and adapting to the changing market.
S. B. Submarine Systems Co. Ltd. (SBSS) is a key player in the submarine cable industry in Asia. The Company was established in January 1995 as a joint venture between China Telecom and Cable & Wireless, and
Adopting New Technology Along the Chinese coast, a new development in fishing technology “stow net fishing”, threatened the integrity of the cable systems. The technology involved nets being anchored to the seabed and allowed to drag with the tide. This recent change in fishing technology negated previous standard burial techniques. One meter burial was no longer adequate to protect cables so new methods had to be developed to ensure the best protection to cables. Realizing this market requirement, SBSS started a series of investments in deep burial technology.
is located in Shanghai, China. When SBSS was set up 10 years ago, the Company had only one main cable ship Fu Lai and a total of 95 staff. The company installation capability was very limited at that time. After 10 years strong development in terms of both technology and working experience, SBSS has now grown up as an active player in the international submarine telecoms cable construction market, especially in Asia. By end of 2004, SBSS had completed more than 25,500 kilometers of telecoms cable installation and participated in many international projects such as China-US, SMW3, APCN2 and C2C. In the difficult years of 2003 and 2004, the Company won the Thailand – Indonesia – Singapore installation contract and the TATA installation contract.
SBSS has also been selected as one of
the long-term operators for the Yokohama Zone Maintenance Agreement since 1997, responsible for maintaining the regions cables for six months every year. As General Manager Ian Douglas explains, the key to success for SBSS is adopting new technology
S. B. Submarine Systems
Deep cable burial technology requires a plough with the capability to use either jet assisted ploughing or water injection technology. A HiPlough meeting this technical requirement was brought into SBSS in year 2000 and subsequently modified with injector technology .This enabled the company to bury cable consistently to three meters in the sediments found along the East
An Overview By Vivian Hua
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