO certifications for Quality Management, Information Security and now Environmental Management.

In an industry over 170 years old, we have in recent years set many industry firsts in engineering and management.

The submarine telecoms industry is due for a new change, one that is renewable and sustainable.

The submarine telecoms industry is due for a new change, one that is renewable and sustainable. From vessels burning fuel to lay cable, to powering the data centers those cables connect to, the telecommunications industry is replete with opportunities for positive change. WFN proposes to not only reach carbon neutral operations by 2040 but also become the industry champions for powering submarine cable systems with renewable sources.

Our unique position within this industry allows them to act as Green Evangelists with system suppliers, developers, and everyone within the supply chain.

“WFN has long committed to sustainable practices, ranging

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FEATURE from volunteer work with the Scouting movement to supporting environmental conservation initiatives.” Said Wayne Nielsen, Managing Director. “With this Pledge, and with the ISO 14001 certification, we take our work into the global scale and refocus our efforts for Renewable Advocacy back into this tremendous and dynamic industry. It’s a very exciting time.”

We believe that climate change demands urgent and universal action. As such, we are proud to sign The Climate Pledge. WFN Strategies stands with Amazon, Global Optimism, and the other signatories of The Climate Pledge, in a commitment to being net zero carbon by 2040—ten years ahead of The Paris Agreement.

In addition, as a signatory of The Climate Pledge, WFN Strategies will: • Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.

• Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business change and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination • Take actions to neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040 By joining The Climate Pledge, WFN Strategies is reinforcing its commitment to sustainability and we are excited to join a community that will share knowledge, ideas, and best practices.

WE ARE NOT ALONE.

This year, for the first time in recent history, companies in the submarine industry have started focusing their attention on sustainable practices. Just recently on 4 May 2021, Prysmian Group announced their ECO CABLE initiative, a first for our industry.

Like WFN, Prysmian Group holds a unique industry position wherein they have the ability to impact significant change in cable development.

In their own words “We provide products that are the green life blood that brings energy to homes, infrastructures and cities around the world. With a business strategy consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we strive to be green inside. We express this through products that when installed in homes, infrastructures and cities around the world, make these just as green inside. ECO CABLE is the first green label in the cable industry and vouches for the greenness of our cables.”

Prysmian Group has proposed a label, the ECO CABLE certification, for cable systems that can meet criteria and key performance indicators, all scored in a proprietary Sustain-

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ability Scorecard. Their goal is to make the data as transparent as possible, with a priority of reaching 20% of total products assessed using ECO CABLE criteria by 2022.

(ECO CABLE | Prysmian Group) I’ve terrifically oversimplified their approach - I wholly encourage you to read more about it. These are the steps that we, as an industry, need to take to step into the next generation.

NOT JUST A SET OF STANDARDS.

My father once told me that you cannot seek to solve a problem unless you first quantify it, an adage I’ve seen true just about anywhere I have looked. While the opportunities are best quantified to be achieved, the work must be done by those who can to achieve them. But who, you may ask?

Development of systems that are focused on sustainable solutions, cliché as it may be to say, are already in development.

Once upon a time, our focus was fairly focused on what happens between beach manholes, in recent years that’s grown from POP to POP, and now from DC to DC. I would argue, that with Datagrid and Meridian partnering to build a hydro power supported Datacenter in New Zealand the marker has moved again to now consider the power supply of systems as well.

“A significant part of the $700m project involves laying a new submarine cable to connect Invercargill directly to the east coast of Australia, a shorter distance than between Auckland and Australia. It also involves laying a domestic festoon cable to connect Invercargill with cities on New Zealand’s east coast.”

There are others in the works, companies like Bulk Infrastructure, based out of Norway, are at the forefront of development of new ideas, systems and technologies that are sustainably minded.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We, as an industry, need to treat “green” cables with as much seriousness as the universal joint or a common set of reporting standards. You can help, get involved with your industry associations and start the conversation. I would charge PTC, ICPC and SubOptic with the task of taking up the banner of sustainability!

We can do it, we must. STF KRISTIAN NIELSEN is the Quality & Fulfilment Director at WFN Strategies. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP™) and ISO 9001:2015,ISO 27001:2013, ISO 14001 auditor and possesses more than 13 years’ experience and knowledge in submarine cable systems, including Polar and offshore Oil & Gas submarine fiber systems. As Quality & Fulfilment Director, he reviews subcontracts and monitors the clients and vendors, and is the final check on all delivered WFN products. He is responsible for contract administration, as well as supports financial monitoring and in-field logistics. He has worked in-field, at-desk and everywhere in between.

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BACK REFLECTION

A SHIP IN THE NIGHT

BY PHILIP PILGRIM

The 1858 Atlantic Cable

O

ur industry is based upon light.

We have mastered this wonderful energy and can create it at our leisure using lasers and LEDs. We organize it into packets of useful information; over a trillion in one second. We mix it and send it on its way through hundreds of millions of kilometers of interconnected glass pipe that links the planet.

We take all of this for granted; but for one little girl in the mid 1800’s, light eluded her, however her spirit brought about the most touching footnote in the story of the 1866 Atlantic Cable.

To better understand this extraordinary footnote, lets review a few

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Landing Sites of the First Three Atlantic Cable

s

The Great Eastern

important points and enjoy a digression or two:

TWO ATLANTIC CABLES IN 1866

Nine years prior, Cyrus Field attempted to lay the first transatlantic cable in 1857 however, technical and meteorological misfortunes struck and foiled his endeavour. Determined to succeed, the lay was resumed in the summer of 1858 and was completed in August. Its success was short-lived as the cable failed after only one month of service. This setback, and the American Civil War (1861-1865), delayed the United State’s entry into international telecommunications. During this period, submarine telegraph communications exploded worldwide and the British lead the way connecting their empire, and the world.

Immediately after the war ended, in 1865, a new transatlantic cable attempt was made by Field but as in 1857, the cable broke while being laid and could not be recovered. History does repeat

itself for Cyrus Field. In 1866, he succeeded in laying a completely new transatlantic cable and he also recovered the broken end of the 1865 cable.

Field’s determination resulted in the completion of the two cables in

Marshall Lefferts (Merchant, Operator, and

Motive Force in Early Telecommunications in the USA)

July 27th Landing Hearts Content, painted by Robert Charles Dudley (Cyrus Field is standing in the punt)

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BACK REFLECTION

1866. The 1866 Atlantic Cable was operational in July, and the recovered 1865 Atlantic Cable was operational in September.

Another July 27th Landing Hearts Content, painted by the same Robert Charles Dudley (Cyrus Field is standing on a boulder)

THE BIG SHIP

One of the key components in the 1866 project’s success was the behemoth cable laying vessel, The Great Eastern. This ship was the largest in the world and could carry the full Atlantic Cable in its belly. The previous 1858 cable lay required two ships and involved a very complex maneuver. These two ships had to rendezvous in the mid-Atlantic, splice their cables together, then travel away from each other. The Great Eastern was launched in 1858 as a 692-foot passenger ship (4000 passengers, 400 crew) and could steam from England to Australia without refuelling. Due to its size and teething problems, the ship did not return significant revenue to its investors in its early years, so it was auctioned off. The new purchasers leased it to Cyrus Field in 1865 and 1866 for shares in the Atlantic Cable project.

Another July 27th Landing Hearts Content, lithograph by the same Robert Charles Dudley (Cyrus Field is standing in the water. This fact is verified by a writer’s account)

NEWSPAPERS & TELEGRAPH (THE VIDEO MONITORS AND INTERNET OF THE 1800’S)

In 1865 and 1866, the Atlantic Cable project(s), and the largest ship in the world, were topics in many newspapers and garnered interest worldwide. The region around the small town of Heart’s Content was especially interested in both subjects as the Great Eastern and the two new Atlantic Cables would be bearing down on this town. Although the 1858 Atlantic Cable had bypassed Heart’s Content and landed further up

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Another July 27th Landing Hearts Content, lithograph by Robert Charles Dudley (The cable is pulled up the path towards the USA flag)

Trinity Bay at Bay Bulls Arm (Sunnyside), The town of Heart’s Content would have witnessed the cable ships passing as they laid. By 1866 all on the Avalon Peninsula were well acquainted with telegraph and submarine cables as the local newspapers covered the work of Gisborne in the region since 1849, and these papers also covered the Gulf of Saint Lawrence Cable project of 1855/1856, and the first Atlantic Cable project of 1857/1858.

GROUND ZERO (THE PLACE TO BE IN THE SUMMER OF ‘66)

Heart’s Content had a population of 654 and was selected as a landing site based on hydrographic surveys.

It’s harbour was deep enough and wide enough for the Great Eastern to anchor and manoeuvre with out the risk of running aground. In 1866, with news of the Great Eastern approaching Heart’s Content to land the cable, people from far and wide trekked there to see the historical event. It was equivalent to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. Record’s show that even Colonel Marshall Lefferts, NYC’s pioneer supplier of telegraphic materials (who supplied Morse, Colt, F.O.J. Smith, and Gisborne) travelled to Heart’s Content to witness the landing. Lefferts was also an officer of September 1866 Celebrathe Atlantic Cable Com- tions of the Resuscitation pany and Western Union of the 1865 Atlantic Cable

by Robert Charles Dudley at that time. The minister (Engineer Mister Canning of the only church in is on the chair behind the cable house. It is reported Heart’s Content, Rev. that Cyrus Field was also George Gardner held a “Chaired” earlier in July) service immediately after

Pre-July 27th Landing Hearts Content, by Robert Charles Dudley (The cable future cable path towards the UK flag)

Pre-July 27th Landing Hea rts Content, by Robert Charles Dudley (The future cable path towards the flagpole)

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BACK REFLECTION the cable landed on Friday, July 27. He was accompanied by visiting ministers Rev. Phelps, and Rev. Wood. Rev. Gardner said in his sermon: “There shall be no more sea!”.

RECORDING THE EVENT IN OIL

As with most of Cyrus Field’s projects, he hired artists and writers to document the events in The original cable station situ. Their works supcirca 1900. By then the ported publicity and the enterprise had outgrown the interest of investors when house and was moved to a published in newspapers, purpose-built facility nearby. magazines, and books. In some cases, an artist or even an engineer with great enthusiasm, would hastily make a rough sketch at the event. These sketches would later be used as a subject for works by more professional/renowned artists who were not at the event.

“Lost in translation” certainly applies here, especially when the artist takes licence to embellish or even add details that are not correct. This certainly makes “Time Teaming” (as Janet calls Please note that the painter Robert our explorations of landing sites) very Dudley was aboard the Great Eastern, difficult when geographical references so it is interesting to contrast his varisuch as the locations and height of ous works on the 1866 landing. hills have been altered.

Here are some paintings and etchings of the landing activities and RECORDING THE EVENT USING celebrations. Once can certainly see THE COLLODION PROCESS the “artistic licence”. The interchangThe Great Eastern had been phoing of the giant flag above the cable tographed since its construction in station seems to be for the appeal to the 1850’s. There is only one public both British and American audiences. domain photograph of the ship at

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The Great Eastern in Heart’s

Content 1866 (Photograph)

Heart’s Content in 1866. It is in the collection of Norma Godden, of Harbour Grace. One would have expected more photos to be available however, its remote location and perhaps an affinity to tradition is why we see more paintings than photographs.

One could also argue that for publicity, paintings could be “photoshopped” to impress.

THE LITTLE BLIND GIRL

John C. Deane diary entry: Saturday, July 28th Ships alongside supplying us with coal, and the accommodation ladder supplying us with visitors from all parts of Newfoundland, who braved the difficulties of the very worst roads, and about as bad vehicles, to get to Heart’s Content to see the ship. But one came to whom it was not permitted to have that gratification. A blind girl, led by her young brother, walked about the deck, and gathered from his intelligent description and by the exercise of her sense of touch, some notion of the great size of the ship.

Coming up the ladder at the side, doubtless gave her an idea of the height, and then a walk from stem to stern an estimate of the length.

It was touching to see the radiant smile on this poor girl’s face as she listened to the boy, who told her of the wonders he saw. Heart’s Content, they say, is so called from the Harbour being like a heart in shape; but then the two next harbours on the same side of Trinity Bay are respectively called “Heart’s Desire” & “Heart’s Delight”, but with certainly no resemblance to the organ in any recognizable way.

Here is a more detailed excerpt from the “Book of Newfoundland”.

This book was compiled by Joseph Smallwood in 1967 from nearly 150 source books covering a wide range of historical topics. The chapter is entitled “Newfoundland: A Center of World Communication” by Melvin Rowe.

On a misty and foggy morning with a light west-to-southwest wind blowing the Great Eastern hove in sight off Heart’s Content, just as dawn was breaking on July 27. Even months before she was to make her appearance, there was tremendous excitement building up in all the towns in Trinity Bay as well as in other parts of the Island. The great event which was being conjured up in the minds of the people reached its fever pitch at Heart’s Content as thousands of people from scores of towns in the Island and as far away as Canada and the United States arrived in town by all types of conveyances.

Some came by horse and carriage, others in steamers, vessels, punts and dories to make it the greatest assemblage of ships and people ever to visit the town. Accommodation was so difficult to obtain that many people were compelled to sleep in hay lofts and even in box carts. Tents were pitched on

almost every vacant piece of land and along the road leading to Carbonear.

Mingling with the vast crowd that day was a special visitor. She was a blind girl having been brought from a nearby cove so that her fond wish of being present when the Great Eastern dropped anchor in port would be fulfilled. When asked why she had undertaken the six-mile journey the girl replied: ‘While I will not be able to see the ship, I would like to be able to say to my children and people in years to come that I had touched the greatest ship ever built.” Of all the thousands of people who visited the town, none received greater publicity and newspaper coverage than this sightless young woman.

John C. Deane, secretary to Cyrus Field, kept a day-to-day diary of the movements of the visitors to the Great Eastern and the social which took

Mary Piercey “The Blind

Girl” Portrait at Age 55

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BACK REFLECTION

An unusual painting of unknown source with a Newfoundland dog and a young girl awkwardly placed in the foreground. She is staring at the dog rather than the cable activity.

(Perhaps the artist is portraying Mary?)

place while the ship was in port. In one of the editions of the St. John’s Public Ledger for August 1866, Mr. Deane’s diary gave the account of the blind girl.

The writer (Melvin Rowe) often heard this story of the blind girl, but he could never establish her identity until quite recently. He had the opportunity to be interviewed on a C.B.C. television programme entitled “Fireside” about the arrival of the Great Eastern and her cable laying

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mission to Heart’s Content in 1866.

During the interview mention was made of the girl in the hope that someone viewing could identify her. A few days later he received a letter from an elderly man at Heart’s Content, Mr. George Piercey, who said that the woman in question was his grandmother, Mary Piercey (née Piercey) of Scilly Cove (now Winterton). In his letter, Mr. Piercey said that he had a large portrait of his grandmother and

should the writer visit Heart’s Content he would show him the picture.

The writer had the opportunity to see the portrait and considering that it was taken about eighty years ago it is in excellent condition. As Mr. Deane so vividly describes the visit: “It was touching to see the radiant smile on that poor girl’s face as she listened to the boy, who told her of the wonders he saw.’

FUN FACT #1

Once these two Atlantic cables were commissioned, it was clear their capacity of far exceeded their terrestrial backhaul capacity on both sides of the Atlantic, so a terrestrial upgrade was executed in the following spring of 1867. We will soon enjoy this same demand as new high-capacity Spatial Division Multiplexed cables (SDM) are installed over the upcoming years.

FUN FACT #2

The cable ship Ellen Gisborne was delegated to passenger and mail service in the vicinity of Heart’s Content at the time of the 1866 landings. It was stated that a regatta of small vessels filled the harbour to observe the landing. These can bee seen in paintings and in the photograph of the Great Eastern.

Below is a newspaper ad taken out days before the landing where a ship, similar to the Ellen Gisborne, was part of a planned excursion for observing the event. The Gisborne was involved in the 1852 PEI cable, the building of the 1853 backhaul to NYC (where the 1858 Atlantic Cable would terminate), and the 1855 Gulf Cable lay festivities. If it was somehow part of the 1866 observations, then that ship would have been associated with all significant cables laid in North America. STF PHILIP PILGRIM is the Subsea Business Development Leader for Nokia's North American Region.

2021 marks his is 30th year working in the subsea sector. His hobbies include "Subsea Archaeology" and locating the long lost subsea cable and telegraph routes (and infrastructure). Philip is based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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ON THE MOVE In December 2021 JEAN PAUL BAGIIRE joined the AFR-IX Telecom as Vice President of the subsea project team in the Middle East.

“Based in Dubai but originally from Uganda, John Paul has a deep knowledge of the sector and market, so we are sure that thanks to his vast experience we will continue to grow!”

WFN Strategies continues to grow with the addition of their new GIS Manager GREG REINECKE. A geospatial data analyst with over 30 years of experience in his field, Greg is a former Virginian living in North Carolina. Managing Director Wayne Nielsen stated, “We are very excited to welcome Greg in to the WFN Strategies family. His decades of experience in geospatial analysis are exactly what we need to bring our products to the next level. “ DataBank named JOE MINARIK as Chief Operating Officer in early January. He will consolidate all operational functions under his leadership, including data center and colocation operations, engineering, construction, managed services, network and security, and IT operations and report to CEO Raul Martynek.

“Joe Minarik possesses the perfect blend of operational experience and pioneering vision to help DataBank realize its goal of becoming the dominant edge infrastructure platform in the country,” said Martynek.

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Telstra announced the appointment of VISH VISHWANATHAN as the new Vice President of its wholesale group for the Americas. Vishwanathan will take charge of Telstra’s existing business that serves telecom and satellite providers across North America, spearhead plans to extend the company’s reach across Latin America and expand its services capabilities to satellite operators.

“Telstra’s leadership in trans-Pacific connectivity and reach across Asia provides a lot of opportunity in the market,” said Vishwanathan. “Operators are shoring up their networks to meet explosive customer demand and Telstra’s continued investment in its network, products and services means we are incredibly well-placed to support this growth.”

HAVE A NEW HIRE YOU WANT TO HIGHLIGHT IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF SUBTEL FORUM MAGAZINE? Feel free to send a direct message to Rebecca Spence on Linkedin or send the announcement to rspence@subtelforum.com.

SUBMARINE CABLE NEWS

CABLE FAULTS AND MAINTENANCE APG Repairs to Begin in February Sea-Me-We-4 Fault Slows Internet in Pakistan AAE-1 Cut Causes Slow Internet Across Pakistan AAG Still Not Fixed And APG Now Has Another Fault Two of Three Damaged Cables In Vietnam Repaired

CONFERENCES AND ASSOCIATIONS ICPC 2022 Call for Papers Current Systems Team Telecom Recommends FCC Approval of PLCN Provisional Acceptance Granted For NO-UK Cable System PRAT Cable System Inaugurated in Arica, Chile Crosslake Fibre’s CrossChannel Submarine Cable Goes Live

DATA CENTERS Digital Realty Acquires Teraco Telstra Nearly Triples Network Footprint In Ashburn DC NEXTDC Launching New Edge DC On Sunshine Coast

NOW TelekomInfra Successfully Connects BALOM Cable Australia, Japan, & The US Will Help Fund New Cable Grid Telecom and Islalink sign an Agreement for IONIAN Antarctica Will Receive Its First Submarine Cable Equinix To Act As Major Interconnection Point For OAC

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY Prysmian Investing 200m for Submarine Cable Plant In US Irish Sea Contractors Appoints New Managing Director APTelecom Wins Telecom Review Excellence Award Angola Cables Partnering With Cabo Verde Telecom Equinix Acquires Nigeria’s MainOne In $320m Deal WIOCC Completes USD 200 Million Debt & Equity Capital Raise CyrusOne Acquired by KKR & Global Infrastructure Partners WFN Strategies Adds Member To Their Growing Team

OFFSHORE ENERGY NEX Outfitting Cable Lay Vessel for Zero-Emission Ops

PCCW Acquired by Vantage Data Centers

SUBTEL FORUM

Open Access Data Centres in Africa

SubTel Forum & the SubOptic Foundation Announcement

DE-CIX Expands to the Nordics EllaLink Collaborates with Equinix DE-CIX & H5 DCs Announce Partnership in New York

FUTURE SYSTEMS EXA Infrastructure & Islalink Partner for IONIAN Cable Government Commissions Subsea Cable Feasibility Study Cinia & Far North Digital Sign MoU For Pan-Arctic Cable Southern Cross NEXT Submarine Cable Lands In Australia Cable To Connect NZ To S. America & Antarctica Closer Ooredoo Maldives Investment Will Add Branch to PEACE

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ADVERTISER CORNER Happy New Year!

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1. GLOBAL OVERVIEW

1.1 Industry Sentiment 1.2 Submarine Telecoms: Our Technology Roots 1.3 Capacity 1.4 System Growth 1.5 Out of Service Systems 1.6 Evolution..Sys. Ownership/Cust. Base

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4.1 Publicity 4.2 Reporting Trends and Repair Times 4.3 Club Versus Private Agreements

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5.1 Current Cable Ships 5.2 Shore-End Activity

6. MARKET DRIVERS AND INFLUENCERS 6.1 Hyperscalers 6.2 Data Centers

7. SPECIAL MARKETS 7.1 7.2

Offshore Energy Unrepeatered Systems

8. REGIONAL MARKET ANALYSIS AND CAPACITY OUTLOOK 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7

Transatlantic Regional Market Transpacific Regional Market Americas Regional Market AustralAsia Regional Market EMEA Regional Market Indian Ocean Region Polar Regional Marke

JANUARY 2022 | ISSUE 122

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ADVERTISER CORNER SUBTEL FORUM PRINT CABLE MAP Add Your Logo to this beautiful, largeformat print map that showcases every major international submarine cable system and proudly hang in many offices in our industry. It is not too early to lock in your spot for 2023!

A CLOSER LOOK

ＮＴＴ�ＷＥ�ＭＡＲＩＮＥ�

RED SEA

ᵬᵲᵲᴾᵵᶍᶐᶊᶂᴾᵣᶌᶅᶇᶌᶃᶃᶐᶇᶌᶅᴾᵫᵿᶐᶇᶌᶃᴾᵡᶍᶐᶎᶍᶐᵿᶒᶇᶍᶌᴾᴾ

MEDITERRANEAN

SOUTHEAST ASIA

CARIBBEAN

Yearly logo cost: $3,750

BY THE NUMBERS

ADDITIONAL SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS:

• Complimentary tile web Banner on SubTel Forum Newsfeed • Social Media acknowledgment LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter • Acknowledgment in Press Release and mailer

GULF INDIAN OCEAN

SUBMARINE CABLES OF THE WORLD 2022

SUBMARINE CABLE SYSTEM I N V E S T M E N T, 2 0 1 2 –2 0 2 1

SUBMARINE CABLE SYSTEM I N V E S T M E N T, 2 0 2 2 –2 0 2 4

2012 2013

2022

2014 2015 2016

2023

2017 2018 2019 2020

2024

2021 0

500M

1B

1.5B

2B

2.5B

3B

3.5B

4B

0

1B

(IN BILLIONS)

LANDINGS (1044)

IN SERVICE (19) PLANNED (6)

85K KMS

3K KMS

OFFSHORE FACILITIES (18)

98K KMS

16+ YEARS (130) 0–15 YEARS (231) PLANNED (62)

POLAR

3K KMS

DATA CENTER CLUSTERS Number of Data Centers UP TO 5

51-100

6-25

100+

4B

5B

6B

TRANSPACIFIC TRANSPACIFIC 36K KMS98K 85K KMS KMS

TRANSATLANTIC

52K KMS

EMEA 132K KMS

TRANSATLANTIC TRANSATLANTIC

80K KMS 52K KMS

INDIAN OCEAN

150K KMS

68K KMS

CABLE SYSTEMS AGE

3B

R ERG E IGOI O NA NLA LD IDSITSRTIRBIU B TUITOI N ON OO F FN N EW E WC A CBALBEL,E2, 021022–2 2 –2 0 201 2 5 TRANSPACIFIC

MAP LEGEND OIL & GAS SYSTEMS

2B

(IN BILLIONS)

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION O F N E W C A B L E , 2 0 1 2 –2 0 2 1

POLAR POLAR

67K KMS 150K KMS

68K KMS

INDIAN OCEAN INDIAN OCEAN

26K KMS

EMEA EMEA AUSTRALASIA

62K132K KMSKMS

AUSTRALASIA

AUSTRALASIA AMERICAS

2K KMS AMERICAS

26-50 T O P D ATA C E N T E R P R O V I D E R F A C I L I TY COUNT T O P D ATA C E N T E R P R

OVIDER FACILIT Y COUNT

CONTENT PROVIDER

CF OA NC T EI N L ITTPYR O CVOI D UENRT FACILIT Y COUNT

CHINA TELECOM

CHINA TELECOM CENTURYLINK

Number of Data Centers

EQUINIX CENTURYLINK

AMAZON AMAZON

Number of Data Centers

DIGITAL REALTY

EQUINIX

MICROSOFT

MICROSOFT

CYRUSONE

DIGITAL REALTY TELEHOUSE

GOOGLE

CYRUSONE PTT

GOOGLE

CHINA UNICOM TELEHOUSE

FACEBOOK

CHINA MOBILE

PTT 0

50

CHINA UNICOM

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

FACEBOOK 0

20

0

CHINA MOBILE 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

40

60

80

NUMBER OF DATA CENTERS 20 40 60

100

120

80

100

120

NUMBER OF DATA CENTERS

COMING IN 2022! SUBTEL FORUM ONLINE CABLE MAP Watch this space for updates on our new/ soon to be released Online Cable Map:

SPONSORSHIP LAYER OPTIONS/DESCRIPTIONS:

• In-service Cables – details 450+, updated bi-weekly • Planned cables – 50+, updated bi-weekly • Cableships – location/status of 45+, updated every 6 hours • Data Centers – 1,700+, updated quarterly • Offshore Facilities – 40+ Planned and In-Service, updated bi-weekly

We would love for you to join or continue with us as a 2022 Sponsor! For Rates and Benefits Recap (including website & social media), go to the SubTel Forum ONLINE STORE. Let’s keep the submarine telecoms industry strong, viable, and growing! STF Terri Jones, Sales Manager, SubTel Forum tjones@subtelforum.com

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