Letter to a friend
from Jean Devos
61
Pragmatic carriers and brave suppliers I have the privilege of being in touch with many people in our shrinking submarine cable community. It is a real disaster . . . even though people stay optimistic for the far future. But who is going to be around when the business reopens? The supplier industry managers are struggling with downsizing, plan survival strategies . . . the risk of losing skills, know how and capabilities is real. The submarine cable crisis is combined with the general downturn of the telecom equipment makers. So there are real risks in this industry if the business stays depressed for a long period of time. Such situation has never been seen. I can remember, in Alcatel, similar period where the submarine business needed to be sustained by other businesses for a while . . . but at that time the company was more diverse, with other product lines in good health . This is no