FEATURE IMPROVED INSTALLATION ASSETS FOR THE GROWING SUBSEA FIBRE OPTIC INFRASTRUCTURE MARKET BY RALPH MANCHESTER, ROBERT HAYLOCK AND SCOTT MABIN MARKET BACKGROUND
After a quite few quiet years (decades) there appears to have been a flurry of activity in the subsea telecoms market since 2015. Although older assets and vessels are being extended well beyond their design lives, new hardware orders are now being placed and the market is more buoyant than in previous years. The glut of the equipment provided at the time of the telecoms bubble at the turn of the century, after remaining under utilised for many years, is now difficult or no longer available to purchase on the second-hand market and new equipment is again being supplied. It has to be said that Covid 19 and other geopolitical ambitions over the recent years have made the period more difficult than it could have been with the logistics of quarantine, travel restrictions and lockdowns amongst other things to contend with. Add to this the amount of new cable and routes being installed and the market requirement for low latency can be seen to be putting pressure on the supply chain. It all seems to imply more equipment will be required to install and maintain the systems, to the same high standards, during their lifetime. The installation and maintenance markets are historically heavily driven by cost with significant competition driving small operating margins, this climate has made investment in new hardware difficult to achieve. With backlogs increasing several new entrants to the market are appearing all requiring hardware and assistance to provide their service
to the market, a good sign of the market potential going forward at least in the near term. To add to all the previous issues of trying to maintain the communication continuity of the global networks including cable damage from accidental fishing, anchor and natural seabed movements amongst others, there is now an increasingly perceived risk of deliberate sabotage of undersea cables and other infrastructure which is currently prominent in the media at the moment. A current prevalent example of this sabotage appears to be the disruption of the Nord Stream pipe lines, linked to the Ukraine situation, but there are numerous examples of deliberate aggressive destruction of subsea assets over many years particularly in times of conflict. The outcome of this is the additional increased risk awareness of sabotage and the severe impact these events could have on any nations ability to function in the modern digital age with more reliance on global communication, a double ‘whammy’ effect. Given the attention being paid to these risks the use of more diverse routes without bottlenecks will become a more prominent part of the commercial system and network appraisal. More information is also becoming available on the extent of large undersea seabed movements which have the ability to render multiple cables out of service in one event, also experienced in reality. Although the direct route offers the least latency other design drivers must also considered. JANUARY 2023 | ISSUE 128
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