FEATURE
THE GLOBAL SUBSEA A Personal View NETWORK 2024: BY JOHN TIBBLES INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, I have contributed articles for SubTel Forum based around a long experience in the subsea industry. Subsea Cables are now recognised as an absolutely critical part of global infrastructure but are beginning to be impacted by what are proving to be very challenging times. STF founder and publisher, Wayne Neilsen, agreed with my suggestion that I review some of the comments I had made in past issues considering the circumstances prevailing today. Many such ideas and thoughts have recently become reality and as a result, I have taken another look at
where the industry is going at the start of 2024. Two issues I’ve covered in past articles have been the politicisation of the industry and the increasing need for resilience as the global economy, not just the digital one, becomes ever more dependent on the subsea network. Cables have moved from being literally out of sight and out of mind to major national and international news stories. Resilience has, in my view, taken a back seat in recent years to high capacity and low latency as driving forces for many additions to the network. High capacity brings with it economies of scale and thus lower end-user costs. MARCH 2024 | ISSUE 135 69