FEATURE
OBTAINING PURCHASER PERMITS WORLD-WIDE BY MARIA MATO AND JAVIER IZAGUIRRE
T
he submarine telecoms industry has come a long way since the first transoceanic cables were laid in the 1950s. The real breakthrough in long distance digital communications came with the development of fibre optic cables in the 1990s, replacing the original coaxial cables. As in any nascent industry, initially questions were asked, and rightly so, about the environmental impacts these cables might have on the locations through which they pass. WSP has been at the forefront in answering those concerns since the industry’s earliest days. Our
32
SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
involvement in permitting the first fibre optic cables to circumnavigate Latin America and the Caribbean secured WSP’s position as the sector go-to for subsea cabling permitting services and has provided the platform from which to expand our subsea telecoms capability globally. WSP’s expertise in this area dates back to 2000 when Alcatel was laying Latin America’s first submarine telecom cable, South American Crossing (SAC), an 18,000km long system connecting Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in