SEE YOU IN HAWAII!

BY ELAINE STAFFORD

Hundreds of people have already registered to return to Honolulu for PTC’22: Reunite. Rethink. Renew. and we hope you do, too!

Many of us submarine cable aficionados and enthusiasts from around the globe are looking forward to reuniting for PTC’s annual Submarine Cable Workshops after a long, two-year respite. The event will be held on Sunday, 16 January at the Hilton Hawaiian Village® Waikiki Beach Resort. Learn more at PTC.ORG/PTC22.

Sticking with the PTC’22 theme: “Reunite. Rethink. Renew.,” we’ve planned what we believe will be an extraordinarily interesting program, featuring some of the most renowned critical thinkers in our industry.

The Sunday Workshop will start with our traditional around the world update, providing insights on new cables and challenges in each ocean across the globe. There’s a lot to catch up on. Since COVID-19 began, the industry has already managed to install several cables across the Atlantic, and many others are underway. We’ll not only focus on the traditional routes that are always important to global communications – but this year, we’re also adding a session on the Arctic region, where more and more projects are being realized, and both small and large projects are being planned despite the challenges of cold weather, ice, and politics. We’ve invited Peder Naerbo, head of BULK (in Norway), to lead that discussion. The speaker roundup for the other regions includes Funke Opeke, Erick Contag, Mike Constable, Mike Rieger, Paul McCann, and Philippe Dumont. Tony Mosley of OSI will be back chairing the session. The market is stronger than it has been for many years and there’s a lot to catch up on since the last face-to-face at PTC’20. The workshop would not be complete without a global update on regulatory issues from Kent Bressie. He’ll bring us updates on some of the challenges he’s helping to navigate as cable owners seek approval to land and operate cables in the U.S. given today’s geopolitical challenges and recent decisions. Despite the increasing connectivity of the world and greater diversity of data centers, the U.S. remains a primary destination for many of the world’s most capable cables. Kent will also share what ICPC is doing to productively influence cable-related policies (especially planning and environmental) across the globe. No doubt – this is one of the most critical issues our industry faces today.

The day would not be complete without an exciting, provocative, and thoughtful exchange on the timely topics in the subsea industry between industry executives. This year, I (Elaine Stafford) will continue the discussion started at the October PTC Webinar Series: Frictionless Business – Current Trends in Submarine Cable, by moderating a panel featuring Marc Halbfinger, Nigel Bayliff, Ricardo Orcero, Virginie Frouin, and Paul Gabla, where these executives will share their thought-provoking ideas on transformative trends in our industry. Conversation at that October webinar, which had the highest turnout of viewers of the webinar series, only had time to touch the tip of the iceberg on this subject. Today’s global communications backbone continues to expand at a rate faster than we’ve seen in the last 20 years, while at the same time it faces enormous geopolitical, regulatory, and environmental approval challenges that are changing the landscape as these cables reach various national shorelines. To many of us, the challenges seem to be bubbling during a time when we’d privately hoped that the challenges would lessen now that the criticality of connectivity is undeniable. Yet it is exactly this importance that has made it critical to governments and regulators to make sure the networks are planned, owned, and operated in ways which they approve of. Thus, it is harder today than ever to realize a cable in a timely way, even though on the owner side – there are fewer decision-makers as ownership is increasingly concentrated. At the same time, there are more interested investors than ever before, with infrastructure funds buying cables, investing in new routes, etc. All this interest in our industry, yet we’ve not yet solved some of the nagging critical issues that have challenged us for years – bringing new talent to the industry, establishing a paradigm that secures a sustainable and reliable maintenance support for the cables, adequately serving the smaller and geographically remote areas of the world, and doing all of this with an ever-improving even lower carbon footprint. We’ll touch upon all of these things during the panel.

SubOptic, who will sponsor the PTC’22 Sunday Submarine Cable Workshops again this year, will also release the first of its Crew Tube. You might ask, “What the bloody heck is ‘The Crew Tube’?” To put it simply, it is a program launched just recently to encourage individuals throughout our industry to self-record short video vignettes which share personal glimpses into their experiences, insights, stories, and more about the subsea cable industry. The vignettes, which are starting to grow in number, will be accessible coincident with PTC’22 and beyond, on the SubOptic website. ICPC will also support this initiative, and together, SubOptic and ICPC’s aim is to collect a library of informative and interesting personal perspectives on the submarine cable industry. We’re expecting videos from installers, surveyors, executives, testers, planners, project managers, operators, etc. SubOptic truly welcomes input from anyone who has something important to share. (No commercials or political ads allowed, please.) If you’re interested in contributing, please visit suboptic.org for more information.

Wrapping up Sunday, TeleGeography will answer questions on what’s changing in the world of international communications today. What’s driving data center development, and how will that affect networks? Where have bandwidth prices fallen faster than expected, and where have they stabilized? And, is there finally an end in sight to rapid submarine cable buildout? Tim Stronge, Brianna Boudreau, and Jon Hjembo will all be back to give us their expert view.

PTC’22 is being planned as a hybrid event – so that those who are comfortable traveling and supported by their company can attend in person. Those who are unable to attend in person will be able to access the program activities through an online event platform. The Submarine Cable Workshops will be entirely pre-recorded, as some of our speakers are not yet sure they’ll be in a position to travel. For those who can make it in person in January, they will be on stage at the Workshop to provide you their insights. All of us planning this annual event hope you’ll be able to join us one way or another. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to share, and a lot of old friends to see. STF

Elaine Stafford, Managing Partner of DRG Undersea Consulting

Elaine Stafford is Managing Partner of DRG Undersea Consulting. Ms. Stafford advises to clients across the globe who invest in and build submarine cable networks, providing them technical, commercial, project management support, plus market insight/analysis. Before DRG, Elaine was an engineer, manager and executive at AT&T, where she held various roles in R&D, engineering, implementation and sales of submarine networks- leading the design, planning and construction of projects dating back to the world’s first undersea fiber optic networks. Elaine holds engineering degrees from Union College and Stanford University. She is active in many submarine cable community activities which focus on supporting the industry as a whole, including serving on the SubOptic Executive Committee and SubOptic Foundation Board.

To read more SubTel Forum Magazine Feature Articles, visit https://subtelforum.com/products/subtel-forum-magazine/