WJI Feb 2018 Feature Sample

WIRE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2018

®

INTERNATIONAL www.wirenet.org

DOWNSTREAM OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE WIRE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL

FEATURE

DOWNSTREAM Demand inherently drives applications, and this feature typically presents a range of wire and cable products. This one does too, including one entry that has a different footing, but this time it starts with a “big picture” look at how an ongoing deployment of a truly mammoth application—a 12,000-km subsea cable system—came to be.

A CEO: ‘the big picture’ of a major project has multiple aspects Deep Blue Cable is the developer, owner and operator of a subsea fiber-optic system providing connectivity across the Caribbean islands and to the Americas. When completed in 2020, the system—to be built by TE SubCom—will span nearly 12,000 km, with initial landing points in 14 regional markets and dual diverse landings in the U.S. It also plans to extend the subsea network to Colombia and Panama, and to add more landing points throughout the region. Below, CEO Stephen Scott shares his thoughts with WJI about the evolution, from concept to reality.

WJI: What made you decide that Caribbean fiber-optic connectivity was lacking to the point where it made sense to launch a subsea cable system?

Scott: Primarily Digicel, a very substantial Caribbeanbased company that has off island data capacity requirements but not the benefit of choice. The region is dominated by a monopoly provider, Cable and Wireless. I discussed the need for more attractive pricing with Denis O’Brien (the chairman of Digicel), and we agreed that the region could take a significant regional competitor. Digicel had considered doing just that, but O’Brien believed it would be better to establish an independent submarine cable company to build and operate the system. We saw the two halves of the solution: O’Brien became the Deep Blue equity investor in the venture, and Digicel would be a significant anchor client.

WJI: If the conditions for this opportunity had existed for a considerable time, why hadn’t Deep Blue or some other company not pursued this concept before?

Scott: The Caribbean is quite an old battleground of cable systems that never got developed. In terms of getting something financed or becoming financially viable, certainly from an equity standpoint, it requires a substantial commitment to purchase capacity in advance of construction. So, in that particular region, without Digicel’s support and specifically O’Brien’s support it would be unlikely that this would ever get started.

This is a business, no mistake about it, but this project being viable is more than that. I’m personally very interested in the region. There are approximately 40 million people who live on the islands in the Caribbean, and they are served with capacity. But, put simply, there’s not enough choice and it’s too expensive. What we are doing will have a profound impact, not only on the communi-

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Stephen Scott, CEO of Deep Blue Cable, and Michael Rieger, VP of Sales & Business Development at TE SubCom. cations ecosystem of the Caribbean, but also on the economic growth potential of an underserved region.

When I look at this area, I see an underserved part of the world where there are low GDP countries, but I also see countries with a ready workforce with a good level of education and multiple language skills. These countries are working hard to attract outsourcing businesses and related investment but a lack of new telecom infrastructure and competitive capacity rates is impeding this progress. Deep Blue can make a difference here.

WJI: How extensive are the logistics for this system, both financial as well as technical?

Scott: Without equity to get started, you literally can’t get anything off the ground, whether it’s data centers or telecoms networks or a subsea cable system. So, when you have an equity partner, and a substantial anchor tenant or anchor client, you have a real opportunity to execute.

Lastly, 20 years ago we were installing systems that had 8 x 2.5 gigabyte channels. We’re now running trials and systems with 64 x 100 gigabyte channels and with other trials underway for 40 terabit channels. The amount of capacity you can get down a single fiber pair has grown enormously, which means the newer systems will always be more cost-effective than the older systems.

WJI: When it came to choosing the specific fiber, which did you choose and why?

Scott: The exact fiber type has yet to be decided upon.

To some extent, we will be guided by our dark fiber clients, some of whom have specific requirements.

WJI: Once you confirmed the system need and secured your anchor customer, how did the logistics work?

Scott: It starts with the original network design. Deep Blue Cable CTO Alasdair Wilkie worked for Digicel specifically on this project, along with Nigel Bayliff, who

More than a product…a mobile tool that is a sign of the times one million flat cable designs are possible for immediate Cicoil is known for its flexible flat cables, but a new production and quick delivery. introduction by the company last year focused on a free With touch and drag, users can add or delete conducon-line tool that enables users to design customized cable tor elements and reposition each within the cable in any from a smartphone’s touchscreen. variation up to 3.75 inches wide. Once the flat cable is “Need to design a flat cable, but only have a mobile designed, users receive a price quotation, custom part device available? Well, no need to worry anymore,” number and an engineering drawing delivered to their said a press release from the U.S. cable manufacturer. It mobile e-mail inbox within noted that Cicoil’s EZ-Flexx™ seconds. If you make a purFlat Cable Configurator was chase, Cicoil guarantees a onenow available for use on both to two-week delivery on any Apple iOS and Android mobile cable designed using the tool. devices. Found at www.cicoil.

“As design engineers com/flat-cable/configurator, become increasingly more the mobile-based tool allows mobile, it was important for a user to easily design an us to give them a cable design EZ-Flexx cable in minutes and tool right at their fingertips,” possibly seconds. The easy-tosaid Cicoil President and CEO use design tool was developed Howard Lind. “And because by engineers, for engineers, we assign a unique part numrather than just a complicated, ber to each customer design, time consuming cable drawing all they need to do is reference package. that number to us and we “With a few simple mouse Available 24/7, Cicoil’s EZ-Flexx™ Flat Cable know exactly what they want clicks or touch of a screen, Configurator is ready to help customers. us to produce. The design is a flat cable design is quickly already in our system.” constructed from a large variThe tool was designed to be incredibly intuitive, and ety of elements, including power conductors, shielded a Quick Tutorial function helps first-time users through signal pairs, video and coax wires and tubing for liquid the process. For news about an added perk for customers, and air,” the release said. The Configurator also provides see p. 72. Asked how the mobile tool has done since its pre-configured specialty modules, such as Cat. 6A, USB introduction, the company reported that nearly 10,000 3.0, Camera Link®, that make it simple to add these comengineers made use of the Configurator in 2017. mon functionalities into a flat cable profile. More than

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FEATURE

Once again, in this region you have limited choice.

There are a number of cable systems, some of which are newer, some are very much older, but it’s a bit of a patchwork quilt. And you can see without too much analysis how you could weave a new system into that region where it can be disruptive to the status-quo and ultimately be financially successful, given the increase in demand for capacity and existing aging systems.

The submarine cable world is pretty brutal when it comes to the technology. You install systems, they last for about 20 years and then they either stop working or newer systems are constructed with a significantly reduced operating cost on a per gigabyte basis. Most people understand that aspect, but what is less known is that over time a company can lose the support they need from construction partners that no longer want to maintain or support electronic components that are older than 25 years. The cost to continually operate these cable systems becomes pretty excessive.