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Letter to a friend from Jean Devos
My dear friend, I need to share with you what happened to me recently: I found myself in an unfamiliar place, somewhere on the seashore, sitting on a bench. A relatively young woman, at least 30 years younger than me, was sitting beside me. Her complexion was such that I was unable to decide which country “Botany she might Bay” be from. Possibly Eurasian? “Excuse me, sir,” she said, “but I think you can Ihelp published me.“ recently a modest novel, whose title is “What Botanycan Bay. is the in Australia where I doItfor you,place madam?” “I’m a consultant,” she explained, “working fora Alcatel established governmental authorities. Aren’t you a specialist in submarine cable facsubmarine cables systems?” tory in well. 1989 I’ve as part “Oh yes, I know the industry quite beenof its contract for the involved for half a century. What’s your problem?” “My client is from Greenland, and he is this in Tasman 2 link. In desperate need of direct capacity to Africa. He same bay, where two needs at least an extra 20 terabits/s to cope with the centuries before the fast growing demand.” French I expedition “Between Africa and Greenland?” asked. “20 terabits? Are you serious?” “La Pérouse” made of “Sure I am. Allow me to telltwo you about the situation. ships, La Boussole Last year,” she said, “in 2019, the figures show an actual traffic increase of more than 100%. Since the end of the ice melting in 2015, the Greenland population has more than doubled every year to reach now more than 200 million inhabitants, most of them coming from Russia and China. Greenland is now the largest world harbor since the opening of the northern maritime route. Africa has been
My Dear Friend
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Warrior event was still in everyone’s memory. It is for these reasons among others that STC (UK) rejected the Alcatel‘s suggestion to come with a joint bid, to offer a “European” solution. One of the winning factors has been the Port-Botany cable factory. Such a factory was a strong requirement from OTC (now Telstra) and the Australian Government. Alcatel was the most motivated. Such a factory could expand its influence in the Pacific where the three other players were historically well established in this region, which represents a large part of their market. They saw this factory as a risk for their existing facilities! booming as well,” she continued, “reaching more failed, which certainly didn’t help. They only kept SubOptic ‘87 in Versailles came at the right time. than 1 billion inhabitants, most of them coming a couple of cable ships for the maintenance, which It is where the Australian teams discovered the from China and India. There is now a real African were eventually sold to Indian Tata Group.” and l’Astrolabe, landed in the 1788 to discover that French model, a closeindustry?” cooperation between government, somewhat like European model. “What about the Japanese The president of this the around African bearing Economicthe “NEC and Fujitsu, both of them, announced Captain Cook was AEC, already Alcatel and FT, exactly what never they wanted to esCommunity, is Mister Yang, a Sino-African, born anything after the failure of SubOptic 2010. As British flag. So Botany Bay is now for me the tablish in their country. in Ghana. Greenland and Africa have established is often the case in Japan, they shrank down in a symbol of a dream which becomes a reality! My friend, things are changed since, cooperation, and the cable is being planned, but the kind of “waiting mode,” minimizing their costs and but 2 has beensignificant yet another chapter exposure. one thing stays true: When you something, problemTasman is that not a single submarine In reality, the “knowhow”offer is gone.” cable has been in the worldcompetition! since 2012! My “You could ask ofbetween the specialized consultancy in this long built Anglo-French The the reader canone see the lines if you are company has been given the task to quickly come teams,” I suggested, “such as Axiom, DRG, WFN award to Alcatel came out as a big surprise to or not genuinely motivated and sincere. Then up with a solution.” or Datawave.” many, including2020? inside IAlcatel. Everybody was your offer becomes really and this I was puzzled. heard myself saying, “They’ve all disappeared. Onlyattractive a few individuals naturally win that bat- like opens thestill route to “Botany Bay.” “My advice expecting is for you tothe payBritish a visit to ASN.” you are around.” “Sir,and perhaps youexpectation are unaware,” “My god! Are there any other projects coming? tle, such an was atshe thatsaid, time “but Alcatel-Lucent was taken over by Huawei Is the market actually coming back?” very logical. See you soon. around 2010. At that time everybody thought the “Definitively.” She smiled. “Could you think There were so was many difficulties and of a solution?” submarine cable market only turning down misunderstanding between and for a few years, as has always been Australia the case. But It was at that very moment that I suddenly the financial and economic turmoil that started at awoke from sleep. I was pouring with sweat, and France, the main one being the French presence Submarcom Consulting the end of 2008 completely changed the situation slowly realized that all this was a dream. I was in the Pacific area, the worse being the nuclear and actually killed the market. The new company actually enjoying an after lunch nap–a deep one. bomb experiment in Tahiti! sad Rainbow made several cables between 2010The and 2012, using Was this a normal nightmare, generated by
A nightmare
Jean Devos
their DWDM 40 G technology, but then decided to completely shutdown this activity.” “Why don’t you see Tyco Telecom?” I asked. “Tyco Telecom?” She shook her head. “Tyco Electronics’ management did not wait long before stopping that activity, which was unprofitable, in early 2012. Then President Obama’s recovery plan
the present global crisis? Or was this a kind of premonition? Only the future will tell, my friend.
Jean Devos
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