1 YEAR SUBCABLENEWS – THANK YOU!

CONTENTS
Page
PROJECT UPDATES
2
COMPANY NEWS
20
VESSEL OVERVIEW
48
PROJECT OVERVIEW
EDITION NO. 12 · June 2003
Repeatered Cable Systems
Repeaterless Cable Systems
56
58
OUTLOOK/DISCLAIMER/IMPRINT
60
The Global Information Newsletter for the Whole Submarine Cable Industry
1 YEAR SUBCABLENEWS
– THANK YOU!
EDITORIAL
ONE YEAR SUBCABLENEWS
Welcome to the Twelfth issue of SubCableNews.com and indeed we are about to celebrate our first year in publication. When we started this Newsletter service, a lot of people were asking: “Why do you do that?” “Why now?”
“It’s a downturn – so you will not get enough information to keep the newsletter alive”.
Eckhard
Bruckschen
Despite these pessimistic prospects, we kept our positive approach and we were proven right, there is a demand for a Newsletter,
sharing and providing information from the submarine cable industry. Okay, it wasn’t always easy to get information and to keep
this Newsletter going, but thanks to considerable and growing support from the industry, SubCableNews remained alive and well.
The SubCableNews readership has grown continuously as well as our number of pages.
We promised to deliver to our readers always the latest information and rumours etc. We think that we have lived up to our goals
and sincerely hope that we met your expectations. We will continue to provide you with comprehensive information about current
and future projects and companies in this industry. To celebrate our first anniversary we are offering a special discount for a oneyear membership. So tell your colleagues or business partners who might be interested!
SubCableNews wants to thank everybody that supported our venture by sending in press releases, rumours and information during
the last 12 months. We are looking forward to receive your news from the industry to be published in future issues.
In this issue you will find again the latest project updates and company news from the submarine cable community.
Enjoy reading the newsletter.
The Editor
Eckhard Bruckschen
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Project Updates
EUROPE
NORWAY
First Permanent Seismic Cables Installed at BP Valhall Field
Picture: www.seacompanion.com
the 10th of June and is
expected to last about 7
weeks. Subsea 7 will
use the MV “Fennica”
for the installation of
this project.
MV “Fennica”
The Valhall field in the
Norwegian North Sea
will have its seabed
covered by 120 kilometres of seismic cables
and umbilical to continuously monitor it’s
reservoir behaviour. The
installation of Life of
Field Seismic (LoFS)
will secure delivery of
base reserves and
increase recovery and
production. In addition
it will deliver fewer dry
holes and facilitate real
time reservoir management involving use of
fibre optic cable to
multi disciplinary teams
onshore.
The NOK 350 million
project which was
approved last year is
now in the execute
stage and progressing
on plan. Site integration
test has been per-
formed on all equipment including 120 km
seismic cables and
more than 10,000 geophones and hydrophones. All contracts
have been awarded; the
most recent contract
went to PGS for processing of data.
“There are a lot of
firsts to be tested out in
a project like the LoFS,
to name but a few, permanent installation,
commercial implementation, and handling
massive amounts of
data in a short time. I
am convinced the project will improve
resource
utilization
through faster, safer and
more accurate data. It
will also reveal abnormal conditions earlier
and make it possible for
us to “see” through the
Valhall gas cap due to
shear waves, all vital to
enhance value from Valhall,” says Rob Anderson, Projects & Technology
Performance
Leader of BP Norge. He
is also very pleased
with the effective cooperation in the Valhall
license and contractors
alignment.
Seven terabytes of
data will be transferred
to shore via fibre optic
cable. The volume of
information is close to
the largest library in the
world (The library of
Congress), with more
than 120 million items
on approximately 530
miles of bookshelves.
Subsea 7 will do the
laying of the seismic
cables and the operation, which started on
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2
The cables will be
trenched in to the
seabed, as will all other
sub sea equipment. The
first full data acquisition is scheduled in late
August 2003. Over the
following 18 months six
surveys will be performed.
BP selected Valhall to
be the most cost effective field in BP’s global
portfolio for application
of LoFS. The full potential of the technology is
not yet known, but for
Valhall LoFs is expected
to increase production
by 60mmbbls.
The Valhall partners are:
BP Norge AS (operator)
28.33%. Amerada Hess
28.33%, Norske Shell
AS 28,33%, Total E &
Production Norge AS
15.01%.
SHETLAND – ORKNEY ISLANDS
Crown Estate should drop cable “tax”
The Crown Estate should drop cable “tax” say
Orkney and Shetland MSPs.
MSPs Jim Wallace and Tavish Scott have asked
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to order the
Crown Estate to drop a proposed £64,000 annual rent for the fibre-optic cable planned to link
the Northern Isles to the Scottish Mainland.
The MSPs describe the rental as a tax hampering
the development of communications to Orkney
and Shetland.
They also hit out at the “insensitive arrogance” of
the Crown Estate’s Frank Parish, who recently said
that “despite all the wails about it” nothing the
Crown Estate was doing was affecting the project.
Project Updates
EUROPE
EUROPEAN OCEAN
ESONET – Observatory Network
ESONET (European
Sea Floor Observatory
Network) proposes a
network of sea floor
observatories around
the European Ocean
Margin from the Arctic
Ocean to the Black Sea
for strategic long term
monitoring as part of
the European GMES
(Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security) with capability in
geophysics, geotechnics, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, biology and fisheries. Long-term data
collection and alarm
capability in the event
of hazards (e.g. earthquakes) will be considered. Nine initial areas
for ESONET development have been identified and an emergency
response
capability
with mobile stations is
proposed.
The aim of ESONET is
to establish the basis
for a marine component
of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security) comprising a network of longterm, sea floor, multidisciplinary observatories at key provinces
around the European
margin providing continuous vigilance in
relation to geophysical,
biogeochemical, oceanographic and biological
phenomena.
ESONET
will
be
focussed beyond the
continental shelf edge
in the ocean margin
areas down to 4000m
depths, which are less
well known than the
shelf itself and generally beyond the reach of
existing ocean data systems. The European
Ocean Margin region
extends approximately
15,000km from the
Arctic Ocean to the
Black Sea with an area
of ca. 3 million km2 this
great submarine terrain
is comparable with the
total land mass of
Europe. Only a small
fraction has been
explored and new features, and communities
of animals are discovered every year. It is
important that monitoring of Biodiversity and
Global change be established in this realm.
Monitoring of the sub
sea environment presents unique difficulties
since there are little or
no historical data based
on human observation
as for the terrestrial
environment and furthermore, the sea
beyond a few centimetres below the surface
is inaccessible to opti-
cal remote sensing from
aircraft or space. Establishment of an in situ
observatory network is
an important first step
in management and
conservation of this
realm. The observatories should include geophysical monitoring of
the sea floor, water column measurements
and biological sensors,
thus logging everything
from earthquakes to
whale sounds. They will
extend their scope of
observation to the following-up of anthropogenic intrusions such
as dangerous wreck or
industrial exploitation.
ESONET includes an
international consortium of 14 partners,
representing 9 countries, all with experience in subsea instrumentation and resource
management. The University of Aberdeen,
Scotland will co-ordinate the project and has
previous experience of
co-ordination of programmes in this area.
The partners will all
draw on the expertise of
their various staff to
meet the objectives of
the programme.
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Page
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Project Updates
EUROPE
GERMANY
German bird lovers bid to block offshore wind farm
Environmentalists,
trying to preserve
endangered birds in the
North Sea, had filed a
complaint at the European Commission to
stop the planned
Butendiek
offshore
wind farm in Germany.
Butendiek is one
of two approved German offshore wind
farms projects and if
realised would be a first
step towards the country’s goal to build
25,000
megawatts
(MW) of offshore
capacity by 2030 from
a current zero.
“We have filed a complaint to the Commission, which will examine the case, and if it
decided that we are
right it could take Germany to the European
Court of Justice,” said
Claus Mayr, environmental expert at national environmental group
NABU.
Butendieck, which
consisted of 80 turbines
of three MW each, was
planned to be constructed in an area of
the North Sea, which
should be protected by
EU law.
NABU and the German branch of environmental group Friends of
the Earth also planned
to soon take legal action
against the Butendiek
project on a national
level, Mayr said.
“We will decide on
taking action in Germany in the coming
weeks,” he said.
The Butendieck project in December
received approval from
the German maritime
planning authority BSH
to start building work
by June 1, 2005, other-
wise the permission
will be rescinded.
The park would be in a
zone with water depths
of 20 metres 34 kilometres off the northwest German coast
near Denmark and
owned by a pool of private investors.
BSH said in December
risks to the well being
of sea animals and birds
were ruled out.
man/Dutch North Sea
coast, where construction is due to start in
2003.
Germany, the world’s
largest wind power
market, favours the
rapid expansion of wind
farms to bring down
greenhouse
gases
emissions which many
scientists say contribute to damaging
global warming.
BSH also gave building permission last
November for the 1,000
MW Borkum-West project 45 km off the Ger-
AZORES - MADEIRA
CAM-Ring installation completed
The ALDA Marine Cable laying vessel “Ile de Sein” has just recently finished
the installation of the CAM-Ring project.
This Portugal Telecom cable system is running from the Island Sao Miguel of
the Azores to the Island of Madeira and further to the Island of Porto Santo,
inter-connecting several international and domestic cable systems.
Portugal Telecom expects that the systems will be made operational in
September 2003.
Offshore Survey And Engineering
www.osae.de
Page
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Project Updates
EUROPE
ALGERIA
TURKEY
Algerian Earthquake Damaged Cables
Algerian earthquake showed fragility of Turkish Internet
The violent earthquake that rocked the
Mediterranean coastal
region of Algeria sliced
undersea telephone
cables in two, cutting
telecommunications
between the North
African country, France
and most of Europe.
The devastating earthquake that hit Northern
Algeria had severely
damaged Turkey’s Internet links to the US and
the UK.
Several hundred engineers
had
been
mobilised to try to
repair the cables, which
were split in several
places.
As a result, telecommunications between
Algeria and France, as
well as with most other
European countries, had
been totally cut off, and
services
between
Europe and several
Asian, Middle Eastern
and Pacific Rim countries had been disrupted.
Carriers were busy
restoring Internet and
voice services.
The earthquake had
damaged
following
cables:
Columbus-2,
FLAG,
SEA-ME-WE-2,
SEA-ME-WE-3 and
AlPal2.
OTE, the Greek
telecommunications
company thought it had
sufficient redundancy
with capacity of both
FLAG and SEA-ME-WE3, but never anticipated
both cables being damaged at the same time.
OTE had managed to
reroute its Internet traffic through Italy and
across Europe.
Turkish web and email traffic to and from
the two destinations
had slowed to a trickle.
Many Turkish websites
were simply not available in the US and the
UK. Similarly, Turkish
users in those countries
couldn’t access their
Turkish e-mail mailboxes.
Turkish ISPs were
scrambling to install
individual
satellite
backups. Turk Telekom
(TTNet) stated that the
earthquake damaged
the undersea cables
linking Italy and Morocco, severing Turkey’s
links to Sprint and
Cable & Wireless in the
US, and Cable & Wireless in the UK.
The incident underlined the vital necessity
of Turkish ISPs maintaining international
connections independent of, or at least parallel to, the national
TTNet grid owned and
operated by Turk
Telekom.
Three cable ships,
including France Telecom’s Raymond Croze
were repairing the
cables. The fixed-line
networks of Algeria’s
neighbours – Morocco
and Tunisia – were also
saturated as carriers try
to reroute traffic
through those countries.
UAE
US carriers AT&T,
Sprint and MCI also
reported that they were
struggling to reroute
traffic from the damaged cables. AT&T also
noted that two satellite
stations in Algeria were
damaged in the earthquake.
“The management of Etisalat and the engineering team at the highest level
are closely monitoring and coordinating with the relevant authorities in
charge of the international submarine cable systems to restore the service to
normal as soon as possible.”
Algerian Earthquake: Net services slowed down
Etisalat stated that a technical fault at the international submarine cable hit
its Internet service, causing a sharp decrease in speed.
The company said the unexpected fault occurred to the FLAG International
submarine cable and the SEA-ME-WE-3 systems, leading to a 50 per cent
decrease in speed.
“Etisalat apologises to its customers for the inconvenience that might have
been caused by an unexpected technical fault,” it said in a statement.
Page
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Project Updates
EUROPE
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
News from MedNautilus
In May 2003, MedNautilus announced that the
Phase IV, Chania - Athens has now entered commercial service.
Picture: www.mednautilus.com
The MedNautilus Local Operating Centres (LOCs)
in Athens, Chania and Tel Aviv are now also full
operational.
In addition to the NOC in Catania dealing with
global customers, each LOC provides responsive,
effective support to local customers, enhancing our
level of service.
MedNautilus Network
RUMOURS:
Turkey:
Med Nautilus – no landing permit?
There are rumours in the industry, that Med Nautilus is delayed with the completion of its network due to not granted landing permits in
Turkey. The missing link from the BU (Greece) to
Turkey was planned to be installed during the
first quarter of 2003.
RUMOURS:
Malta – Sicily cable to be awarded
soon?
There are rumours in the industry, that Vodafone
Malta will soon award the supply and installation contract for the submarine cable system
from Malta to Sicily. All major suppliers are still
hoping to win this 260 km unrepeatered system.
Pirelli – ASN – NSW?
Page
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Project Updates
EUROPE
IONIAN SEA
NESTOR sees muons at the bottom of the sea
Already on 29th of
March the NESTOR collaboration successfully
deployed the first
“floor” for a detector
tower at its site 4000 m
deep in the Ionian Sea.
Data, including signals
probably from downward-going muons, are
being transmitted to the
shore
station
in
Methoni via a 30 km
electro-optical cable
laid on the sea-bed.
This is the first time
that continuous, realtime “physics” data
have been obtained
from such a depth, and
represents a major step
towards a kilometre
cube neutrino detector.
The NESTOR (Neutrino Extended Submarine
Telescope with Oceanographic
Research) will ultimately consist of a
tower with 12 floors of
32 m diameter, vertically spaced at 30 m. Each
floor has 12, 38 cm
diameter photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) mounted in pairs, looking
upwards and downwards, at the ends of
the six arms of titanium
“star”. The PMTs detect
Cerenkov light radiated
by muons produced by
the interactions of highenergy neutrinos near
the detector. The readout and control electronics are housed in a
titanium sphere at the
star’s centre. With a
total height of 410 m
from the seabed, a
tower will have an
effective area of some
20,000 m2 to neutrinos
at 10 TeV.
The deployment site
off the south-west tip of
mainland Greece (Peloponnese) is an underwater plateau 65 km2
in area at an average
depth of 4000 m. This
deep water, essential
for a low cosmic muon
background, is surprisingly close to shore,
only 7.5 nautical miles
(nm) from the island of
Sapienza and 11 nm
from Methoni. The
NESTOR neutrino telescope is part of the scientific programme of
the NESTOR Institute,
in the town of Pylos on
the bay of Navarino, 11
km north of Methoni.
The electro-optical
cable from the shore
station to the deep-sea
site was laid in 2000.
Then in January 2002
the end of the cable
was brought to the surface by recovery buoy
and connected to the
junction box on the seabottom station, or
“pyramid”. The pyramid
also houses the sea
electrode (the electrical
power-return),
the
anchor system and
environmental monitors. Bad weather made
it dangerous to attach a
detector floor on this
occasion, but useful
data were transmitted
to shore from the pyramid during the descent,
and long-term variations in environmental
parameters were measured at the seabed.
Since then, the team
has been awaiting the
availability of a suitable
vessel and good weather.
Only in March this
year could the pyramid
be brought back to the
surface and the floor
deployed. The titanium
sphere at the centre of
the floor was connected
to the junction box and
the detector floor lowered into the sea, 80 m
above the pyramid. The
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operation was quite fast
and posed no problems.
The junction box and
sphere were powered
and monitored from the
shore station throughout the deployment.
There are LED calibration pulse modules
positioned above and
below the floor and the
assembly is kept vertical by a buoy.
The titanium sphere
contains a “housekeeping” board for control
and monitoring of all
systems and a “floor
board” that performs
the PMT pulse sensing,
majority logic event
triggering, coincidence
rate scaling, waveform
capture and digitisation, as well as the data
formatting and transmission. Parameters
and functions can be
downloaded over the
optical link. The heart of
the system is the Analog Transient Waveform
Digitizer
(ATWD),
developed at Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory.
Each ATWD has four
channels with 128
common-ramp, 10-bit
Wilkinson ADCs, and a
present sampling rate of
282 MHz. A trigger is
generated when the
coincidence requirement for the floor is met
and provides a time
stamp for combining
information from several floors. Reconstruction and calibration
have only just started
but the data already
obtained look very
good. The plots show a
typical event, with evidence of a downwardgoing muon. Even with
a single floor, it may be
possible to reconstruct
tracks near to the horizon.
To avoid future delays
the Delta Verenike, a
large, self-powered
floating platform with
GPS dynamic positioning, has been designed
for the deployment of
NESTOR. Funded from
within the Institute’s
infrastructure budget,
construction is well
advanced and delivery
is expected later this
year.
For more details about
the NESTOR Institute
and neutrino telescope,
see
www.nestor.org.gr
Project Updates
AFRICA
RUMOURS:
SOUTH AFRICA - MOZAMBIQUE
KfW is financing unrepeatered link
With this link, Mozambique would be connected
to the rest of the world via submarine cables. The
submarine cable system SAT-3/SAFE is landing
in Mtzuini.
Picture: Editor
There are rumours in the industry that the KfW
(Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau) from Germany
is looking into the financing of the unrepeatered
submarine cable link from Mozambique to South
Africa. The unrepeatered link would connect
Maputo to Mtunzini and would span a distance
of approx. 300 km.
Link Maputo to Mtunzini
RUMOURS:
MOZAMBIQUE
KfW is financing extensions to the submarine festoon
system?
There are rumours in the industry that the KfW (Kreditanstalt fuer
Wiederaufbau) from Germany is looking into the financing of the extension of the unrepeatered submarine cable system in Mozambique.
Picture: Editor
The 5 – 6 additional unrepeatered links would connect the cities of Beira
to Quelimane, Pabane, Angoche, Nacala, Pemba and possibly Mitwara in
Tanzania. The total distance of the extension of the festoon system,
including Tanzania, would be approx. 1.700 – 1.800 km.
Link Maputo to Mtunzini
Your Advertisement could be placed here
Interested?
Contact: [email protected]
Page
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Project Updates
ASIA
JAPAN
ARENA Network
A new scientific submarine cable network
named
ARENA
(Advanced Real-Time
Earth monitoring Network in the Area) will
be planned to encircle
Japanese Island and
cross several tectonic
plates in Japan. Japan
Marine Science & Technology Centre (JAMSTEC) has proposed the
ARENA project. The
ARENA network will
provide researchers a
long-term, real-time,
wide-bandwidth infrastructure for multidisciplinary seafloor observation in the deep sea to
explore problems unapproachable with existing methods. In the
ARENA project, the
total length of cable is
more than 1000 km,
and observation nodes
are set at about 50km
intervals, with various
sensors installed in
these nodes. Each node
will be connected with
many kinds of sensor
for studies within a
wide spectrum of scientific field and for the
disaster-related measures to earthquake,
tsunami and volcano.
The objective is to
construct the data
transmission system
from the sensors in the
seafloor to the landing
stations. Various conditions should be considered such as transmission range, time accuracy, extendibility, cost,
affinity with IP, power
consumption. In the
ARENA project, the
total amount of data
transmitted from the
observation apparatus
installed on the seafloor
is estimated to be about
2Gbit/s. Most of them
are due to high-definition television (HDTV)
signals, while the total
amount of the data from
other sensors is only
about 4.5Mbit/s. The
data transmission system should be flexible
so it can handle these
data with various bit
rates. As this cable network system is based
on Internet Protocol
(IP), the time synchronization method is Network Time Protocol
(NTP). However, the
time accuracy of NTP is
about 10 milliseconds.
Some sensors need the
time accuracy of 1
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9
microsecond; therefore,
an exclusive line for the
time synchronization
signal should be also
prepared to provide the
accurate signal. This
signal is based on the
PPS signal, which is
synchronized by the
GPS. Users can select
those time synchronization signals as required
for each sensor.
In order to transmit
such a large amount of
data, it is planed to use
an optical cable. Optical
cables will be used for
the science layer to
transmit the observed
data, while a backbone
layer will be used to
transmit the data
between a landing station and data server for
the reduction of cost.
Moreover, this system
must have redundancy
for data transmission
and extendibility so it
can be extend with new
observing point easily.
The ring network architecture is adopted to
solve these problems.
Any observation node
on the network can be
accessed from two
landing stations, and the
two routes are secured
for robustness and
redundancy.
This
method makes also possible to extend the network easily. Moreover,
data format and sensor
interface are also important in the system. In
order to realize an open
and scalable system,
suitable ones should be
adopted, which can easily extend the system.
Project Updates
ASIA
MALAYSIA
PHILIPPINES
Power supply for all Sabah people by 2005
No time for Cebu to waste
The Kota KinabaluKudat and SandakanTawau national grid
projects, when completed, would be able to
provide power supply to
almost all people in the
state by 2005.
CEBU’s local officials are opposing a further
delay in the implementation of the Leyte-Cebu
Interconnection Uprating Project, as this will
only worsen the power situation here.
Energy, Communications and Multimedia
Minister Datuk Amar
Leo Moggie said to date;
only some 80 percent of
the 2.4 million Sabah
population was supplied with electricity.
“Tenaga Nasional Bhd
(TNB) is capable of supplying power to the
remaining 20 percent of
the Sabah population
who have yet to enjoy
this facility,” he said
after officiating the pro-
ject to lay the 11kv submarine cable from here
to Pulau Bum-Bum.
develop power supply
infrastructures for the
people.
He said SandakanTawau national grid
project should have
been completed if not
for the technical glitches concerning the land
for its route.
The RM3.6 million
project involves the
installation of a 3.6 km
aerial bundle cable and
1.3 km submarine
cable.
Moggie urged the
affected landowners to
give their full cooperation to the TNB to
enable both grids,
which cost RM850 million, to be completed on
schedule.
On the submarine
cable to Pulau BumBum, Moggie said this
showed the government’s commitment to
The project, when
completed, would be
able to supply the
island’s 30,000 population with 24-hour electricity instead of the
present 12 hours.
TNB chairman Datuk
Dr Awang Adek Hussin
said the project would
supply electricity of
340kv 35 villagers and
two schools on the
island.
JAPAN
TEPCO fixes severed undersea cable
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) restarted power on the 16th of May to Hatsushima Island after mending an undersea cable which it said was deliberately
cut in the sea off the hot-spa resort of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, TEPCO said
(SubCableNews reported in May issue).
On May 7, TEPCO began repairing the cable, which delivers electricity to the
resort island. It believes someone had severed the wires with a heating device.
The Japan Coast Guard has launched an investigation with TEPCO’s cooperation.
Page
10
Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north district) said
he will ask the House committees on energy and
good government to allow the Department of
Energy (DOE) to go on with the project’s re-bidding while the inquiry is ongoing, if this is possible.
Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and
Councilor Nestor Archival, chairman of the committee on energy, agreed that the bidding should
continue despite the congressional inquiry on the
project’s alleged anomalies.
The second phase of the interconnection project
is supposed to bring in 200 megawatts of
“indigenous and cheaper geothermal power” to
Cebu from Tongonan, Leyte.
Among its components are the installation of a
submarine power cable, fibre optic cables and
the expansion of power transformers. It is to be
implemented by the National Transmission Co.
(Transco) using a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the monitoring report of the LeyteCebu project, its second revised schedule indicates that it should have started on Feb. 9, 2001
yet and should be completed by February 2005.
Before Rep. Etta Rosales (Party-list, Akbayan)
raised questions on alleged anomalies in a
change in its scope of work that supposedly
costs an additional $13 million, it was already
approved for electronic bidding.
Project Updates
ASIA
THAILAND – INDONESIA - SINGAPORE
HONG KONG - TAIWAN
Rovtech won PLIB work for TIS system
APCN2 Interlink in planning
Rovtech has been awarded the PLIB cable trenching work for the TIS cable
system between Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. The work will commence
mid of July and last for two months. Rovtech is chartering the vessel from Swire
Pacific to support the work and the MV “Pacific Rover” is currently nominated
to work on the project.
A new cable system out of Hong Kong is in planning. This system will connect Hong Kong and
Taiwan and will form a part of the APCN2 cable
system.
Picture: http://fleet.swire.com.sg
The route will be approx. 1,600 km long. Installation of this system is foreseen in 2004.
MV “Pacific Rover”
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Project Updates
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA - TASMANIA
AUSTRALIA - TASMANIA
Greens question viability of Basslink after blowout
Bass Strait 2 installation completed
The Tasmanian Greens
warned that a $280
million blow-out in the
Basslink project linking
Tasmania to the national electricity grid raises
doubts about its viability. Deputy Premier and
Energy Minister Paul
Lennon told a budget
estimates hearing that
the project would cost
$780 million, based on
a figure of 300 million
pounds sterling provided to the London Stock
Exchange by the undersea cable’s private
developer National Grid
Transco last November.
Greens
energy
spokesman
Nick
McKim said this com-
The installation of the 250 km fibre optic cable
“Bass Strait 2”, connecting the North-western Tasmanian town of Stanley and Inverloch, at Victoria,
Australia has been successful completed. The
French cable-laying vessel “Ile de Batz” has
ploughed in the submarine cable 1.5 m below the
seabed.
pared to the $500 million figure touted prior
to last year’s state election. He said the
blowout-raised doubts
over the business case
for the cable. Mr
McKim said the state’s
electricity generator
Hydro Tasmania, which
would pay an annual
facility fee to access the
cable, had already stated that moderate cost
increases would render
the project non-viable.
“The Hydro also stated
two years ago that an
increase in costs of the
order of 10 percent
changes the project’s
viability to having a 50
per cent probability of
not breaking even...” he
said. “At the end of the
day, any debt incurred
by the Hydro is a debt
incurred by Tasmanians.
“If it goes pear-shaped,
it will make the Pyramid Building Society collapse look like a picnic.”
Branding Mr McKim’s
claims a “contrived outrage”, Mr Lennon said
the business case for
Basslink remained positive. He said the $780
million figure was discussed in parliament
during a debate on legislation dealing with
Tasmania’s entry into
the national energy
market on April 8. “It is
not new,” Mr Lennon
said in a statement.
“Basslink is a private
venture. The cost is a
matter of commercial
viability and a matter
for National Grid
Transco, which will
build, own and operate
the development. “The
business case for
Basslink, which is
updated
regularly,
remains positive and
any increase in estimated costs will have no
negative impact on the
taxpayers of
these funds in an
account, Griffith said.
The utilities themselves
expect to finance about
$30 million of costs
themselves, and are
hoping state lawmakers
will
appropriate
remaining funds in the
energy fund to the project. The money was
originally set-aside in
the 1980s to finance
major energy projects in
the South-central and
Interior “rail belt” areas.
Valley, the Interior electric utility, is now constructing the upgraded
inter-tie from Healy to
Fairbanks, Griffith told
RDC.
Tasmania.” Linking
northern Tasmania’s
George Town substation
with
Victoria’s Lo Yang
power station, Basslink
is scheduled for completion in 2005.
NORTH AMERICA
ALASKA
Southern Inter-tie project moving ahead
South-central Alaska
electric utilities say
they will still push their
planned $100 millionplus southern inter-tie
project even if they
can’t get $30 million in
state funds remaining in
the Rail belt Energy
Fund.
the project goes ahead,
design and construction
would be under way
throughout 2006, and
the power line could be
in operation late that
year, Joe Griffith, general
manager
of
Chugach Electric Association Griffith said.
Five utilities have
agreed to make a final
decision to commit to
the project on July 15. If
Griffith said the 62mile inter-tie will cost
about $125 to $130
million, but a new and
updated cost estimate
is now in progress.
Chugach is the operator
of the project on behalf
of other rail belt utilities, which include
ML&P, Homer Electric
Association, Matanuska
Electric Association,
City of Seward and
Golden Valley Electric
Association of Fairbanks.
The state Legislature
previously appropriated
funds for the project,
which now total about
$70 million. The Alaska
Energy Authority holds
Page
12
Money for a northern
Inter-tie was also
appropriated. Golden
The southern inter-tie
has been under study
since 1982. It would
build a second electric
line to connect Anchorage with the Kenai
Peninsula. An existing
transmission line has
too little capacity for
efficient transmission
of large power loads
continues on P. 13
Project Updates
NORTH AMERICA
continued
ALASKA
Southern Inter-tie project moving ahead
and is subject to
avalanches and weather-related problems,
Griffith said.
Posey, of ML&P, said
the second inter-tie
would allow more efficient use of low-cost
hydroelectric power
from the large Bradley
Lake dam on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
Griffith said the rail belt
utilities
generally
depend on natural gas
for about 75 percent of
their power generation,
and 25 percent on
hydro.
The new electric line
would follow the Tesoro
Alaska Petroleum Corp.
pipeline from Kenai to a
point on the north side
of the peninsula on
Turnagain Arm. About
15 miles of submarine
cable would be needed
to cross the arm to
Anchorage. The project
will also require 38
miles of overhead transmission line and 4 miles
of buried cable.
Building the submarine portion of the cable
will be no easy task,
Griffith said. A cable six
to eight inches in diameter will be needed,
with four separate
cables across the arm to
insure reliability and
extra capacity for emergencies.
CONNECTICUT
Is Another Power Cable To Long Island
Being Eyed?
With a new electrictransmission
cable
lying unused under
Long Island Sound and
a proposed natural gas
pipeline stalled on the
drawing board, could
Long Island officials be
trolling for another
power cable from Connecticut?
The Long Island
Power Authority said
that it is looking for a
developer to build a
power plant on the
island, a new cable that
could import more
power from outside the
island, or both. The
authority also wants to
develop more energy
efficiency programs.
The announcement
shows in part how frustrated the authority has
become in its efforts to
secure new supplies of
electricity.
New Project
planned?
Contact:
[email protected]
The Cross Sound
Cable, which would
have provided 330
megawatts of electricity, remains unpowered
between New Haven
and Brookhaven, Long
Island, because of a
botched installation.
The Islander East natural gas pipeline
remains delayed over
Page
13
environmental permits
Connecticut has refused
to issue. A power plant
on Long Island is among
the customers awaiting
the pipeline’s gas supply.
“Certainly those two
issues are a major part
of this equation,” said
authority spokesman
Michael Lowndes.
Connecticut Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement the authority was
taking some “very welcome, long overdue”
steps toward meeting
its energy needs by
developing programs to
generate and conserve
electricity.
But he also said the
authority “must abandon its misguided
attempts to meet its
energy needs by
siphoning electricity
away from Connecticut
or destroying Long
Island Sound. I will continue to fight cables and
pipelines that imperil
Long Island Sound or
harm our consumers
and economy.”
The
authority’s
request does not specify whether the new
power line must be
overland, underground
or underwater.
Leah Lopez, staff
attorney for the environmental group Save the
Sound, said she was
leery of proposals that
could damage the environment.
“Let’s wait and see
how things progress
first,” she said, adding,
“Last summer they got
the emergency permission to use that [Cross
Sound] cable, and they
didn’t have to use it
once.”
Frank
Poirot,
spokesman for Northeast Utilities, said the
authority’s request did
not interest NU in resurrecting a proposal to put
in a new underwater
electric line between
Norwalk and Northport,
Long Island.
NU gave up on plans
for the new cable in
2001, citing soft
demand.
The company is
repairing its existing set
of seven underwater
cables between the two
cities.
Rita Bowlby, spokeswoman for the Cross
Sound Cable, said the
cable remains stalled
and the authority’s
announcement does not
affect it.
Project Updates
NORTH AMERICA
GULF OF MEXICO
Gulf Fiber Corporation wins BP contract
tem is currently monitoring thousands of
subscribers and over
200 sites worldwide.
Picture: Gulf Fiber Corporation
About Gulf Fiber Corporation
FiberWeb™ system
On the 28th of May,
Gulf Fiber Corporation
announced that BP has
contracted with the
company for fiber optic
communications services to several of its
new deepwater developments in the Gulf of
Mexico,
including
Thunder Horse, Mad
Dog, Holstein and
Atlantis. Several other
BP platforms are also
under study for addition
to the system.
Gulf Fiber Corporation
is in the final stages of
the route design and
system engineering to
complete the deepwater extension for the
FiberWeb™ fibre optic
cable system. The
FiberWeb™
system
stretches from Four-
chon, LA, to Freeport,
TX, along the shelf of
the Gulf of Mexico. The
new deepwater extension will bring the cable
past BP’s deepwater
fields as well as other
key development fields
in water depths of
3,000 FSW to 8,000
FSW. The installation of
the system is scheduled
for the first half of
2004.
The FiberWeb™ system will provide customers with a more
secure, more reliable
communications link to
shore, and will provide
expandable bandwidth
to the offshore industry
unlike
anything
presently
available.
“The fiber optic cable
will open up possibili-
ties for the offshore
operators that have not
been accessible in the
past” stated Brad Parro,
President of PetroCom
and acting President of
Gulf Fiber. “The high
speed, high bandwidth
connection will allow
customers to adopt new
technologies that can
enhance their productivity and safety, as well
as provide a more
secure and reliable link
to the offices onshore.
We are very pleased to
have the opportunity to
work with BP as our
first anchor tenant on
the FiberWeb™ system.”
To satisfy BP’s interim
communications
requirements,
Gulf
Fiber has contracted
Page
14
with its alliance partner,
PetroCom, to design,
install and commission
redundant satellite links
on each facility.
Network services,
including monitoring,
reporting and 24x7 help
desk will also be provided by PetroCom
through their state-ofthe-art Network Operations Center (NOC). The
heart of PetroCom’s
NOC is an Operation
Support System (OSS)
that manages internal
and customer networks.
It reduces cost, and
maximizes manpower
by presenting a uniform
user interface for a variety of network delivery
systems including cellular, satellite, fibre and
wireless data. This sys-
Gulf Fiber Corporation
is the first and only company to install a fiber
optic communications
system across the Gulf
of Mexico, providing
fiber optic communications services to both
the shelf infrastructure
and deepwater developments. For further information, go to www.gulffibercorp.com.
About PetroCom
PetroCom is a full-service telecommunications and network solutions company serving
the business community, with particular
emphasis in the energy
industry. Headquartered in New Orleans,
Louisiana, PetroCom
was founded in 1983 to
construct, develop, and
operate the first satellite-based cellular network in the world.
PetroCom has offices in
Lafayette, Louisiana,
and Houston, Texas. For
further information, go
to www.petrocom.com.
Project Updates
NORTH AMERICA
HAWAII
2003 and 2004 Upgrades and Additions to the Hawaii-2 Observatory
The Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) is a permanent deep ocean
research facility located
about halfway between
California and Hawaii.
The H2O infrastructure
consists of a submarine
cable termination and
junction box, which
provides two-way digital data communications and power. At
present, H2O instrumentation consists of a
buried broadband seismic sensor.
In 2003, a major
upgrade to the H2O
junction box is planned
which will change the
communications architecture to TCP/IP, making reconstruction of
data streams on shore a
system task. A new biological experiment, two
seafloor geomagnetic
observatories (SGO; one
US and one French),
and a Small Experiment
Module (SEM) will also
be installed. The goal of
the biological experi-
ment is determination
of the short and longterm responses of benthic fauna to a temporally variable food supply in a very food-limited environment. An
instrument platform
will include cameras to
photograph the activities of animals near the
seafloor and a sedimentation sensor to monitor
the seafloor flux of particulates and phytoplankton pigments. The
SGOs will each incorpo-
rate vector and scalar
sensors for the relative
geomagnetic field and
its absolute magnitude,
along with a gyrocompass based method to
measure the instantaneous absolute direction. In addition, the
SGOs will measure the
vector electric field,
including removal of
electrode drift. The SEM
will be installed to supply a secondary interface to experiments. It
will provide data inter-
faces and power for the
H2O seismic system
and up to eight additional low-data rate and
low-power sensors.
The country has only
one international link
i.e. SMW3 and in case
of a disruption in the
SMW3 link; the total
Internet network comes
to a grinding halt.
Meanwhile, a top
PTCL official confirmed
the company’s letter
informing the ISPs and
call centres about the
approaching alarming
situation.
The SEAMEWE-3 is
vulnerable to cuts (accidental and malicious)
and international communications from and to
Pakistan could go in dark
for several weeks. The
only access would then
be via the backup Intelsat Satellite System, providing only 34-megabyte
bandwidth against 155
by the fibre link.
“There would be a
routine maintenance
work on the SMW-3.
We have Satellite System as an alternate to
provide bandwidth to
the concerned,” Zahir
Muhammad
Khan,
Member Operations
PTCL told The News
from Islamabad when
reached over telephone.
He said that the company was also arranging some more alternates to tackle the situation. However, he did
not sound so much concerned about the situation.
In 2004, a down hole
seismic sensor will be
installed in a borehole
drilled about 1.5 km
away from the H2O site
and linked to the j-box
using a fibre optic
extension cable.
WORLD
SEAMEWE-3/PAKISTAN
Internet link to suffer week-long disruption
Country’s cyber gateway would suffer a
week-long disruption or
may be more in September this year due to
planned maintenance
work on country’s only
fibre link connected
with the outer world
through
undersea
cables.
“There will be a
planned outage on
SMW3 segment-5 in
September 2003, for a
minimum of 5 days due
to BU replacement. The
outage may extend to
two weeks if some
problem is encountered
in deep sea,” said the
letter.
In a recently issued
letter, the Pakistan
Telecommunications
Company
Limited
(PTCL) has informed the
countries call centres
and Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) about
the same.
Currently, the country
is connected with an
already laid international undersea optical
fibre, named South
East, Middle East, and
Western
Europe-3
(SEAMEWE-3).
Page
15
“It’s a routine work.
The concerned company after some period
launches maintenance
operations around the
world. Nobody should
get worried,” Khan said.
However, the PTCL’s
letter has spread wave
continues on P. 16
Project Updates
WORLD
SEAMEWE-3/PAKISTAN
continued
Internet link to suffer week-long disruption
“Now what one
should comment in this
situation? You can
understand where do
we stand in this hi-tech
era? I don’t think this is
justified,” Ansar-ulHaq, President, ISPs
Association of Pakistan
said.
He was of the view
that maintenance work
on fibre link was a routine feature around the
globe, but there was
always second or third
link remained active.
“It’s very shocking
that we have only one
fibre and one satellite
link in this age. Our
neighbouring country
has six fibre and eight
satellite links with out-
side world,” Haq added.
He also ruled out the
PTCL’s claim that the
satellite link, having
only
34-megabyte
bandwidth capacity,
could meet the demand
of country’s 72 ISPs
and dozens of call centres.
ATLANTIC OCEAN
TAT14 in trouble – repeater replacements?
There are rumours in the industry, that TAT14 is currently undergoing a major
repair operation. It has been reported, that several repeaters have to be
replaced/repaired due to faulty laser diodes. The CS “Peter Faber” is currently executing this repair operation.
Another major expense for KDD – it’s still warranty work.
The PTCL last month
approved US$50 million investment in an
international consortium for a ‘Submarine
Fiber Optic Bandwidth’
link SMW4 to acquire
second fibre link. However, the work on the
project has yet to be
started.
The
company
approved the investment after facing four
major disruptions in a
month’s time due to the
lack of redundancy in
the international bandwidth.
Picture: www.tat-14.com
of concern among the
ISPs, call centres and
other
stakeholders,
already experiencing
denial of service (DoS)
attacks since March 25.
RUMOURS:
TAT14 Network
Page
16
Project Updates
WORLD
NORTH ATLANTIC – SOUTHERN OCEAN
A multidisciplinary ocean observatory system for the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean: B-DEOS
A consortium of
research groups and
institutions within the
United Kingdom and
supported by planning
input scientists from six
other countries is planning a system of multidisciplinary
ocean
observatories in the
North Atlantic, and
Southern Ocean to
study the linkages
between the physical,
chemical and biological
processes regulating
the earth-ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system. An engineering
study has been completed that has resulted
in a design for the a
mooring and telecommunications/power
buoy system that will
enable
continuous,
medium-bandwidth, bidirectional telemetry
to/from shore, command/control of remote
instruments from the
scientists desktop, public involvement and
education related to the
operation of the observatory system, and generation and transmission of electrical power
from the sea surface,
through the water column, and to an adaptable junction box on the
seafloor. A large-scale
“Thematic Programme”
is in the advanced planning stage within the
United Kingdom’s Natural
Environment
Research Council. A
staged programme of
coastal system testing,
followed by large-scale
installation of the first
deep water site has
been proposed. The first
deep water observatory
installation is to take
place across a 400 km
wide (E-W) by 50 km
(N-S) area centred on
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
near the Lucky Strike
segment south of the
Azores. This is the
“MOMAR” observatory
area. Installation of the
MOMAR observatory
system has been called
for in numerous InterRidge-planning documents, as well as in
Expressions of Interest
that had been submitted to the European
Commission under the
Framework 6 funding
model. It is hoped that
the B-DEOS Site 1 MOMAR - will form the
nucleus around which a
permanent pan-European and international
observatory will develop. Site 1 is to be operated for five years in the
first instance.
Pending approval of
the funding plan by the
UK NERC, following
two years of operations
at Site 1, Site 2 will be
established, centred on
the southernmost Reykjanes Ridge south of
Iceland. After several
years of simultaneous
observations, and pending successful outcomes from operation
of the first two sites, a
third
large-scale
observing system is
proposed for the Southern Ocean. This will
extend from the area of
the Drake Passage
between Cape Horn and
the Antarctic Peninsula,
eastward over the Scotia Plate and extending
to the South Sandwich
Islands. The first generation of trans-Atlantic
and trans-Pacific fibreoptic telecommunications
cables
are
presently being decommissioned.
other European partners
to evaluate the possibility of using such cables
in situ, or to relocate
cable sections.
In the first case TAT8,9,10,11 cross the MidAtlantic Ridge at latitudes spanning 40-45
degrees N. Some sections of one or more of
these cables could be
cut and relocated to
establish a robust
Southern Ocean observatory system. Others
could be operated in
place to study a variety
of processes in the
north Atlantic that have
been specified in the BDEOS science plan.
Further details are
available
on
www.deos.org.
B-DEOS is working
with Iris Ocean Cable
Inc in the US, and has
initiated contacts with
LINKS PAGE
Is your Company already listed?
Visit: www.subcablenews.com/links
Page
17
Project Updates
WORLD
EUROPE - AMERICA
Review of the Dual Hibernia Atlantic
Launch in Dublin, Ireland and
Boston M.A.
History was made at
the recent simultaneous
Trans Atlantic seminars
that launched both the
Hibernia Atlantic International Exchange Centres in Dublin and
Boston. Using the
Hibernia Network itself,
clearly demonstrated
that this submarine system is fully operational.
It also highlighted the
potential value derived
from using such a low
cost, high speed & high
capacity network.
This demonstration in
itself highlighted the
potential that now economically exists for the
dramatic improvement
of corporate communications to the point that
highly effective collaborative working environments are created with
their US counterparts.
This is of particular
importance for those
Irish subsidiaries seeking to expand their Irish
operations by trying to
attract even more criti-
cal tasks within their
corporation. The Trans
Atlantic connectivity
options now available
from Hibernia Atlantic
provide the executives
of these operations
with a major competitive advantage when
competing with other
corporate locations.
A senior executive of
the Nortel Products
Group presented the
developing
market
trends for Optical level
services. They highlighted the strong emergence of both LAN
interconnect and stor-
age networking over
exceptionally long distances. Nortel presented both the requirements and growth statistics of these markets
and they endorsed the
Hibernia Atlantic service offering developed
for these increasingly
important corporate
markets.
To illustrate the unique
capabilities and characteristics of the Hibernia
Atlantic system 2 global
information technology
leaders combined to
demonstrate the value
to corporations of mir-
roring their entire IT
operations across the
Atlantic.
EMC the dominant
market leader in
remotely mirrored storage systems, with an
80% market share and
CNT the likewise 800lb
gorilla of Remote Data
Storage Networking
Technologies,
constructed a mirrored IT
production environment
in both Hibernia locations in Dublin Ireland
and Boston MA. The
Dublin system was running a 2,000-user
Microsoft Exchange
continues on P. 19
Picture: Hibernia Atlantic
The entire seminar
content was relayed
from Dublin to Boston
using a combination of
the Spectel voice and
Data
conferencing
bridge technology and
the latest video conferencing offerings from
Tanberg.
Hibernia Atlantic Network
Page
18
Project Updates
WORLD
EUROPE - AMERICA
continued
Review of the Dual Hibernia Atlantic
Launch in Dublin, Ireland and
Boston M.A.
Boston servers, resuming full service availability in just the few
minutes it required to
‘boot’ their Boston server. This recovered environment was in synch
with the Dublin system
image and all management controls and audit
trails were also available. This offers huge
potential for combined
USA Ireland IT operations.
Such a production
environment had never
been recovered Trans
Atlantic before so history was made.
The seminar audience
of 170 people in total
(40 in Boston) also witnessed Minister for
Telecommunications
and the Marine, Mr.
Dermot Aherne T.D.
open these two Hibernia Atlantic Centres
simultaneously - 2
places at once.
Mike Higgins presenting Hibernia Atlantic Bandwidth Capacity
Picture: Hibernia Atlantic
Picture: Hibernia Atlantic
environment, which
was mirrored, at each
individual transaction
level, to a similar environment in Boston. A
catastrophic failure of
the Dublin server was
then simulated and the
full recovery of this system occurred from the
Mr. Dermot Aherne opens Hibernia Atlantic Centres in Dublin and Boston
Page
19
Company News
ATU
ALLSEAS
Committee aims to harmonise African
ICT
Allseas acquired cable vessel
The formal meeting,
which took place on the
23rd of May, focused on
a number of important
issues and was attended by the ICT ministers
from Egypt, Cameroon,
Uganda, Swaziland,
Malawi,
Lesotho,
Ghana, Mozambique,
Mauritius,
Nigeria,
Namibia,
Gambia,
Rwanda, Zimbabwe,
Burundi and Tanzania.
According to Jan
Mutai, chairman of the
ATU, there are four crucial areas that the MOC
looked at. These include
positioning African ICT
within the global telecoms
community,
regional integration
within the continent,
infrastructure development, and growing and
developing the human
element within the
African ICT sector.
“We want to see
Africa position itself
alongside the rest of the
world and take its rightful place in the global
ICT sector, rather than
being seen as the poor
cousin,” says Mutai.
“We also need to discuss regional integration, as there is far too
much fragmentation in
terms of this sector
within Africa. As for
Earlier this year, Allseas purchased the 1978 built vessel Tyco Provider for a
price in the region of $5 million, reported Offshore Shipbrokers. The vessel will
be used in a trenching support role.
Picture: www.tycotelecom.com
SA is playing host to
the Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC)
of the African Telecommunications
Union
(ATU), as it deliberates
issues relating to development of information
and communications
technology (ICT) on the
African continent.
CS Tyco Provider
infrastructure, the discussions will focus on
the possibility of laying
an east coast submarine cable – much like
the one on Africa’s
west coast, to boost
integration.”
Page
20
He says that up until
now, Africa has been
practically voiceless in
terms of the ICT sector,
but this will change.
“We want to develop
a common vision for
Africa, to coordinate
and harmonise our ICT
sectors, so that we can
then share this with the
rest of the world and
take our place in the
global ICT community.”
Company News
NEPAD
Telkom Kenya to improve services
The fixed line telephone network in Kenya
is not competitive due
to poor quality of service. The Minister for
Transport and Communication, John Michuki,
said improved telecommunication holds the
key to a country’s economic growth. However, Michuki said the
national
operator,
Telkom Kenya, is making efforts to modernise
its equipment by
installing new tele-
phone exchanges in the
rural areas and expanding the network. Michuki made the remarks at
the start of a two-day
New Partnership for
Africa Development
(Nepad) workshop on
the Submarine Cable
Project at a Nairobi
hotel. He was accompanied by Planning and
National Development
Minister
Anyang’
Nyong’o. The workshop
has been convened to
discuss the progress
achieved
towards
establishing a submarine cable that will link
the east African region
communications system to the rest of the
world.
Michuki said rapid
growth in electronic
commerce and the fact
that most of the foreign
trade now depends on
electronic transaction
makes the task challenging. He said the
Government hopes to
Page
21
improve on tele-density
from 0.16 lines per 100
people in rural areas to
one per 100 while in the
urban areas the current
4 lines per 100 people
is set to increase to 20
lines per 100 by the
year 2015. Nyong’o
said that Africa is the
most indebted and aiddependent region with
17 per cent of its
Growth Domestic Product (GDP) going to debt
repayment and called
for a reversal in the
trend. “Africa now
accounts for only 1 per
cent of the total world
economic output and 2
per cent of world trade,”
said Nyong’o. The minister said Nepad, which
is the vision of the
African leaders, the
development agenda
and translation of the
vision into programme
of action, is the only initiative that could
counter moves to marginalize the African
continent.
Company News
EAST-AFRICA-COMMUNITY
DETECON
CEOs root for an infrastructure fund
Chief executives of
blue-chip firms in East
Africa have proposed
the formation of a joint
fund to co-finance and
provide seed financing
for the rehabilitation
and construction of
infrastructure in the
region.
According to a document prepared by the
East Africa Economic
Summit, the private
sector says poor infrastructure is retarding
the region’s growth.
The document, Partnership for Growth: A
private Sector Initiative,
calls on governments of
the East African Community (EAC) to allow
local investors to initiate a private sectorfunded fund through
regional mobilisation of
private capital.
Such a fund can
attract donor funds
from both bilateral and
multilateral partners to
enable it finance infrastructure development
within member states.
“This would serve the
dual purpose of freeing
up
government
resources for social and
rural infrastructure pro-
jects that are not commercially attractive on a
stand-alone basis,” the
document says.
The document is a
result of deliberations
by CEOs who met late
last year at the Mount
Kenya Safari Club under
the auspices of the East
African Business Summit.
The document calls
for the establishment of
a legal and regulatory
framework to facilitate
a joint Private Sector
Participation (PSP) in
the rehabilitation of
infrastructure among
other
Governmentfunded programmes.
The executives also
want the Kenyan, Ugandan, Tanzanian and
Rwandan governments
to involve the private
sector in small-scale
infrastructure development.
This can be granted in
form of subsidising
investors involved in
large-scale commercial
projects, or specific
subsidies targeted at
small-scale projects.
Governments are also
being urged to identify
opportunities for largescale regional infrastructure
projects
including rail and trunk
roads and a submarine
fibre optic cable.
“The
resulting
increase in market size
would increase the
attractiveness of the
projects to private sector investors and
enhance regional development,” the document
says.
Detecon joins consortium to stay in
SNO race
On the 04th of June, Wolfgang Jakob, the chief
executive of T-Systems, stated, that Detecon, a
subsidiary of T-Systems, had decided to join
CommuniTel Consortium for the second network
operator (SNO) majority stake.
“This agreement will further strengthen the
involvement of Detecon in the building and
development of a sustainable SNO in South
Africa,” Jakob said.
Detecon was one of the four bidders vying for the
51 percent strategic equity stake in the SNO.
However, Detecon was interested in a management contract.
The executives pointed out that elaborate,
time consuming customs procedures at the
ports and international
airports have played a
key role in stalling
growth and infrastructure development.
Deutsche Telekom is a parent company of T-Systems. The SNO working committee rejected the
company’s bid and that of TeleAcess Investments, a Zimbabwean led consortium.
“Efficient, well-specified
infrastructure
enables businesses to
grow, increases regional trade and investment
and supports all industries,” the report says.
Ray Watkins, the chief operating officer of CommuniTel, said having Detecon as a strategic partner would strengthen its bid
They say there is poor
specification
and
enforcement of infrastructure and enforcement of infrastructure
standards by governments and poor maintenance of facilities
where they exist.
Jakob believed combining forces with CommuniTel would result in Detecon providing management support to deliver optimum services to the
SNO.
CommuniTel is comprised of UK-based telecommunications firm Gateway
Communications, Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans’
Association, Premier Contracts Agency and Telecom Namibia.
Watkins said telecommunications customers
would benefit from Telecom
Namibia’s submarine cable. The cable, known as
SAT-3, could help CommuniTel to offer services
at competitive prices without having to rely on
forging agreements with other operators.
CommuniTel is competing with Two Consortium
for the majority stake in the 25-year SNO licence
to rival Telkom.
Page
22
Company News
ENGINEERING BUSINESS I
CANYON OFFSHORE
Rocknes Monster
Canyon Offshore takes delivery of
Triton XLS 1
“Medusa”, the 300kW
rock dump ROV designed
and built by EB has
recently been commissioned aboard Van Oord
ACZ’s new Flexible
Fallpipe Vessel, ‘Rocknes’.
The system, the latest in the Triton series work
class ROV systems, is designed and built with
the latest in technology and is engineered to provide the most reliable service in the industry.
Allen Leatt, CEO of Perry Slingsby Systems, Inc
said “We are pleased that Canyon has once again
chosen Perry Slingsby Systems as their preferred
supplier of work class ROV systems and we look
forward to being an integral part of Canyon’s
growth strategy”.
Picture: www.engb.com
‘Medusa’ is now in
operation being used to
precisely direct rocks
onto the seabed (in up
to 1200 m of water) to
provide protection for
subsea
structures,
cables and pipelines.
Perry Slingsby Systems has announced the
acceptance and delivery of Triton XLS 1 to
Canyon Offshore of Houston, Texas.
ROV “Medusa”
ENGINEERING BUSINESS II
Merlin – Rapid Installation of Wind Turbines
Now christened ‘Merlin’, it can be mobilised
on a simple flat bottom
barge and uses an Aframe based handling
system to install fully
assembled turbines in a
single lift.
Picture: www.engb.com
Engineering Business
(EB) has continued to
develop its system for
the rapid and safe
installation of offshore
wind turbines.
Merlin system
EB is actively seeking
partners to assist with
the fast track development and implementation of this innovative
system.
Page
23
Company News
CABLE & WIRELESS I
C & W to axe staff at its headquarters
Cable and Wireless,
the telecommunications
group, is planning to
shed half its London
headquarters staff in
the latest phase of a
brutal restructuring.
The move follows the
arrival this year of
Richard Lapthorne, former finance director of
British Aerospace, now
BAE Systems, as
C&W’s new chairman.
Senior
executives
have been ordered to
draw up severance
terms for about 200
staff. The cuts, to be
accompanied by several
hundred-job
losses
across the group, as it
struggles to reduce
cash burn.
The cuts also indicate
the depth and scope of
the strategy review
being conducted by Mr
Lapthorne
and
Francesco Caio, who
was appointed as chief
executive in April. The
executives will use next
week’s
results
announcement to clarify its strategy, with the
focus on C&W Global,
the loss making data
services business.
The telecoms operator
is understood to be
committed to retaining
both the UK and Japanese arms of Global. But
its previous stance of
holding on to Global’s
loss making US arm is
believed to have
changed in recent days,
with buyers for this
division being sought.
Signs that C&W is
preparing its US arm for
possible closure or sale
Page
24
has been backed up by
revelations that it has
been unwinding property lease commitments
in the US. Last year,
analysts and investors
were shocked at revelations of property lease
commitments in the US
totalling £400m, signalling potentially significant costs if C&W
shut down its US arm.
operator’s fixed and
mobile businesses in
the Caribbean.
The re-think over
strategy is expected to
lead to the imminent
departure of Robert Lerwill, deputy chief executive and head of C&W
Regional, the telecoms
LEK Consultants are
advising C&W, a firm
of strategy and management consultants,
and by Bill Trent, a former finance director at
Energis.
Mr Lerwill’s departure
will re-ignite controversy over pay as he was
hired on a two-year
rolling contract with a
basic annual salary in
excess of £400,000
($653,419). His pay-off,
including pension benefits, could exceed £1m.
Company News
CABLE & WIRELESS II
C & W exits the US market
On the 04th of June,
Telecommunications
giant, Cable & Wireless
PLC,
has
finally
revealed its muchanticipated restructuring plan.
The new plan does not
disappoint, with radical
changes unveiled which
will see the group withdraw from the US and
cut up to 1,500 jobs in
the UK.
“Our US subsidiaries
make losses, consume
cash and require significant
management
attention,” said new
chief
executive
Francesco Caio.
He added that it’s US
hosting and IP services
have limited interaction
with the rest of the
group and are not central to its plans.
“They may have value
to the right owner but
they are not sustainable
for us with their current
cost structure. We have
initiated a wide ranging
cost control programme
and it is our intention to
withdraw from the US;
all options are being
explored,” said Caio.
The news, which was
widely expected by the
industry, came as the
company reported a full
year underlying loss of
224 million Pounds
Sterling, wider than the
14 million Pounds Sterling loss it posted the
previous year.
It also said it would
suspend its dividend for
a year.
“Whilst the UK business makes a positive
EBITDA, its loss before
tax is unsatisfactory,”
said Caio.
“Performance
has
declined and as a result,
we are restructuring the
business to drive efficiency, improve our network services and focus
the company on building market share with
our target customers,”
he added.
As a result the group
plans to cut around
1,500 over an 18 to 24
month period.
“Although conditions
remain tough, we are
confident of improving
performance with the
first step being the cutting of our cost base
through the measures
announced today,” said
Caio.
The group also took
a further impairment
charge of 1.479 billion
Pounds Sterling as
it wrote down the value
of its assets. At the
half year, C&W saw an
impairment
charge
of 3.5 billion Pounds
Sterling.
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Page
25
Company News
CABLE & WIRELESS III
C & W sells entire stake in PCCW
On the 05th of June
Cable & Wireless Plc
sold its 14 percent stake
in Richard Li’s PCCW
Ltd. for $383 million,
ending a 15-year investment in Hong Kong’s
dominant phone company after the stock
plunged 93 percent in
three years.
London-based Cable &
Wireless, reversing an
$8 billion global expansion, sold 651.9 million
PCCW shares at
HK$4.78 each to institutional investors, said
Citigroup Inc., which
arranged the sale.
Cable & Wireless first
laid submarine cables
in Hong Kong in 1871
and bought what was
then Hong Kong Telephone Co. in 1988. It
sold the Hong Kong
company to Li’s Internet
startup in 2000, taking
a 20 percent stake in
PCCW. The U.K. company chose a $38 billion
bid by Li, son of billionaire Li Ka-shing, over a
rival offer by Singapore
Telecommunications
Ltd.
“Cable & Wireless
picked PCCW over
SingTel on the hope
Richard Li’s venture
would get access to
China,” said Winson
Fong, director of SGY
Asset Management Ltd.
in Singapore “So far, Li
couldn’t deliver anything. Why hold the
shares? It’s very hard to
see any fundamental
improvement in PCCW.”
The sale comes a day
after Cable & Wireless’s Chief Executive
Francesco Caio said he
will withdraw from the
U.S. and cut a quarter of
the company’s U.K.
workforce after posting
a record 6.53 billionpound ($10.7 billion)
loss.
Cable & Wireless paid
11 million pounds in
fees, primarily to Citigroup, for handling the
sale, netting the company 233 million
pounds, spokesman
Peter Eustace said in an
interview. The U.K.
company valued the
stake at 235 million
pounds on March 31.
Cable & Wireless has
net cash of 1.62 billion
pounds.
After the sale, ”we
don’t have a business
equivalent to the scale
of HKT anymore,” said
Susan Cottam, a Cable
& Wireless spokeswoman. “We do have
separate operations in
HK that enable us to
serve our multinational
customers,” she said,
without giving a revenue breakdown from
those operations in
Hong Kong.
PCCW spokeswoman
Joan Wagner declined
to comment.
“Cable & Wireless has
no strategic interest in
keeping the stake in
Hong Kong,” said
Pauline Dan, who helps
manage $350 million of
stock at IG Investment
Management (Hong
Kong) Ltd.
PCCW shares tumbled
after the Internet bubble burst in the U.S. and
Hong Kong opened up
its phone industry to
competition.
PCCW, which has
$4.2 billion of net debt,
saw its share of the
fixed-line market fall to
82 percent at the end of
2002 from 89 percent a
year earlier as Hutchicontinues on P. 27
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Page
26
Company News
FLAG TELECOM
CABLE & WIRELESS III
FLAG Telecom Enhances Its European Network Through an
Agreement With Verizon Communications
C & W sells entire stake in PCCW
On the 21st of May
2003, FLAG Telecom
Group
Limited
announced that it will
enhance its European
network through an
agreement with Verizon
Global Solutions. This
agreement is a key element in FLAG’s global
network plan, as it will
improve FLAG’s ability
to meet customer’s
growing connectivity
needs between Europe,
the USA and Asia.
FLAG will also be
opening new Points-OfPresence (“POPs”) in
Amsterdam and Frankfurt which will support
FLAG’s full range of
bandwidth and IP services and will provide
seamless connectivity
to FLAG Telecom’s submarine cable systems:
FLAG Atlantic-1 (FA-1),
FLAG Europe Asia (FEA)
and FLAG North Asia
Loop (FNAL), thereby
increasing FLAG Telecom’s global reach.
Supplementing its
existing POPs in London
and Paris will enable
FLAG to offer direct
connectivity into and
out of Europe’s four
largest International
traffic hubs. The network is expected to be
fully in service at the
beginning of Q1 2004
with Verizon providing
capacity, project management services and
the provisioning of SDH
equipment.
Patrick
Gallagher,
FLAG Telecom CEO,
stated, “We are very
excited about the potential of this agreement
with Verizon which
strengthens FLAG Telecom’s position in
Europe. We are seeing
growing demand for IP
services out of Amsterdam and Frankfurt and
with this expansion we
will be able to meet
these needs directly
over our own network.
Much of the international capacity required
by customers in Amsterdam and Frankfurt is
for the United States, so
we also see these new
POPs as a great way of
further leveraging the
FLAG Atlantic cable
system that links our
European network to
New York.”
About FLAG Telecom
FLAG Telecom, registered in Hamilton,
Bermuda, along with its
group companies, is a
leading global network
services provider and
independent carriers’
carrier providing an
innovative range of
products and services
to the international carrier community, ASPs
and ISPs across an
international network
platform designed to
support the next generation of IP over optical
data networks.
Recent news releases and
further information are on
FLAG
Telecom’s website at:
http://www.flagtelecom.com
CONTACTS:
FLAG Telecom
Willem Baralt,
Group Treasurer
+44 207 317 0837
[email protected]
Suny Borges
Corporate Communications
+44 20 74 78 95 79
[email protected]
Page
27
continued
son Global Communications Ltd. and New
World
Telephone
grabbed customers.
who helps manage $2
billion of Asian stocks
for ABN Amro Asset
Management Ltd.
About 40,000 people
changed
service
providers in March,
according to Hong
Kong’s phone regulator.
The share sale was
more than 4.3 times
subscribed, Citigroup
said in a statement. The
bank sold 56 percent of
the offer to investors in
Asia, 27 percent in
Europe and 17 percent
in the U.S.
“With the market
deregulation seen in the
fixed-line industry, it
seems a smart move to
exit,” said Karl Lung,
Any Rumours
you want to
share?
Contact:
[email protected]
Company News
RUMOURS:
FLAG
Dubai office to be closed?
There are rumours in the industry, that the FLAG
office in Dubai, UAE may be closed and all
marine operations transferred to London, UK.
VSNL I
VSNL and Dishnet expand bandwidth
capacity
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has upgraded
the submarine cable, South East Asia-Middle
East-Western Europe No III at its end from 2.5
giga bytes per second (GBPS) to 10 GBPS.
“There is an increase in bandwidth demand,
especially from Business Process Outsourcing
(BPO) units, including call centers, and an upgradation of SEA-ME-WE-3 was necessary to meet
the demands”, VSNL head (corporate business) V
S Shridhar said.
The 39,000 km long SEA-ME-WE-3 is the
largest Internet data carrier in the world, which
has 41 landing points in 35 countries and four
continents. It is maintained and upgraded by a
consortium of 93 companies, with VSNL the sole
Indian member of the consortium.
Indian ISP Dishnet DSL has entered into an
agreement with SingTel and Bharti Telesonic for
the biggest bandwidth acquisition in the country.
Dishnet has bought 622 MBPS of bandwidth
from SingTel for its international Internet traffic
with Singapore as the regional hub to route its
Internet traffic.
VSNL II
VSNL’s IPLC bookings triple in FY ‘03
Internet gateway and
services
provider
Videsh Sanchar Nigam
Ltd’s (VSNL) Internet
Private Leaseline Circuit (IPLC) bookings
tripled in financial year
ended March 31, 2003,
with data traffic
accounting for over 25
per cent of its revenue.
“IPLC segment has
grown significantly during the fiscal, due to an
increase in call centre
operations and software developments in
India, apart from the
country becoming a
back office for outsourcing operations”,
VSNL head corporate
business V S Shridhar
said.
The Tata group firm’s
64 KBPS equivalent
IPLC circuit bookings
grew to 35,712 circuits
in FY’03, compared to
10,907
bookings
recorded in FY’02, he
said adding, data traffic
The bandwidth will ride the i2i (India to International) backbone that links Singapore to Chennai
and Mumbai through a 3,200-km undersea
cable. i2i is a joint venture between Bharti Group
and SingTel. The ISP has also acquired the same
amount of bandwidth from Bharti Telesonic to
cater to its broadband services. DDSL will use
this bandwidth to rollout its services in new
locations across the country.
Page
28
accounted for about 25
per cent of VSNL’s total
revenues, compared to
11 per cent in FY’02.
“The increase in data
was
predominantly
from the US, followed
by UK, Far Eastern
countries, Japan and
Hong Kong, while
multinational companies’ call centres and
back office operations
in India accounted for a
major share of data traffic”, Shridhar said.
The ISP’s revenue
model is expected to be
stronger this fiscal due
to a growth in data market in India and its
recent foray into the
National Long Distance
arena.
VSNL is also seeking
an International Long
Distance
provider
license in Sri Lanka,
and is also planning to
offer CDMA services in
Nepal ‘shortly’.
Meanwhile,
commenting on the disruption in the Atlantic submarine cables due to
Algerian earthquake,
Sridhar said they were
fixed within three to 36
hours.
“The data traffic was
immediately shifted
over to the Pacific cable
systems and an interruption was not felt in
the country”, he said.
VSNL connects the
sub-continent with the
rest of the world over
five submarine cable
systems including SEAME-WE-2 and 3, SAT3/WASC/SAFE
and
FLAG.
The Tata group Company alternates traffic
between the Pacific and
Atlantic cable systems
to avoid clogging of the
fibre optic lines.
Company News
INTEROUTE - OTE
BATELCO
A friend in need
Internet use interrupted
The human cost of the
earthquake in Algeria
was immense. The cost
to businesses in the
region, whilst far less
tragic, was still significant. The earthquake
took out two of the
main submarine cables
- FLAG and Sea-MeWe-3 - that provided
network communications in the region.
This resulted in the
largest Greek telecommunications operator,
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization
S.A. (OTE) losing its
high bandwidth data/IP
connectivity to the UK.
To retrieve the situation,
it turned to Interoute,
which owns and operates Europe’s most
advanced and densely
connected network and
with which it had just
signed an agreement to
provide high speed
European data network
services by the end of
2003 in preparation for
the 2004 Olympic
Games in Athens.
Although the new
Greece-to-Europe network was not yet in
place, Interoute’s commitment to its customers is such that it
worked with OTE and
Telecom Italia to provide a high bandwidth
restoration route to the
UK. With multiple
points of presence in
most major European
cities, Interoute identified locations adjacent
to OTE facilities in London and Telecom Italia
facilities in Milan.
OTE was able to connect to the south of Italy
where Telecom Italia
carried the circuits to
Milan. Interoute then
interconnected to its
own network and carried the line to its destination in the London
Hosting Centre, all in
double-quick time.
James Kinsella, executive chairman of Interoute, said, “I think this
really shows that, for
Interoute, customer
responsiveness is more
than just a marketing
slogan. The teamwork
and commitment of our
engineers has helped to
demonstrate our value
to a key customer right
at the start of the relationship.”
In providing the
restoration route, all of
the card installations,
cable patching, building
connections, provisioning, and testing and
customer handover took
place within 24 hours
of Interoute being first
notified.
Discussing his reaction to the speed at
which the problem was
resolved, an OTE senior
manager referred to an
ancient Greek saying:
“A friend learns about a
friend when in pain or
in danger.” In receiving
such a rapid response to
a potentially damaging
situation, OTE has
learned a lot about
Interoute.
Page
29
On the 20th of May,
Batelco announced the
re-routing of an undersea cable. Internet
users in Bahrain and
other Gulf countries
faced interruptions for
several days. The
undersea cable has
being diverted to make
way for the new Palm
Island development, in
the UAE. Customers
experienced some interruptions and deteriora-
tion in their Internet
service at peak times,
but all was back to normal on the 26th of May,
Batelco said in a statement. Batelco had created special lanes for
phone calls and business services, but had
to restrict Internet
capacity for the duration of the diversion.
The work also affected
Kuwait and Qatar.
To learn more about
Interoute’s ability to
rapidly solve networking problems, please
contact Nick McMenemy,
nick.mcmenemy@inter
oute.com.
traditional communications operators, mobile
operators,
service
providers and enterprise customers.
About Interoute
Owner and operator of
Europe’s
most
advanced and densely
connected voice and
data network - delivers
intelligent, customercontrolled network services to a diverse range
of businesses including
Unencumbered
by
debt, and with established
operations
throughout mainland
Europe and North America, Interoute also owns
and operates dense city
networks in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London,
Madrid, Milan, Paris,
Rome, Zurich and Vienna. www.interoute.com
Company News
THALES GEOSOLUTIONS I
Thales unveils decimetric Differential GPS with no range restrictions
Thales has launched a
new generation of decimetric Differential GPS
(DGPS) positioning systems, which, it claims,
offers the oil, gas and
hydrographic industries
“new levels of accuracy
and quality of service,
with no range restrictions from reference
stations.”
SkyFix XP, available
from Thales GeoSolutions, is capable of
accuracies of 10cm in
the horizontal and 15cm
in the vertical domains,
surpassing accuracies
and quality standards
previously experienced
in the Differential GPS
marketplace.
Announcing
the
launch of SkyFix XP,
Senior-Vice President of
the Thales Positioning
Based Solutions Group,
Stanislas Guérin said:
“SkyFix XP is ideal for
all offshore operations
and activities, providing
highly reliable and
dynamic decimetric
positioning accuracy
anywhere in the world,
with no range limitations from stations.
SkyFix XP’s improvement in positioning
accuracy reduces costs
for users by speeding
up the time taken for
offshore positioning
activities and data processing in the oil and
gas, construction and
hydrographic survey
industries, as well as
improving the efficiency
of dredging operations.
Furthermore, this system will undoubtedly
drive a revolution for
Geographical Information Systems’ (GIS) land
applications.”
SkyFix XP draws on a
completely new technique, known as Satellite
Differential
GPS
(SDGPS), using the
existing global network
of Thales reference stations to track all satellites
continuously
throughout their orbit,
is generating referencestation-independent
correction data. This
fully dynamic, highly
accurate and completely reliable correction
information, available
for any location regardless of proximity to a
reference
station,
makes the system truly
global, with no range
restrictions.
Is your subscription running out soon?
Contact: [email protected]
Page
30
Fully compatible with
existing systems, SkyFix XP has a similar
hardware platform and
configuration to that of
the standard SkyFix
model making it easy to
upgrade an existing
system with the addition of a dual frequency
GPS receiver and the
new MultiFix4 software. In addition, the
MultiFix 4 software is
compatible with most
leading GPS receivers
including, but not limited to, units produced by
Thales Navigation.
Company News
THALES GEOSOLUTIONS II
Thales introduces new generation survey software
Thales has introduced
a new generation of
marine survey software
developed as a fully
integrated suite of
applications covering
real-time offshore data
acquisition, processing
and charting, which, it
claims, represents “a
shift in the paradigm for
the fast and efficient,
access and display of
survey information for
the oil and gas, construction and hydrographic survey industries.”
The innovative new
Pelagos integrated software suite enables
Thales
GeoSolutions to offer
its marine survey
clients faster access
and turnaround of data,
increased quality control and improved information content, all
under a common architecture with a consistent graphical user
interface (GUI) format
for every module in the
suite. Easy to use, the
Pelagos suite integrates
tightly to give the user
total control and access
to the data from initial
acquisition through to
delivery to the client.
Announcing the availability of Pelagos for its
clients, chief executive
officer of Thales GeoSolutions,
Stanislas
Guérin said: “Pelagos
offers our customers a
giant step forward in
terms of the integration,
access and presentation
of marine survey data,
performing digital video
acquisition, near realtime cleaning of data
and increased reporting
capability for our
clients. It is ideal for offshore operations and
activities, in particular
seafloor and pipeline
inspection, providing
significant improvements in data processing and access times to
reduce overall costs for
users in the oil and gas,
construction and hydrographic survey industries.”
Stewart Cannon, vice
president - technology
for Thales GeoSolutions, added: “The
introduction of a new
software suite provides
an opportunity to incorporate the best features
of proven software systems currently in use
with new capabilities
enabled by advances in
computer hardware and
software.
The Pelagos software
suite and its brand
name draw on an excel-
lent pedigree of accomplishments
and
achievements in software
development.
Pelagos is technically
and historically associated with various software
architectures
widely used in the
industry that have contributed to this new
generation of marine
survey software. Appropriately, Pelagos is a
Greek name that means
‘of the deep sea’ which
is the direction the
company is taking for
future developments.”
Software applications
initially covered in the
Pelagos suite include
Pelagos Acquisition,
Pelagos Digital Video
System, Pelagos Quality
Control, Pelagos Data
Processing System and
Pelagos Chart.
Designed to replace
GNS II, WinFrog and
MultiROV,
Pelagos
Acquisition is a Windows-based application
with enhanced graphics
displays, showing positions for all vehicles,
quality control and raw
data displays. Initially,
the system will offer
multi-beam acquisition,
with the real-time
heave, pitch and roll
correction for cross profile and bathymetry as
Page
31
well as synchronisation
of the digital video system. Future releases
will offer improved ultra
short baseline (USBL)
positioning
with
enhanced calibration
function and Doppler
velocity log aiding, as
well as superior event /
fix printouts and quality
control.
The new Pelagos DVS
package
enables
imagery from three
cameras to be stored in
MPEG 2 format at six
Mbits per camera per
second. The system is
synchronised by the
acquisition
system
allowing for full integration of survey data during processing and a
DVD of the imagery /
sequences around all
the recorded events as
well as digital tapes of
all the available data.
Offering near realtime information to the
clients, Pelagos QC
incorporates all the survey data available and
allows standard filtering and cleaning operations to be applied automatically. This not only
speeds up final processing, saving time
and costs, but also
allows the client to
make more informed
decisions while the ves-
sel is still on location.
Offering new processing techniques to facilitate faster data processing, Pelagos DPS completely supersedes the
Chart-X
Processing
application. Designed
specifically to handle
dual-head multi-beam
pipeline inspection projects, Pelagos DPS also
enables three-dimensional editing of any
number of scans at one
time. Based around a
MySQL database, Pelagos DPS benefits from
fast data handling,
improved management
/ storage and is also
fully integrated with the
Pelagos DVS module.
Based on the Chart-X
Charting application,
this new module offers
a direct link to the database for processed data
import, allowing automated cable and
pipeline
alignment
chart creation. In addition, Pelagos Chart provides the same extensive range of chart creation and editing tools
offered by the Chart-X
Charting application.
Company News
RIEBER SHIPPING AS
The vessel will then be
handed back to its owners Rieber Shipping AS,
Bergen, Norway - and
as a consequence of the
ITG charter being over
the company intends to
rename the vessel
‘POLAR KING’ in line
with the other ships of
their fleet. The ship
offers a fully enclosed
cable deck, a cable
capacity of 6000 tons
and is fully equipped for
cable laying and will be
bid on an independent
basis to contractors.
CV “Oceanic King”
Picture: Rieber Shipping AS
The ex-ITG cable laying vessel ‘Oceanic
King’ - which recently
was terminated by ITG
and its parent company
General Dynamics, will
complete its present
bottom seismic operation in the Persian Gulf
around July 1st, after a
year’s operation for
seismic company PGS
and their end-client
Saudi Aramco.
Picture: Rieber Shipping AS
Cable Laying Vessel “Oceanic King”
CV “Oceanic King”
LINKS PAGE
Is your Company already listed?
Visit: www.subcablenews.com/links
Page
32
Company News
EIB
POLARNET PROJECT LTD.
EIB finances world’s largest offshore
wind farm in Denmark
New Management in place
The world largest wind
farm, off the Danish
coast, is being financed
with a e134m loan by
the European Investment Bank, the European Union’s long-term
financing institution.
The offshore wind
farm is located south of
Horns Rev in the North
Sea, some 15-20 km off
the Danish west coast
of Jutland. The loan
contract was signed on
the 21st of May in Fredericia (Denmark) by EIB
vice-president Michael
Tutty and Messrs Erik
Folkersen and Egon
Nielsen of Elsam, the
main producer and supplier of electricity in the
west of Denmark. The
wind farm will make a
major contribution to
Denmark’s energy supplies, increasing the
country’s wind-power
generating capacity by
eight per cent. This is
the first major offshore
wind farm to be
financed by the EIB, the
EU’s policy driven bank.
It will reinforce renewable energy production
in the west of Denmark,
which is already at
about 20 per cent, substantially higher than
the EU target of 12 per
cent. This EIB cofinanced project comprises a total of 80 wind
turbines, each with a
capacity of 2 MW. The
turbines are connected
to the grid by an offshore substation, as
well as 21 km submarine cable and a 34 km
underground land cable.
The wind farm will generate renewable energy
for supply to the public
grid, replacing fossil
fuel powered generation in line with Danish
and EU policy. Mr Tutty,
the EIB vice-president
responsible for Denmark, said: “This project represents a significant contribution to
Danish and European
targets for renewable
energy generation and
enhances the diversification of energy supply.
It is an important addition to the EIB’s renewable energy portfolio,
which we intend to
double over the next
couple of years, and is a
good pilot model for
such investments elsewhere in Europe.” Erik
Folkersen,
Elsam’s
executive officer said:
“Completing the project
has given Elsam A/S
valuable experience,
which we are sure will
form a good basis for
the realisation of our
vision in the current
internationalisation
process. At the same
time, we are pleased
that the project will
make it possible to continue the long-standing
cooperation with EIB for
the funding our major
plant investments.”
Polarnet Project Ltd.
has appointed Mr.
Amad Purtow as Managing Director and Dr.
Jerry Brown as their
Technical Director.
Amad Purtow has
been working for Alcatel Submarine Networks for 13 years.
Lately he was the Area
Marketing Director for
Eastern Europe and the
Middle East.
Jerry Brown has
worked in the R&D,
Technical and Marine
Operations
Departments of Alcatel Submarine Networks for 15
years. A Chartered
Engineer, he held the
position of Marine
Operations Technical
Manager for Alcatel,
being responsible for
the Alcatel new build
cable ships at HMD
South Korea and for
Marine
Installation
Technical issues.
DTI
Third round of capital grants for offshore wind farms
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has published an application
form and guidance notes for the third round of the allocation of capital grants
for offshore wind projects around the British Isles.
The main aim of the scheme is to stimulate early development of offshore
wind farms, provide a learning experience, increase confidence in the sector
and reduce future costs.
The first round was completed in September 2002, which resulted in two
projects being awarded £10 million. The second round supported five projects, with a total of £42 million being allocated.
The guidance notes and an application form for the third round of the scheme
are now available at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/support/
capital_grants.shtml.
The deadline for sealed bids for the third round is 30 June 2003.
Page
33
Company News
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
EMIX
Galileo becomes a reality for Europe
EMIX wins Jordan Telecom bandwidth deal
The European Space
Agency is now able to
finalise the conditions
for participation in the
Galileo navigation programme and to approve
the Galileo Joint Undertaking foundation act to
be soon signed by ESA
and the European
Union.
The
agreement
reached among ESA
member states clears
the way for the official
launch of the legal entity, which will have the
task of coordinating
ESA and EU involvement in Galileo, the
European initiative to
develop a global satellite navigation system.
“This is a great day for
Europe in general and
its space community in
particular. Conscious of
the economic, industrial
and strategic importance of satellite navigation, our Member
States have reached
agreement in the common interest. We are
now able to continue
with Galileo, a major
programme from which
all citizens will benefit.
Galileo is definitely a
reality”, said Antonio
Rodotà, ESA Director
General at the end of
the Council Meeting at
Delegate level held in
Paris on the 26th of
May.
“I am extremely
delighted with this
result. Galileo is now on
its way. I am grateful to
all ESA Member States
that have striven to find
a balanced solution and
pleased that Europe has
once again proven to be
able to remain at the
forefront of high level
technology for a programme useful to each
of us in our everyday
life” said Mrs. Bulmahn,
Chairwoman of the ESA
Council, when she
heard the good news.
The Galileo Joint
Undertaking, to be
headquartered in Brussels, has a key part to
play in implementing
the various phases of
the programme. This
unique organisational
structure will pave the
way for the entity that
will in due course operate the Galileo system.
It will be responsible for
the Galileo development and validation
phase and also for
preparations for system
deployment and operations.
The founding members of the Galileo Joint
Undertaking are the
European Space Agency
and the European
Union, represented by
the European Commission.
Galileo will complement the existing satellite navigation system,
which presently relies
entirely on GPS, the
American Global Positioning System. Developed by ESA and the EU
on the basis of equal
co-funding, Galileo is
designed to provide a
complete civil system.
Scheduled to be operational by 2008, it will
offer the citizens of
Europe and the world
an accurate and secure
Page
34
Emirates Internet Exchange (EMIX), Internet connectivity provider for
Etisalat, has reached an agreement with Jordan
Telecom to supply the latter with 155-Mbits/sec
of bandwidth. The bandwidth aims to meet
increasing demand for multimedia services.
Under the deal, EMIX will supply 155-Mbits/sec,
STM-1 level global connectivity via transAtlantic and trans-Pacific routes, based on
underwater cables from Sea-Me-We3 and FLAG.
satellite positioning
capability.
A broad range of
applications will be
supported by the system: control of road, rail
and sea traffic, synchronised data transmission
between computers,
and many others.
Projections point to
very significant economic benefits, with a
return on investment of
4.6 and creation of over
140 000 jobs.
Galileo is the first
instance of a project
carried out jointly by the
European Space Agency
and the European Union.
The Galileo system
will be built around 30
satellites (27 operational and 3 reserve
craft) occupying three
circular earth orbits,
inclined at 56° to the
Equator, at an altitude
of 23 616 km. This configuration will provide
excellent coverage of
the planet. Two Galileo
control centres will be
established in Europe to
control satellite operations and manage the
navigation system.
For further information,
please contact:
Franco Bonacina
ESA, Media Relations Service
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
Company News
EXFO
optical network.
EXFO tests Undersea Cable
“The results of these
test trials with EXFO
have proven to be conclusive,” said Philip Pilgrim, Submarine Transmission Specialist at
Hibernia Atlantic.
On the 14th of May,
EXFO Electro-Optical
Engineering
Inc.
announced, that its
Polarization Mode Dispersion and Chromatic
Dispersion Analysers
have successfully characterized a 5,513-km
undersea optical network belonging to
Hibernia Atlantic, an
Irish-based transatlantic carrier.
The proprietary PMD
(patent pending) and CD
(patented) analysers,
housed inside EXFO’s
FTB-400 modular platform, swept through
more than 120 erbiumdoped fibre amplifiers
(EDFAs) along an optical network lining the
ocean floor between
Southport, England and
Halifax, Canada.
These latest test trials
on Hibernia Atlantic’s
network marked the
first time that a portable
solution carried out dual
PMD-CD tests on an
undersea transatlantic
“Not only did their dispersion testing allow us
to verify critical aspects
of our system’s optical
performance prior to
loading customers, but
also by revealing very
low PMD levels, confirms that the system is
suitable for 40 Gb/s
wavelengths in the
future.”
“We knew that our
dual PMD-CD test solution could characterize
an undersea optical network with the size and
degree of complexity
inherent to Hibernia
Atlantic’s, but it’s gratifying to see theory put
into practice,” said Étienne Gagnon, VicePresident of Product
Management at EXFO.
“The beauty of this
solution is that it can
apply to metro and edge
networks as well as to
long-haul and ultra
long-haul networks.
The bottom line is that
telecommunications
carriers and systems
vendors alike will benefit by reducing the cost
of operating and manufacturing their optical
networks.”
Combined with the
highly intuitive graphical
user interface and all-inone configuration of the
PC-centric,
Windows®-based FTB-400
platform, EXFO’s PMD
and CD Analysers represent the best-in-class
solution for high-end
dispersion testing. A single optical source completes the test set to
allow significant savings
in testing time and cost.
GARDLINE SURVEYS LTD
Gardline introduces new subsidiaries
remains group chairman. New Gardline
subsidiaries and markets include:
Gardline Marine Sciences Ltd. will undertake head office duties.
Gardline Geosurvey
Ltd. will concentrate on
traditional marine geophysical and hydrographic surveys for oil
and gas companies,
submarine cable companies, scientific institutes, and government
authorities, business
currently conducted by
Gardline Surveys Ltd.
Gardline Geoscience
Ltd. will provide geot-
Picture: www.gardlinesurveys.com
Offshore survey company Gardline Surveys
Ltd. reports it has
undergone a major
organizational change,
developing new subsidiaries to focus on
particular market sectors. Marketing manager Cliff Whatrup (Hydro
Division) said, that
“organic growth over
the years has helped
Gardline to grow in
stature and capability;
however, so that it can
better serve client
needs, separate companies have been established as of May 1,
2003.” George Darling,
company
founder,
New Gardline Surveys Structure
echnical
services
including coring, cone
penetrometer testing,
seabed sampling, and
analysis for a diverse
range of clients.
Page
35
Gardline Environmental Ltd. will provide
oceanographic, environmental, and coastal
hydrographic services
to its client base.
For more about the company or the organizational
changes,
contact Paul Stanley via
[email protected]
or visit
www.gardline.co.uk
Company News
GE WIND ENERGY
GE blows into wind business
General Electric Co. is
injecting some pinstriped corporate muscle into the still-evolving world of wind
power. A year after its
purchase of Enron
Corp.’s wind turbine
business, GE expects
the operation to generate more than $1 billion
U.S. in revenue during
2003 and expands
about 20 per cent annually. GE Wind Energy
has landed several
major orders; including
turbines for a project
that would be the first
offshore wind farm in
the United States. As a
major supplier to the
electric power industry,
GE’s lead is closely
watched. “The purchase of the wind manufacturing company by
GE is really a historic
move that symbolizes
the maturation of the
wind industry,” said
Randall Swisher, executive director of the
American Wind Energy
Association. The company’s foray into wind
energy comes as its
Power Systems Division, which makes traditional gas turbines for
power plants, is on a
downswing. GE has laid
off hundreds of workers
at its turbine plants,
shipments are down
and the near-term outlook is weak. At the
same time, wind power
- which in the past
often involved smaller
companies - has
become one of the
fastest-growing segments of the global
energy industry. Wind
turbine sales represent
a $7-billion business
globally and should
grow to about $20 billion in the next five to
10 years, Swisher said.
GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said at the
company’s
annual
meeting last month the
wind energy business
has taken in more than
$2 billion in orders in
the past year. The revenue it produces is a
small fraction of GE’s
total revenue of $131.7
billion last year and
won’t be enough to
totally offset a sharp
decline in gas turbine
sales. But wind energy
is one of several new
growth areas targeted
by GE; others include
Hispanic media, security and water treatment.
John Rice, chief executive of Power Systems,
which operates the
wind business, said of
the operation: “It’s met
or exceeded our expectations in the year
we’ve operated it.” GE
studied the wind power
business for at least
three years and saw an
opportunity to make the
acquisition when bankrupt Enron began shedding its assets, Rice
said. He cited three
main reasons for entering the industry:
The cost of electricity
generated from wind
power dropped to the
point where it was
competitive with other
sources;
The business could
benefit from technology
from other GE businesses; and
GE customers were
increasingly interested
in renewable energy
sources.
The company said it’s
using its expertise from
other businesses, such
as rotating machinery
parts, grid technologies
and gearbox advancements, to expand the
business and introduce
new models with the
latest technology.
The company faces
competition, mostly
from companies in
Europe, where wind
power is more widely
employed. GE Wind
Energy was selected to
supply 130 wind turbines for a proposed
project off the coast of
Cape Cod. The project
would be the first offshore wind farm in the
United States and could
provide enough clean
electricity to meet
about three-quarters of
the annual requirements of the cape and
nearby islands, GE said.
Any Rumours you want to share?
Contact: [email protected]
Page
36
Company News
GEOCONSULT AS
INTERNATIONAL TELECOM GROUP
Hugin 3000-GC AUV
International Telecom Group Unit Sold
Word from west of
Norway, in the “subarctic region,” is that
the final customer
acceptance test for AS
Geoconsult’s
Hugin
3000-GC was successful with a “ground
breaking deep-water
dive at a depth of 2,901
meters,” according to a
spokeswoman
for
Kongsberg Simrad AS,
makers
of
the
autonomous underwater vehicle. This is the
second
ultra-deepwater Hugin 3000 AUV
produced by Kongsberg
Simrad (Horten, Norway) now in commercial operation. The trials
were the first commercial seabed mapping by
an AUV that was completed at this depth, she
said.
The Geoconsult vehicle has now been in
operation since August
2002. At the test location, 140 kilometres
west of northern Nor-
way, at 69.2° North,
12° East, the Hugin
3000-GC dived down to
2,901 meters; the dive
lasted for approximately
five to six hours. During
this dive, the Hugin was
manoeuvred slowly to
the record depth, with
the vehicle swimming
as close as 30 meters
above the seabed. During the descent, the
specified functionality
of the acoustic links
was successfully tested. Hugin 3000-GC
includes a complete
survey suite consisting
of side-scan sonar, subbottom profiler, as well
as
a
multibeam
echosounder and all
systems successfully
performed to full operational specification.
For more about the AUV,
go to
www.kongsberg-simrad.com,
e-mail [email protected]
or call
+47 (33) 02 38 00.
Also visit
www.geoconsult.no
The office of the International Telecom Group in Toms River, New Jersey, has
been sold. The new company is named Caldwell Marine International.
Caldwell Marine shall continue providing marine construction and maintenance services to its worldwide client base.
Caldwell Marine specializes in the marine utility field, which includes:
Submarine cable (both power & telecom)
Submarine pipeline
Ocean and bay utility outfalls
The company also will continue to provide vessel & diving support services
to all facets of the marine industry.
The personnel core at the Toms River office will remain the same. The equipment spread remains the same with all our Jet Plow burial equipment intact
and ready to go to work. Caldwell Marine is currently installing a 3-phase ac,
35Kv submarine power cable system across the Great South Bay in Long
Island NY. The job consists of laying and burial of 3 power cables in a common trench. The burial is to 2m depth of cover.
The Toms River office was one of General Dynamics’ acquisition of marine
services companies a few years ago. It was incorporated into the International Telecom Group after General Dynamics’ acquisition of Canadian-based
IT International Telecom in 2000. Earlier this year, General Dynamics decided to exit the business and sold IT International Telecom to Canadian
investors.
Page
37
Company News
NEW WORLD NETWORK
NEC
New World Network announced the
hire of Eduardo Gandarilla as Vice
President of Sales and Marketing
NEC in Asian IP network venture
On the 15th of May,
New World Network,
Ltd., a leading provider
of advanced, high speed
clear channel and IP
services and the principal owner of the Americas Region Caribbean
Optical-ring System
(ARCOS), announced
the hiring of Eduardo
Gandarilla as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Gandarilla
brings to New World
Network over 20 years
of experience in the IT
and Telecommunications industries with
expertise in Global
Sales, Management,
Internet Technologies,
and Systems Networking. “Eduardo’s depth of
experience in international business development and global
operations make him
the ideal choice for this
position,” said Matthew
Milstead, President and
CEO. “He is a seasoned
business executive who
will be an invaluable
asset to our team.” Gandarilla comes to New
World Network from
BCE Teleglobe where he
served as Executive
Vice President and General Manager of the
Americas region. In this
role he developed and
implemented the business plan, deployed the
infrastructure,
and
managed one of the
most successful Networks in the Caribbean
and Latin America. At
New World network, he
will be responsible for
sales, business development and marketing.
“New World Network
has an excellent platform to deliver worldclass high-speed connectivity and IP services and gives me the
opportunity to work
with best of breed network technology,” said
Gandarilla. “I am looking forward to building
a successful business
and also the many challenges that the position
will bring.” Gandarilla
holds a BS in Electrical
Engineering from Mexico Polytechnic Institute.
Prior to BCE Teleglobe,
Gandarilla held executive roles at Elcotel,
AT&T, Wang Labs, and
Gould Network Systems.
For More Information,
Contact:
New World Network
Luis Lucas
Corporate Communications
New World Network
Phone: (786) 274-7667
[email protected]
NEC Corp. and China
Netcom Corp. have
announced a joint venture to build next-generation Internet Protocol version 6 networks
for corporate clients in
Asia.
NEC will work with
China Netcom subsidiary Asia Netcom
Japan Corp. to build an
IPv6 network with
transmission speeds up
to 6 Mbps and TV-like
video data resolution.
NEC will provide
equipment for constructing the IPv6 network, including routers,
while Asia Netcom will
provide an Asian portion of the undersea
cable network that
China Netcom acquired
from
failed
U.S.
telecommunications
carrier Global Crossing
Ltd.
The network will
allow corporate users to
hold teleconferences
and provide employee
training by connecting
offices and factories
throughout Asia. Combined with databases
and information systems, the system will
enable users to transmit
data on product design,
output, and materials
procurement during
teleconferences.
The partners aim for 5
billion yen ($43 million)
in sales after the first
three years, and will initially target Japanese
companies in nonJapan Asia. Domestic
telecommunications
firms and related equipment manufacturers are
expanding their nextgeneration IPv6 operations in the hopes of
taking a lead role in creating the new network
spearheaded by Asian
companies. U.S.-based
companies own more
than 70% of Internet
addresses under the
current IPv4 network.
IPv6 is expected to alleviate the death of
addresses for Asia,
which is projecting a
sharp increase in Internet users. The Ministry
of Public Management,
Home Affairs, Posts and
Telecommunications
predicts that the nextgeneration, Internetrelated domestic market will be worth 170
trillion yen by 2010.
KDDI-SCS
Opening of KDDI-SCS Jointer Training School
Already open since 01st of April 2003!
KDDI-SCS has opened a new jointer training school offering training on every
aspect of the construction of UJ on qualified cables.
For further information please contact
Tel: +81-45-440-4288
Fax: +81-45-440-4499
E-mail: [email protected]
Page
38
Company News
REACH
OCC CORPORATION
Reach to sack 250 staff
Reach, the troubled
Asian venture of Telstra
and Pacific Century
CyberWorks (PCCW),
will dismiss 250 staff in
its cost-cutting program.
The redundancies represent more than a
quarter of the undersea
cable venture’s 960
staff worldwide.
The cost cutting follows long and painful
debt
negotiations
between Reach’s parent companies and the
banking
syndicate
responsible for $US1.5
billion ($2.3 billion) in
loans to Reach. The
banks lifted debt
covenants and extended
the loan in return for
$US300 million in
capacity pre-payments
from Telstra and PCCW.
But further cost cutting was needed to help
the company against
US-based competitors
in the region which
have emerged from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection with a vastly
lower cost base.
“The global telecommunications
sector
needs reshaping. This is
expected to continue for
some time, so we have
taken the necessary
steps to face this
changed market reality
now,” Reach chief executive Dick Simpson
said.
Reach said it had completed the voluntary
redundancy phase of its
cost-reduction program,
and over the next few
weeks would institute
an “involuntary program” of redundancies.
The company said it
did not know how many
staff would walk rather
than be pushed out the
door, or which areas
would be affected most,
but the job cuts would
be completed this year.
Reach
spokesman
Martin Ratiah said the
company was still
working through the
program and the exact
make-up of the redundancies was “up in the
air at the moment”.
Reach’s staffing numbers are already down
from 1,200 last year,
with 500 employees
working out of Hong
Kong and another 240
in Australia.
The company’s Hong
Kong parent, Richard
Li’s PCCW, is facing its
own market realities,
with a downgrade of its
unsecured debt rating
on Tuesday adding millions of dollars to its
interest bill.
Moody’s cut its rating
to Baa2, one step short
of its lowest investment
grade rating, citing
PCCW’s $US4.2 billion
net debt, which exceeds
A Merger Notice
its market value, and
declining sales.
Telstra
has
not
escaped the Asian contagion either. A $1 billion write-down of Telstra’s investment in
Reach earlier this year
triggered a share price
fall to near all-time
lows for Australia’s
largest phone company.
On the 02nd of June 2003, OCC Corporation
announced:
“We wish to inform you that OCC Corporation
and its wholly owned subsidiary, “Yakushin Corporation” have merged as of June 2, 2003, in
order to strengthen the financial combine basis.
Taking this opportunity to unify the management of the two companies, OCC will proceed to
provide further value-added products and services in order to fulfil customers’ demand.”
TRANSCO
Power firms keen on Transco assets
At least two more
power firms have
expressed interest in
conducting due diligence on the National
Transmission Corp.,
Transco president Alan
Ortiz said.
End of May, two companies started the due
diligence process on
Transco assets. There
are at least 14 companies that have signed
letters of interest to
take a look at Transco.
Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez said the
sound financial performance of Transco would
boost its attractiveness
to potential investors.
Perez, vice chairman
of Transco, noted that
Transco posted a hefty
P4.01 billion net
income during the first
quarter of 2003, 25
percent higher than the
projected profit level for
the period.
“Transco’s strong per-
Page
39
formance is attributed
to the much lower operating expenses incurred
during the period. This
is mainly due to the
company’s adherence
to cost-cutting measures,” Perez said.
The
transmission
company’s reorganization was completed in
February this year. The
passage of the Electric
Power Industry Reform
Act (EPIRA) of 2001
paved the way for the
separation of Transco
and the National Power
Corp. (Napocor).
Transco, under the
EPIRA, will be responsible for the planning,
construction and centralized operation and
maintenance of Napocor’s high voltage transmission
facilities
nationwide including
those of grid interconnections as well as the
provision of ancillary
services.
“Maintenance and
operating expenses registered an 81 percent
budget utilization to
keep the facilities in
good condition even in
the midst of the corporation’s reorganization,”
Perez said.
Transco is one of the
largest corporations in
the country with around
$2 billion in assets.
Transco’s transmission
lines span a total of 20,
721 circuit-kilometers
while substation capacity is at 25, 804 million
volt amperes.
Transco’s direct customers include power
plants owned by
Napocor and independent power producers
(IPPs)
nationwide,
which supply electricity
to power distributors,
electric cooperatives
and other utilities.
It operates Asia’s first
submarine transmission
cable system that
enables the sharing of
electricity resources
from one island to
another.
Company News
TYCO TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Tyco Telecommunications joins the Telx “Supernode” at 60 Hudson Street in New York City
On the 05th of May,
telx, the first and
largest carrier-neutral
interconnectivity
“SuperNode”sm
in
New
York
City
announced that Tyco
Telecommunications,
one of the world’s
largest providers of
advanced global broadband communication
capacity, undersea network systems and
marine services, and a
business unit of Tyco
Electronics, is now joining telx’s rapidly
expanding roster of network carriers and enterprise customers. Based
at 60 Hudson Street,
telx’s facilities provide a
supermarket
of
telecommunication
access, enhancing Tyco
Telecommunications’
secure connectivity and
efficiency while significantly reducing operational costs.
telx offers direct
access to over 100 network providers, providing Tyco Telecommunications with an array
connectivity options to
leverage its global fibre
optic network – the
Tyco Global Network
(TGN). TGN offers custom global bandwidth
solutions ranging from
city-to-city connections
to complex, multi-point
and channelized networks in the US,
Europe, and most
recently, Asia. Tyco
Telecommunications
utilizes the latest
advances in undersea
transport, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), optical
cross-connect
(OXC), and mesh architecture design to exceed
the network performance requirements
demanded by today’s
customers.
“The ability to rapidly
connect to a multitude
of network providers is
a critical requirement
for today’s Global Service Providers,” states
Eric Gutshall, Tyco
Telecommunications’
Executive Director of
Sales – Americas
Region. “Our presence
at the telx “SuperNode”sm provides us
with direct, rapid connectivity options which
enables us to offer convenient and cost- efficient network service
solutions to our growing customer base.”
“We are very pleased
to welcome Tyco
Telecommunications to
the
telx
“SuperNode”sm at 60
Hudson Street,” says
Rory Cutaia, telx CEO
and President. “Tyco
Telecommunications’
presence in the facilities adds to an already
robust marketplace of
communications products and services. Our
customers tell us their
ability to participate in
the telx marketplace
has allowed them to
thrive and prosper in an
otherwise down market.”
About telx
telx operates the original and largest carrierneutral interconnection
facility in New York City.
Based at 60 Hudson
Street, telx provides
network access to more
than 100 network carriers and enterprise customers within its
40,000 square feet of
secure facilities. The
single greatest benefit
enjoyed by all telx customers is the ability to
participate in the
world’s largest marketplace for communications services. Akin to a
“seat on the exchange,”
telx customers are free
to buy and sell a wide
range of their network
services directly in a
neutral environment,
cross-marketing products and services. telx
is a privately held company and headquartered
at 17 State Street in
New York City. For
more information, visit
www.telx.com.
About Tyco Telecommunications
Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of
Tyco Electronics, is one
of the world’s largest
providers of advanced
global broadband communication solutions.
The company sells
secure city-to-city network services on its
global fiber optic network – Tyco Global Network (TGN). They are
also the world’s only
fully integrated supplier
of transoceanic optical
networks. For more
information on Tyco
Telecommunications,
visit www.tycotelecom.com.
About Tyco Electronics
Tyco Electronics is the
world’s largest passive
electronic components
manufacturer; a world
leader in cutting-edge
wireless, active fibre
optic and complete
power systems technologies; and is also
rapidly
developing
extensive networking
and building technology
installation services.
Tyco Electronics provides advanced technology products from over
forty well-known and
respected
brands,
including
Agastat,
Alcoswitch, AMP, AMP
NETCONNECT,
Buchanan, CII, CoEv,
Critchley, Elcon, Elo
TouchSystems, M/ACOM, Madison Cable,
OEG, OneSource Building Technologies, Potter
& Brumfield, Raychem,
Schrack, Simel and TDI
Batteries.
telx Media Contact:
Jaymie Scotto
Director of Marketing
212.480.3300
[email protected]
Tyco Telecommunications Media Contact:
Andy Kowalik
Director of Marketing & Strategic Planning
973.656.8331
[email protected]
Page
40
Company News
PACKETLIGHT NETWORKS
Successful Transport of Multi-Service over STM-64 links in Med-Nautilus Network
Breaking the challenge of transporting
data, storage and voice
over 10Gbps/STM-64
links, PacketLight Networks, a leading developer of integrated optical transport systems
for
the
metro,
announced on the 02nd
of June, that it has successfully completed a
trial to transport multiservice — TDM and
Gigabit Ethernet over
10Gbps/STM-64 links,
on Med Nautilus terrestrial fibre network.
PL-16000 effectively
transported multipleservices
over
a
10Gbps/STM-64 that
included a varied combination of asynchronous (GbE) and synchronous
streams
(SDH, DS3/E3, STM-1,
STM-4 and STM-16).
The MED group runs
fibre in land and under
the Mediterranean Sea.
This 10Gbps/STM-64
trial is a follow up to an
earlier trial in which the
PL-16000
platform
transported a secure
Fibre Channel in full
throughput for remote
back up and mirroring
applications over a distance of 130 kilometres.
Med-Nautilus
VP
Engineering and Operations Mr. Shamir
Shaarabani commented, “To deliver multiple
services over our net-
work both reliably and
with operational flexibility is a significant
challenge. PacketLight
achieved the goals
defined for the field trial
including the test of the
10Gbps interface.”
PacketLight Networks
VP Marketing Mr. Yaki
Luzon
commented
about the successful
testing, “PacketLight
has once again shown
its leadership by taking
its integrated optical
transport solution to
speeds of 10Gbps while
meeting all of the technological qualifications
required by the network. Our bandwidth
optimisation solutions
proved their resilience
and flexibility during the
testing and we look forward to further proofs
of our Capex and Opex
savings.”
About MedNautilus
MedNautilus is a
broadband network services provider, with an
undersea, state-of-the
art, fibre-optic network
in the Mediterranean
region. Using leadingedge DWDM technology, the MedNautilus
Network
provides
seamless connectivity
from the Mediterranean
region to Europe and
the US. The network
comprises the MedNautilus Submarine
interlocking loop sys-
tem, linking Italy,
Greece, Turkey, Israel,
as well as the Pan European and Atlantic
wavelengths which link
the major cities of
Western Europe to
NorthAmerica.
About PacketLight
Networks
PacketLight Networks
offers an advanced integrated optical transport
system for Metropolitan
Area Networks. The PL16000’s
innovative
For further information contact
Med-Nautilus
Shlomit Riklin
Israel +972-3-7666014
or
PacketLight Networks
Michal Meirowich
US 858-458-1895 ext. 257
Israel +972-9-7645416
[email protected]
optical
networking
technology supports
multiple services over
DWDM, enabling carriers to economically provide businesses with a
variety of high-bandwidth services in a
dynamic environment.
PacketLight’s investors
include Carlyle Europe
Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital,
Portview Communications Partners, and ADC
Telecommunications.
PacketLight has offices
in Boston, Paris, and
Israel.
GLOBAL CROSSING
Global Crossing approved to sell unit to Pivotal
On the 05th of June,
Global Crossing Ltd.
received bankruptcy
court approval to sell its
Pacific Crossing Ltd.
unit, which operates a
high-speed communications
network
between Japan and the
United States, to Pivotal
Private Equity for $63
million.
Pivotal said the deal is
expected to close by the
end of the year.
Pivotal Private Equity,
based in Phoenix,
formed Pivotal Telecom
for the purpose of
acquiring PCL. Pacific
Crossing Ltd. and its
subsidiaries operate the
PC-1 undersea fibre
optic cable system. The
Page
41
PC-1 system, which
represents the state-ofthe-art in sub sea cable
installations, is a selfhealing fibre optic
telecommunications
network with a bidirectional
design
capacity of 640 gigabytes per second and is
approximately 20,900
kilometres or 13,000
miles in length. The
system has landing stations in Grover Beach,
Calif.; Harbour Pointe,
Wash.; Ajigaura, Japan;
and Shima, Japan, and
currently operates at a
capacity of 180 Gbps.
The network, completed in 2000 at a cost
of more than $1.35 billion, provides voice,
Internet and data communications services.
“This acquisition is
key to our strategy of
investing in undervalued telecom assets,”
said Jahm Najafi, chief
executive officer of Pivotal Private Equity. “The
network is currently
underutilized, a condition that we will be
working vigorously to
change once the transaction has closed.” PCL
and its subsidiaries
filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for
the district of Delaware
on July 19, 2002. On
April 21, 2003, Pivotal
Telecom signed an
continues on P. 42
Company News
GLOBAL CROSSING
continued
Global Crossing approved to sell unit to Pivotal
Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire the
assets of PCL in an
open auction from
Pacific Crossing Limited, PC Landing Corp.,
Pacific Crossing UK Ltd.
and PCL Japan Ltd.
“Enhancing access to
both Asian and U.S.
markets is key to our
operating strategy,” said
Robert Woog, Pivotal
Telecom’s
newly
appointed chief executive officer. “We will be
a participant in the
tremendous growth of
Asian markets, providing the infrastructure
that will create a gateway to the U.S. and
meet the demand for
bandwidth.”
Prior to the closing of
the transaction later
this year, Pivotal Telecom will seek the transfer of Pacific Crossing’s
Federal Communications Commission network operating license
and other permits.
About Pivotal
Pivotal Private Equity
is a provider of equity
for middle market corporate acquisitions, recapitalisations of turnaround and under-performing companies, as
well as growth capital
financings primarily in
telecommunications,
energy, manufacturing,
consumer products and
leisure industries. The
firm is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Pivotal
Group, an institutionally
based diversified real
estate investment and
development firm widely recognized for its
ability to create highquality resort, residential and business environments. Major acqui-
sitions by Pivotal Group
include Ritz-Carlton,
Phoenix; Century Plaza
Hotel & Spa, Los Angeles; St. Regis Hotel, Los
Angeles; and Red
Mountain Spa, St.
George, Utah.
For more information about Pivotal
Group
and Pivotal Private Equity,
visit www.pivotalgroup.com
XO COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Icahn’s XO makes bid for Global
Global Crossing Ltd.
again finds itself an
acquisition target, with
XO Communications
Inc. and its chairman,
Carl Icahn, offering
$700 million in cash,
bonds and stock for
Global Crossing. Stock
warrants could push
the bid higher.
Bermuda-based Global Crossing operates a
fibre-optic telecommunications network in
200 cities internationally. The company has
its U.S. headquarters in
New Jersey, and
employs approximately
700 people in the
Rochester area. It has
been operating under
bankruptcy protection
while restructuring its
business.
Icahn acquired XO this
year, after it emerged
from its own bankruptcy case. He is best
known for his buyout of
TWA Airlines LLC in
1985.
In April, former Global
Crossing chief operating
officer Carl Grivner
became president and
CEO of XO. The company sells telecom services to small and midsize businesses.
Global Crossing has a
deal to turn over a
majority stake in the
company to Singapore
Technologies Telemedia
Pte. Ltd. for $250 million. That deal is awaiting the approval of federal regulators.
Global Crossing has
not responded to the
latest offer. It has been
reported that the ST
Telemedia deal is binding and prohibits Global
Crossing from soliciting
other bids.
Earlier this year, it
turned down a $225
million offer from New
Jersey-based IDT Corp.
XO is offering Global
Crossing shareholders
$250 million in cash;
$200 million in notes
secured by Global
Crossing assets; $200
million in new stock of
Global Crossing as an
XO subsidiary; and 15
million warrants to
acquire stock in XO at
$10 a share.
“It is our intent to provide each of Global
Crossing’s banks and
bond claim holders with
the same amount of
cash and new notes as
in the current plan, and
to increase the equity
consideration received
by each by over $50
Page
42
million.” Icahn said. “In
addition, our proposal
can close without regulatory headaches or
financing contingencies
and provides tremendous
synergies
between the two organizations that can benefit both Global Crossing’s creditors and XO
shareholders.”
Global Crossing had
consolidated revenue of
some $228 million in
April, down $3 million
from March.
The company had a
net loss of $75 million,
an improvement of $14
million from March. In
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization, it had
a loss of $11 million, off
from $4 million in EBITDA.
“We continue to manage our operating
expenses and cash
requirements
very
tightly and closed the
month with a consolidated cash balance of
$584 million,” said
John Legere, CEO. “The
relative stability of our
revenue results during
April, and realized to
date, reflects the success of these efforts
and the value of the
customer relationships
which we have built.”
The company has
approximately $180
million in unrestricted
cash, $333 million in
restricted cash and $71
million of cash held by
Global Marine Systems
Ltd., which installs
underwater telecom
cable.
Company News
SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Scientific Re-use of Retired Undersea Fibre Optic Telecommunications Cables
The first generation of
fibre optic undersea
telecommunications
cables that span the
North Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans are
now being retired.
Three are in the Pacific: Hawaii-4 (CaliforniaHawaii), Trans-Pacific
Cable-3 (TPC-3 HawaiiGuam + Japan) and
GPT
(Guam-Philippines-Taiwan).
and about 5 kwatts of
power are available for
a seafloor observatory
system. There are a
number of ways that
these systems may be
re-used. Observatories
may be installed along
the current cable route.
It is possible to recover
and re-lay sections of
these cable systems
with a cable ship to
locations more advantageous for science. The
transfer of coaxial telephone systems in the
1990s, the Hawaii-2
from AT&T and sections
of the Trans-Pacific
Cable-1 and –2 systems from AT&T and
Four are in the
Atlantic: TransAtlantic8 (TAT-8 New Jersey –
UK + France), TAT-9
(New Jersey + CanadaUK + France + Spain),
TAT-10 (Rhode Island Germany), and TAT-11
(New Jersey – UK +
France).
The systems are being
retired 10-15 years
early, because newer
generation systems are
so much faster and
upgradeable that maintaining these “slower”
systems is not economical for the telecommunications companies.
However, there is now
an extraordinary opportunity for re-using these
systems for science.
These first generation
systems contain one to
three fibre pairs, with
each pair supporting
communications at 296
Mb/s, or for TAT-9, -10,
and –11 at 592 Mb/s.
The systems operate at
1.7 amps and 7 kvolt,
Page
43
KDD to the scientific
community through
IRIS and the University
of Tokyo has shown the
challenges and successes that cabled
observatories on the
seafloor offer science.
The Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) between
Hawaii and California
has provided years of
high-quality real-time
data from the seafloor.
These newly retiring
fibre optic telecommunications cables offer
far greater opportunities for the scientific
community.
Company News
VSNL - ITXC
VSNL and ITXC Double Capacity in India with Cisco VIA solution
Carriers around the
globe continue to benefit from ITXC’s quality
and value as traffic to
India from countries
around the world over
ITXC.net
steadily
increases Cisco VIA
solution provides easy
and rapid scalability
option for VSNL and
ITXC. Videsh Sanchar
Nigam
Limited
(VSNL), India’s premier
provider of international
telecommunications
services and leading
Internet
Service
Provider, and ITXC
Corp., one of the
world’s leading international voice carriers,
announced on the 21st
of May, that they have
doubled their network
capacity to accommodate the increasing volume of traffic that has
been building over the
past 6 months over
ITXC.net(R), the company’s global voice over IP
(VoIP) network. Global
carriers benefit from
ITXC’s quality routes to
India. “As traffic to and
from India increases, it
is important for us to
work with more and
more such carriers who
can provide us global
connectivity and high
quality of service,” said
Mr. S K Gupta, Managing Director at VSNL.
“We are sure that we
will be able to achieve
these
objectives
through ITXC. Our experience with ITXC has
been excellent.” “Since
the privatisation of
VSNL last year, India’s
telecommunication
market has become
highly competitive,”
said Diarmid Massey,
ITXC Managing Director
for Asia Pacific. “By
focusing on winning
market share in India,
VSNL gains new revenue from the traffic
ITXC brings them, while
hundreds of carriers
around the world who
need to complete calls
in India benefit from the
high quality termination
ITXC affords to India
and around the world.”
ITXC’s interconnect
with VSNL uses the
market-leading Cisco
Voice Infrastructure and
Applications (VIA) solution, which supports a
broad portfolio of packet-voice revenue generating services around
the globe. ITXC’s
patented
BestValue
Routing(TM) technology uses Cisco VIA to
route voice calls with
consistent carrier grade
quality. VSNL benefits
from the low capital
and operating costs
without sacrificing the
quality their subscribers
require. VSNL and ITXC
were able to immediately increase traffic
volumes, due to the
rapid scalability that the
Cisco VIA solution provides. “Cisco is pleased
that ITXC and VSNL are
able to cost effectively
scale and grow capacity
with demand using the
Cisco
VIA solution,” said
Mark Bakies, director of
marketing, voice technology at Cisco. “ITXC’s
focus on quality and
scale, combined with
Cisco VoIP technology,
provides VSNL and
ITXC a highly reliable
network for voice traffic.” VSNL and ITXC
signed an interconnect
agreement in October
2002. As a result of its
relationship with ITXC,
VSNL benefits from call
termination minutes
and revenue originated
from all over the world.
ITXC brings global traffic to VSNL across
ITXC.net, interconnecting over 175 countries
through direct traffic
relationships with over
250 national and global
carriers.
These Carriers can
also lower the cost of
originating traffic by
utilizing ITXC.net. Last
month, ITXC announced
that ITXC.net carried
10% of all incoming
Page
44
traffic to India during
the first year following
deregulation in that
country. ITXC estimated
its market share figures
based on TeleGeography 2003 historical
data and taking into
account
historical
growth trends.
About Videsh
Sanchar Nigam Ltd
Videsh
Sanchar
Nigam Limited is
India’s leading provider
of
International
Telecommunications
and Internet Services.
Besides International
Long Distance services,
VSNL also offers a host
of other value added
services like Internet
and data services, and
specialized services
that include Video Conferencing,
Television/Video uplinking, Programme
transmission services,
Frame relay services
and Inmarsat services.
VSNL has also started
offering National Long
Distance services. With
established relations
with 85 carriers across
the globe, VSNL today
has a strong infrastructure base that covers 8
gateways, 48 earth stations and 6 submarine
cable systems. VSNL is
listed across all the
major stock exchanges
in India and also has its
ADRs listed on the New
York Stock Exchange.
About ITXC
ITXC Corp. is one of
the world’s leading carriers based on minutes
of international traffic
carried. As a carriers’
carrier, ITXC serves all
major carriers in the
US; many incumbent
carriers
worldwide
including China Telecom, PLDT, Telkom
South Africa, Telecom
Colombia, Telenor, Telia,
and VSNL; and emerging and competitive
carriers
including
COTAS-Teledata
in
Bolivia, Vietel in Vietnam and Data Access in
India. ITXC also serves a
growing number of
mobile carriers including China Mobile, one of
the world’s largest
mobile carriers. ITXC is
the global market share
leader in VoIP international calling with
approximately 20% of
the market, according to
TeleGeography 2003.
ITXC was also the
Fastest Growing Technology Company in
North America according to the 2002 Deloitte
& Touche Technology
Fast 500 ranking.
Company News
SINGTEL I
SINGTEL II
C2C’s dept restructuring
Debt restructuring at
the cable unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd is making
some bankers sweat
and its outcome could
affect funding for other
state-linked firms.
SingTel’s 59.5 percent-owned submarine
cable operator C2C Pte
Ltd began talks with
lenders to restructure
its debt in March after
missing a key revenue
target required under a
US$650 million loan
facility. C2C is still operating but its fortunes
have been hurt by the
telecom slump — which
has seen global telecom
firms reeling under $1
trillion in debts — stiff
competition and overcapacity in the industry.
Bankers said an
unfavourable outcome
for creditors could raise
funding costs for other
Singapore governmentlinked firms, which
have enjoyed blue chip
status and good lending
rates. Southeast Asia’s
wealthiest nation is the
only country in Asia
with a sovereign triple
A rating from Standard
& Poor’s. Some of Singapore’s largest companies have strong government ties and ownership, including banking group DBS Group
Holdings Ltd, Singapore
Airlines Ltd and defence
contractor Singapore
Technologies Engineering Ltd. “The C2C case
is very interesting. It
might raise borrowing
costs for Singapore Inc
firms. Certainly, some
Chinese banks have
become more cautious
when being offered a
Singapore deal,” a European banker said.
The five-year C2C
loan, arranged in
November 2001, was
led by Citibank and
involved about a dozen
banks including China’s
largest lender, Industrial
Commercial Bank of
China, which provided
the largest amount at
$100 million, Japan’s
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Singapore’s
OCBC Bank. The loan,
granted to C2C to build
a $2 billion pan-Asian
cable network for high
speed communications,
does not make its
largest shareholder,
SingTel, liable in the
event of default as it is
secured with C2C
assets. Still, many
banks had jumped in
because of the cable
firm’s links to SingTel,
people familiar with the
deal said. Officials of
Singapore’s largest listed firm, which is 68
percent state-owned,
had also helped sell the
deal, they said.
“It was seen very
much as a SingTel deal,
and not just a greenfield
cable project where the
borrowing costs would
have been higher,” a
loan manager with a
European bank said.
The loan, priced at
around 157 basis points
plus Libor, would probably have gone for more
if not for SingTel, he
said. SingTel’s executives did not participate
in loan talks earlier this
year. “At the first meeting with the bankers,
nobody from C2C or
SingTel turned up,” said
the head of syndicated
loans at a European
bank.
“People were unhappy
as they had expected
Page
45
Singapore regulator may force SingTel to open access to cables
The Infocomm Development Authority, Singapore’s telecommunications industry regulator,
is moving to open the country’s leased-line
market to competition. On the 31st of May, the
agency said it “sees a need to consider additional regulatory measures where operators
can compete more effectively to offer businesses and consumers more competitively priced
products and services”. At present, all leased
lines in the country are owned by Singapore
Telecommunications, which imposes very
expensive charges on international carriers that
want to use them.
larger
participation
from shareholders, particularly SingTel, in the
talks,” she said. Deloitte
& Touche has been
appointed as restructuring adviser to C2C. C2C
spokeswoman Monao
Aw would not comment
on the progress of the
talks.
SingTel’s move to
write off its entire cost
of investment in C2C in
the last financial year
ended March 31 has
also given bankers little
comfort.
“Theoretically, SingTel
can walk from C2C,”
said a syndicated loans
banker. “But I don’t
think they will because
of the reputational risks
involved with such a
move.”
A likely scenario
would be for C2C and
its lenders to reach
agreement on restructuring the tenure to give
the company more time
to build up its profit and
repay the loan, he said.
Other Chinese lenders
in the C2C deal include
the Agricultural Bank of
China and CITIC Ka
Wah, a unit of CITIC
International Financial
Holdings.
Company News
ST TELEMEDIA
ST Telemedia says Global Crossing can’t consider XO bid
Icahn’s XO offers
$700m to buy Global
Crossing; but ST Telemedia says its contract is
binding.
Singapore Technologies Telemedia has a
binding contract to buy
Global
Crossing Ltd that forbids the bankrupt telecoms firm from considering an offer from
investor Carl Icahn.
On 31st of May, billionaire Icahn’s U.S.-based
XO Communications Inc
said it offered more than
$700 million to buy
Global Crossing.
That compares to the
$250 million that statecontrolled telecoms group
ST Telemedia has agreed
to pay for a 61.5 percent
stake in the U.S.-based
fibre-optic network, effectively valuing the group at
$406.5 million.
But ST Telemedia’s binding contract with Global
Crossing meant the bankrupt firm could not consider a competing bid.
In the purchase agreement, that Global Crossing filed with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in
New York in August last
year, there is a “nonsolicitation
clause”
which forbids Global
Crossing from soliciting
any other offer or proposal.
ST Telemedia is proceeding ahead to get regulatory approval for the
deal, which they hope to
close before the end of
the year.
The U.S. bankruptcy
court must rule on the
deal with ST Telemedia
before any new bids for
Global Crossing can be
considered.
Global Crossing filed
for bankruptcy protection in January 2002
under a massive debt
load, a glut of high-speed
network capacity and
slim demand.
IDT Corp, a telecoms
company that has
acquired the assets of
several financially troubled rivals, also has said
it would bid for Global
Crossing.
Global Crossing’s network reaches 27 countries and its assets were
once valued at $22.4 billion. But the long telecoms
slump
has
destroyed the value of
long-distance networks,
drawing opportunistic
investors eager to buy
assets on the cheap.
XO said its $700 million offer comprised
$250 million in cash, as
well as secured debt,
junior preferred stock
and warrants.
It said the offer would
provide Global Crossing’s banks and bondholders with the same
amount of cash and new
debt as the ST Telemedia
deal, while boosting
equity proceeds by more
than $100 million.
ST Telemedia, a unit of
Temasek Holdings, the
investment arm of the
Singapore government
became the sole bidder
for Global Crossing after
Hutchison Whampoa
Ltd. walked away from
the deal in April.
U.S. national security
officials had balked at
Hong
Kong-based
XO II
XO details offer for Global Crossing
Icahn offers either to
pay $700m in cash, or
to buy bank debt at
$210 per $1,000.
On the 13th of June,
Regional Phone Company XO COMMUNICATIONS INC. sweetened
its bid to acquire Global
Crossing Ltd. and said it
is willing to bid for
either the debt or the
assets to take control of
the bankrupt highspeed communications
network operator.
Singapore Technologies Telemedia already
has an agreement to
pay $250 million for a
61.5-percent stake in
Global Crossing, which
filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2002
under a massive debt
load, a glut of highspeed network capacity,
and slim demand.
XO, controlled by billionaire investor Carl
Icahn, on May 30
offered more than $700
million for Global Crossing, or $250 million in
cash and the rest in
debt, stock and warrants.
Icahn, who controls
more than 80 percent of
XO’s stock, said he
would offer more $700
Page
46
million wholly in cash
for Global Crossings
assets, which includes
a high-speed network
reaching 27 countries.
Alternatively, he said
he would offer to buy
any or all of its bank
debt at $210 per $1,000
at face value, or a total
of $472.5 million for its
$2.25 billion in face
value of debt.
Global
Crossing,
which
faces
an
accounting probe by the
Securities
and
Exchange Commission
and other governmental
authorities, did not
immediately return calls
seeking comment.
Icahn, who took control of XO in January
when it emerged from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy,
said the Global Crossing
board continues to
“ignore our bona fide
purchase offer,” which
would be contingent on
the cancelling of the
Singapore Technologies
deal.
The bankruptcy court
must rule on the deal
with Singapore Technologies before any
new bids for Global
Crossing can be considered. Telephone compa-
Hutchison’s ties to
China, and some analysts have said the ST
Telemedia deal still
might spark objections
from U.S. lawmakers.
ny IDT Corp. also has
said it would bid for
Global Crossing.
Singapore Technologies became the sole
investor slated to gain
control of Global Crossing after Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd. walked
away from the deal in
April.
U.S. national security
officials balked at Hong
Kong-based Hutchison’s ties to China, and
some analysts have
said the Singapore
Technologies deal still
may spark objections
from U.S. lawmakers.
The company is a unit
of Temasek Holdings
Ltd., the investment
arm of the Singapore
government.
“Hopefully, this $700
million cash offer and
the ‘any and all’ tender
will put to rest any
questions about the
seriousness of the XO
offer,” said Icahn in an
interview. “I hope this
will serve to expedite
this process and maintain the value of these
assets.”
Icahn said his latest
offer would eliminate
national security concerns and also eliminate
risk to banks and creditors if the Singapore
deal didn’t go through.
Company News
MARKET
New Life for Undersea Fibre
Once the marvel of the
telecom world, the first
undersea fibre optic
cables have reached the
point of telecom obsolescence. Now they’ll
serve out their retirement gathering oceanographic data.
The generation of submarine
fibre-optic
cables that revolutionized
trans-oceanic
telecommunications a
decade ago is being
retired prematurely. Dramatic advances in optical technology and a
glut of fibre capacity
make these cables
uneconomical
for
telecommunications.
The fibres will not go
dark entirely, though: a
non-profit science group
says the obsolete cables
can be a boon for undersea seismology and
oceanographic research.
The cables, laid from
1988 to 1993, were
designed to operate for
25 years; all but one are
in working order.
The undersea optical
fibres
dramatically
increased the capacity
for telephone traffic
across the Atlantic and
Pacific when they began
operation. The first of
them carried 280
megabits per second on
each of two fibre pairs,
the equivalent of
35,000 telephone circuits. That was an
impressive total at the
time—but newer cables
have hundreds or thou-
sands of times more
capacity. In March, Tyco
Telecommunications
reported that each of the
eight fibre pairs in a
new 9,000-kilometer
cable between Oregon
and Japan could carry
960 gigabits per second, giving it a total
capacity more than
10,000 times that of the
first fibre cables.
“The owners are basically rationalizing the
stocks of cable,”
explains David Robinson
of the sub-sea business
group at BT, the former
British Telecom. With
plenty of extra capacity
on new cables, BT and
other companies that
shared ownership of the
first transatlantic fibre
cable didn’t bother to
repair the cable when it
failed in late 2001. As
they had earlier retired
the seven copper cables
that preceded the optical one across the
Atlantic, last year the
companies quietly shut
down the fibre cable,
known as TAT-8. BT and
its partners will soon
retire three other early
fibre cables, TAT-9, -10,
and -11. But the cables
that blazed a new path
for telecommunications
could find a new life in
scientific research.
The
Washingtonbased
Incorporated
Research Institutions for
Seismology (IRIS), a
consortium of universities that collect seismic
data to study the Earth’s
interior, wants to adapt
the working cables to
serve sea-floor research
stations. AT&T, a partner with BT in the TAT
cables, gave IRIS a
retired Pacific copper
coaxial submarine cable
in 1998, and is willing
to give the group its
share of the old fibreoptic cables. The fibre
cables can transmit
hundreds of megabits of
data from seismic stations and other automated sea-floor observatories, says Rhett
Butler of IRIS, whose
day job is managing the
National Science Foundation’s global seismic
network. The stations
can also tap the kilowatts of electric power
that the cables carry for
submerged electronics.
“Our first goal is to
acquire these for the
scientific community,”
says Butler. With twothirds of the planet
under water, he adds,
“we’re going to have to
have sea-floor observatories.”
Transfer of the fibre
cables has hit a snag in
European regulations
that require removing
old cables from national
waters inside the 20kilometer limit. BT and
other operators are proceeding with plans to
pull up the cables.
Robinson says he has
not received a formal
proposal from IRIS. The
company will consider
requests, but wants to
be sure the new owners
Page
47
assume liability for
removing the old cables.
European telephone
companies have been
removing their ends of
transatlantic cables
since they retired the
first such transmission
line, TAT-1, in 1978.
Installed in 1956, TAT-1
sent electrical signals
through coaxial cable,
with
vacuum-tube
amplifiers spaced along
the cable to amplify its
36 telephone circuits.
Engineers improved
undersea coaxial cables
for two decades, replacing the vacuum tubes
with transistors, but
eventually reached a
limit of 4,000 telephone
circuits on TAT-6 and -7,
installed in 1976 and
1983. Communication
satellites looked set to
drive submarine cables
out of business until
fibre optics came on the
scene. Teams at Bell
Telephone Laboratories
(then part of AT&T) and
British
Telecom
Research Laboratories
made a risky bet on a
new kind of fibres, in
which the light-carrying
core measured a mere 9
micrometers in diameter—six times smaller
than the cores used in
early terrestrial fibre
systems. These new
“single-mode” fibres
offered higher bandwidth, but aligning the
light-carrying strands
with one another
required extreme care.
Submarine cable developers overcame that
challenge so well that
by the mid-1980s, single-mode fibres became
the standard for longdistance transmission
on land.
The downfall of the
first generation of submarine
fibre-optic
cables was their need
for repeaters—devices
that boosted the signal
strength periodically to
enable the informationcarrying light waves to
span the whole ocean.
Early fibre repeaters had
to convert faint optical
signals to electronic
form so they could be
amplified, then convert
the electrical signals
back into light. In the
late 1980s, a new kind
of optical fibre was
developed that could
amplify weak optical
signals switched on and
off 10 billion times a
second or more. Better
yet, they can simultaneously amplify signals at
several different wavelengths (a technique
known as wavelength
division multiplexing).
Those breakthroughs
allowed cable manufacturers to build global
networks with transmission capacities that
dwarfed the old TAT-8, 9, -10, and -11 cables,
and made them uneconomical for carrying
telecommunications
traffic. But if scientists
can resolve procedural
snarls on the European
end, the old cables will
have a new life helping
them explore the ocean
depths.
Vessel Overview
SUBMARINE CABLE INSTALLATION
AND MAINTENANCE/REPAIR VESSELS
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
ALDA
Ile de Batz
Cable Lay vessel
Installation duties – Just
recently finished Bass
Strait 2
ALDA
ALDA
Ile de Brehat
Cable Lay vessel
Calais, France – Installation
duties – Next installation
will be the GWEN project
and then the deeper burial
of SMW 3 S10
ALDA
ALDA
Ile de Re
Cable Repair vessel
Maintenance Duties –
Currently executing burial
survey of PC 1
ALDA
ALDA
Ile de Sein
Cable Lay vessel
Calais, France – Installation
duties – Just recently
finished CAM Ring project
ALDA
ASEAN
Cableship Pte Ltd.
ASEAN Explorer
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Singapore Installation/
Maintenance Stand-by
ACPL
Marine Pte Ltd
ASEAN
Cableship Pte. Ltd
ASEAN Restorer
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Singapore
Maintenance SEAIOCMA
International
Cableship Pte Ltd.
ASEAN
Cableship Pte Ltd.
Cable Protector
Cable Lay Barge
Singapore,
Maintenance Stand-by
ACPL
Marine Pte Ltd
ASN Marine A/S
Heimdal
Cable Lay vessel
Okinawa, Japan
Maintenance FNAL
Phase I & II & NACS
ASN Marine A/S
Victor Lenac
Shipyard, Croatia
Kraka
Cable Repair vessel
Shipyard, Croatia
To be delivered in 2002
Dispute with ASN,
Contract terminated
Victor Lenac
Shipyard,
Croatia
ASN Marine A/S
Lodbrog
Cable Repair vessel
Avonmouth, UK
Private Maintenance Apollo
& TGN Atlantic & Flag
Atlantic
ASN Marine A/S
ASN Marine A/S
Maersk Defender
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Calais, France
Maintenance NSCMA
A P Moller
ASN Marine A/S
Peter Faber
Cable Repair vessel
Corsar, Denmark
Maintenance NSCMA –
Currently repairing TAT14
(repeater replacements)
ASN Marine A/S
Intership Ltd.
Cable 1
Cable Lay Barge
no work/laid up?
Intership Ltd
continues on p. 49
Page
48
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH/
Jade Dienst GmbH
BoDo Mariner
Cable Repair vessel
Singapore –
ready for charter
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH/
Jade Dienst GmbH
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH/
Jade Dienst GmbH
BoDo Supplier
Cable Repair vessel
Wilhelmshaven ready for charter
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH/
Jade Dienst GmbH
Brooklyn
Shipping Ltd.
Miss Clementine
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Singapore
Laid up
Maurel et Prom
Intl. Shipping
Brooklyn
Shipping Ltd.
Miss Marie
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Singapore
Laid up
Maurel et Prom
Intl. Shipping
Seaworks AS
(former Bulk
Transport AS)
Fjordkabel
Cable Lay vessel
Hammerfest, Norway
Maintenance Stand-by
Seaworks AS
(former Bulk
Transport AS)
Seaworks AS
(former Bulk
Transport AS)
Nordkabel
Cable Lay vessel
Harstad, Norway
Maintenance Stand-by
Seaworks AS
(former Bulk
Transport AS)
CTC Marine Projects
Ocean Challenger
Cable Lay vessel
Middlesborough UK
Laid up
KS Ocean
Challenger
CTC Marine Projects
Skandi Neptune
Cable Lay vessel
Middlesborough UK
Laid up
DOF Rederi AS
Dalmoreprodukt
Holding Co
Kem
Cable Lay vessel
no work/laid up?
Dalmoreprodukt
Holding Co
Dokai Marine
Systems Ltd.
Kouki Maru
Cable Lay vessel
Maintenance Stand-by
TGN Pacific
Dokai Maritech
Co. Ltd
DSND
Olympic Princess
Cable Repair vessel
Maintenance Brazil
Olympic Nor AS
Elettra TLC SpA
Certamen
Cable Lay vessel
Catania, Sicily
Maintenance MECMA
Elettra TLC SpA
Elettra TLC SpA
Pertinacia
Cable Lay vessel
Elettra took delivery of the
vessel – Currently in
Naples, Italy – Final outfit
to be completed in June
2003 – Afterwards
Installation of FARICE
Elettra TLC SpA
Elettra TLC SpA
Teliri
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Catania, Sicily
Maintenance MECMA
Elettra TLC SpA
Emirates Telecommunications and
Marine Services FZE
Etisalat
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance Domestic UAE
& International &
FLAG WIOR & FOG
Emirates Telecommunications and
Marine Serv. FZE
continues on p. 50
Page
49
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
Emirates Telecommunications and
Marine Services FZE
Umm Al Anber
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance Domestic UAE
& International &
FLAG WIOR & FOG
Emirates Telecommunications and
Marine Serv. FZE
Toisa Offshore
Fresnel
Cable Lay vessel
Sold – Working in Oil and
Gas Industry
Toisa Offshore
France Telecom
Marine
Leon Thevinin
Cable Repair vessel
Brest, France – Maintenance
Stand-by, ACMA
France Telecom
Marine
France Telecom
Marine
Raymond Croze
Cable Repair vessel
Seyne-Sur-Mer, France
Maintenance MECMA
France Telecom
Marine
France Telecom
Marine
Rene Descartes
Cable Lay vessel
Laid up in Pusan,
South Korea
France Telecom
Marine
France Telecom
Marine
Vercors
Cable Lay vessel
no work/laid up?
France Telecom
Marine
France Telcom
Marine
N/C Chamarel
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance Stand-by
SAT-3/Safe
Chamarel Marine
Services
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Atlantic Guardian
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Baltimore, USA
Maintenance ACMA
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Bold Endeavour
Cable Lay vessel
Subic Bay, Phillipines
Laid up
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Bold Endurance
Cable Lay vessel
Victoria, Canada, Maintenance
Secunda Marine
Services Ltd.
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Cable Innovator
Cable Lay vessel
Newington, NH, Loading
Cable for Svalbard Project
Installation
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Sarku Engineering
Cable Installer
Cable Lay vessel
Sold – Working in Oil and
Gas Industry – Malaysia
Sarku Engineering
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Cable Retriever
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Subic Bay, Phillipines
Maintenance SEAIOCMA
Global Marine
Systems Limited
n/a
Chin Ann 3
Cable Lay Barge
Working in Oil and Gas
Industry
n/a
n/a
CS Iris
Cable Repair vessel
scrapped
n/a
n/a
CS Monarch
Cable Repair vessel
scrapped
n/a
James Fisher
& Sons
CS Nexus
Cable Lay vessel
Charter contract finished –
To be converted to work in
Oil and Gas Industry
James Fisher
& Sons
Global Marine
Systems Limited
CS Sovereign
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Portland, UK
Maintenance ACMA
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Stand-by for Northstar
Cable System
continues on p. 51
Page
50
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
I.O.S.L. Marine
Service Limited
Elbe
Cable Lay Barge
Sold to I.O.S.L. Marine
Service Limited to work in
Oil and Gas Industry
I.O.S.L. Marine
Service Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Kuroshio Maru
Cable Lay vessel
Nagasaki, Japan
Maintenance for NPC & NTT
Domestic Cables
NTT World
Engineering Marine
Corporation
A P Moller
Maersk Forwarder
converted back to
supply vessel
Working in Oil and Gas
Industry
A P Moller
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Maersk Recorder
Cable Lay vessel
Newington, NH, Loading
Cable for Svalbard Project
Installation
A P Moller
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Maersk Reliance
Cable Lay vessel
Recife, Brazil –
Maintenance Stand-by
A P Moller
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Maersk Responder
Cable Lay vessel
Panama, Maintenance
Stand-by for ARCOS
A P Moller
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Networker
Cable Lay Barge
Laid up in Batam,
Indonesia
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Pacific Guardian
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Auckland, New Zealand,
Maintenance PacRim and
ANZCAN networks as well
as the Australia-Papua New
Guinea system and
Southern Cross
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Sir Eric Sharp
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Bermuda
Maintenance ACMA
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Subaru
Cable Lay vessel
Yokohama, Japan
Maintenance for NPC
NTT World
Engineering Marine
Corporation
Torch Offshore
Wave Alert
Cable Lay vessel
Sold – Oil and Gas
Industry
Torch Offshore
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Wave Mercury
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Kobe, Japan
Maintenance Stand-by
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Wave Sentinel
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Portland, UK Maintenance
NSPMA
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Global Marine
Systems Limited
Wave Venture
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Singapore, Maintenance
Stand-by
Global Marine
Systems Limited
HAM dredging and
marine contractors
HAM 602
Cable Lay vessel
no work/laid up?
HAM dredging and
marine contractors
Havila Cable AS
Havila Skagerrak
Cable Lay vessel
Power Cable Installation
Havila Cable AS
continues on p. 52
Page
51
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
Hellenic
Telecommunications
Organisation (OTE)
Thalis
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Athens, Greece
Maintenance Greece
Domestic
Hellenic Telecommunications
Organisation (OTE)
it International
Telecom USA Inc.
Marion CII
Cable Lay vessel
no work/laid up?
it International
Telecom USA Inc.
Rieber Shipping AS
AS
Oceanic King to
be renamed to
“Polar King”
Cable Lay vessel
Sold back to owner – To
be offered on the open
market
Rieber Shipping
it International
Telecom USA Inc.
Oceanic Pearl
Cable Lay vessel
East Coast Canada,
no work/laid up?
James Fisher
& Sons
it International
Telecom USA Inc.
Oceanic Princess
Cable Lay vessel
South East Asia,
no work/laid up?
James Fisher
& Sons
it International
Telecom USA Inc.
Oceanic Viking
Cable Lay vessel
Europe, no work/laid up?
Eidesvik & Co AS
Kamchatka
Shipping Co. Ltd
Biryusa
Cable Lay vessel
no work/laid up?
Kamchatka
Shipping Co. Ltd
Kokusai Cable
Ship Co Ltd.
KDD Ocean Link
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Yokohama, Japan
Yokohama Cable
Maintenance Agreement
Kokusai Cable
Ship Co Ltd
Kokusai Cable
Ship Co Ltd.
KDD Pacific Link
Cable Lay vessel
Moji, Japan
no work/laid up?
Kokusai Cable
Ship Co Lt
KT Submarine
Segero
Cable Lay vessel
Pusan, Korea 6 month/
year Maintenance, Stand-by
for Yokohama, Cable
Maintenance Agreement
KT Submarine
Dutch Sea
Cable BV
Sea Spider
Cable Lay vessel
Completed just recently a
power cable installation
in the Gulf
TEAM
NKT Cables
Henry P Lading
Cable Lay Barge
no work/laid up?
NKT Cables
NSW/Corning
ARCOS 1
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Currently installing EASTWEST-LINK Project;
afterwards Exelcomindo
Project
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH
and Co KG
Secunda Marine
Services Ltd
Coastal Connector
Cable Lay vessel
Sold to Secunda Marine –
to be converted to work in
Oil and Gas Industry
Secunda Marine
Services Ltd
NSW/Corning
Manta
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
DP system upgraded to
DP2 – Currently installing
North Sea cable system
(Sleipner – Grane)
Bohlen and Doyen
Submarine Cable
and Pipe GmbH
and Co KG
continues on p. 53
Page
52
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
NTT World
Engineering
Marine Corporation
PLDT
Cable Lay vessel
Batangas, Phillipines
Maintenance DFON system
NTT World
Engineering
Marine Corporation
Pirelli Cavi SpA
Giulio Verne
Cable Lay vessel
Power Cable Installation
Pirelli Cavi SpA
Primatel Ltd
Telepaatti
Cable Lay vessel
Turku, Finland
Maintenance Stand-by
Primatel Ltd
Russian Navy
Donets
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Emba
Cable Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Ingul
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Inguri
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Nepryadva
Cable Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Setun
Cable Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Tavda
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Yana
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
Russian Navy
Zeya
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Maintenance of Russian
Military cables
Russian Ministry
of Communications
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
Fu Lai
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Being chartered as platform for offshore pipeline
work in south China
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
Fu Xing
Cable Lay vessel
Laid-up in Shanghai
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
Maersk Repeater
Cable Lay vessel
Thailand – Indonesia –
Singapore Cable Net
Installation
A P Moller
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
You Dian 1
Cable Lay vessel
Stand-by in Shanghai
under China domestic
cable maintenance contract
SB Submarine
Systems Company
Ltd
continues on p. 54
Page
53
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
Seaworks Limited
Searanger
Cable Lay vessel
Completed just recently a
power cable installation in
the Gulf
Seaworks Limited
Seaworx BV
Seaspan
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
no work/laid up?
Seaworx BV
Smit-Oceaneering
Cable Systems LLC
Ocean Hercules
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
no work/laid up?
Stingray Shipping
Ltd
Swedia Networks
AB
Pleijel
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Sweden
Maintenance Stand-by
Telia Finans AB
Tyco
Telecommunication
Atlantida
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Vigo, Spain, for sale
Tyco
Telecommunication
Dockwise BV
Baron
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
In transit to Vancouver –
Offered to Oil and Gas
Industry
Dockwise BV
n/a
Charles L. Brown
Cable Lay vessel
Sold – reported to be sunk,
creating an artificial reef
n/a
Dockwise BV
Dock Express 20 NV
Dock Express 20
Cable Lay vessel
Dry Dock Panama –
afterwards working in Oil
and Gas Industry
Dockwise BV
Dock Express 20 NV
Tyco
Telecommunication
Global Link
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Baltimore, Maryland, USA,
Maintenance ACMA, for sale
CS Global Link LP
Tyco
Telecommunication
Global Mariner
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
– no work
CS Global Mariner
LP
Tyco
Telecommunication
Global Sentinel
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Portland, Oregon, USA
Maintenance TGN
CS Global Sentinel
LP
n/a
Iberus
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Sold, no work/laid up?
n/a
Dockwise BV
Knight
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
In transit to Vancouver –
Offered to Oil and Gas
Industry
Dockwise BV
n/a
Long Lines
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Sold, no work/laid up?
n/a
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco Dependable
Cable Lay vessel
Hawaii Maintenance
Stand-by TGN Pacific
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco Decisive
Cable Lay vessel
Private Maintenance
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco Resolute
Cable Lay vessel
Montevideo, Uruguay,
Maintenance Stand-by
Tyco
Telecommunication
continues on p. 55
Page
54
Vessel Overview
(continued)
On Duty
No work/Laid up?
New buildings
Decommissioned/Sold
Charterer
Name
Type
Stationed/Duties
Owner
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco Durable
Cable Lay vessel
Shipyard Singapore, to be
delivered in JULY 2003
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco
Telecommunication
Teneo
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Valencia, Spain
Maintenance MECMA
TSSL Temasa
Allseas
Tyco Provider
Cable Lay and
Repair vessel
Sold to Allseas – to be
converted to work in Oil
and Gas Industry
Allseas
Tyco
Telecommunication
TyCom Reliance
Cable Lay vessel
Private Maintenance
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Tyco
Telecommunication
Tyco
Telecommunication
TyCom Responder
Cable Lay vessel
Curacao, Netherlands
Antilles Maintenance
Stand-by
Tyco
Telecommunication
Dutch Sea
Cable BV
Coastal Spider
Cable Lay Barge
no work/laid up?
Dutch Owner
Van Oord ACZ
Frans
Cable Lay vessel
Currently working in the
Oil and Glas industry
Van Oord ACZ
Van Oord ACZ
Jan Steen
Cable Lay vessel
Currently working in the
Oil and Glas industry
Van Oord ACZ
Do you own any cable ships? Do you have any
cable ships on charter? Laid up or working?
And these ships are not listed here?
Let us know the position and the duties of your ships.
The Cable ship list will be updated in SCN-18-2003
Contact: [email protected]
Page
55
Project Overview
REPEATERED CABLE SYSTEMS
No
Area
System
Owner/Operator Contract Supplier
1
Europe/
America
Amber
(TAT15)
Consortium
No
?
North Atlantic
?
?
No/on Hold
2
Europe/
America
B-DEOS
Consortium of
research groups
and institutions
No
?
North Atlantic
and Southern
Ocean
1.000+
(reused
cables)
sev.
No/concept
3
Europe
SR1
Silk Route
Yes
Pirelli
Athens –
Venice
1,000
1
No/on Hold
4
Europe
FARICE
TeleDenmark –
Iceland Telecom
– Scottish Power
Company
Yes
Pirelli
Iceland –
Faroes –
Scotland
1,600
2
Installation
starting soon
5
Europe
Svalbard
Cable Project
NRSE
Yes
Tyco
Telecommunications
Harstad –
Spitzbergen
2,800
2
Installation
starting soon
6
Europe
Tenerife – Cadiz
?
Tenerife – Cadiz
1,400
1
No/planned
7
Europe
CAM Ring
Portugal Telecom
Yes
ASN
Azores – Madeira
– Porto Santo
1,000+
2
Installation
completed
8
Europe
Turkish
Mediterranean
Fibre Cable
System
Turkish
International
Telekom
Tender
ongoing
?
Turkey – Italy or
France or Spain
2,100 3,500
?
No/planned
9
Europe
ESONET
European Sea
Floor Observatory
Network
No
?
Norway to Greece
15,000
1
(7
seg.)
No/concept
10
Europe/
Middle East
FLAG WEB
Flag
No
?
Italy – Sicily –
Alexandria &
Pakistan & other
countries in the
Persian gulf
?
?
Flag emerged
from chapter
11 – further
activity
planned?
11
Middle East
Pakistan - UAE
?
No
?
Fujairah - Karachi
1,200
1
No/Rumours
12
Middle East
UAE - Iran
?
No
?
?
?
1
No/Rumours
13
Middle East
Kuwait - Iran
?
No
?
?
?
1
No/Rumours
14
Middle East
Pakistan India
?
No
?
?
?
1
No/Rumours
15
Middle East
UAE - India
?
No
?
?
?
1
No/Rumours
16
Africa
East Coast
Cable System
?
No
?
Durban – Djibouti
7,500
4
No/concept –
Feasibility
study ongoing
17
Asia
Bangladesh
– India
?
No
?
?
?
?
Rumours
18
Asia
BSCN
BTTB
LOI
Tycom
Branching Unit
to SEACN
(Chennai –
Singapore)
?
?
Possibly
abandoned
19
Asia
India –
Malaysia –
Singapore
Maxis/Starhub/
Reliance/
Software Tech.
Park
No
?
India –
Malaysia –
Singapore
2,500
?
Rumours
20
Asia
India –
Hong Kong
Dishnet DSL
No
?
India – Singapore
– Hong Kong
?
?
Rumours
Spanish
Tender
Telecommunication ongoing
on Companies
Route
km
Segm.
Installed
continues on p. 57
Page
56
Project Overview
REPEATERED CABLE SYSTEMS
System
Owner/Operator Contract Supplier
(continued)
No
Area
Route
km
Segm.
Installed
21
Asia
APCN2
Interlink
APCN2
Consortium
No
?
Hong Kong –
Taiwan
1,600
1
No/planned
22
Asia
C2C
Extension
C2C
No
?
South Korea –
China
?
1
Rumours
23
Asia
Singapore –
Indonesia –
Thailand
SingTel/PT
Telekom/CAT
Yes
NEC
Singapore –
Indonesia –
Thailand
1,000
?
Installation
ongoing
24
Asia
i2i
SingTel
Yes
ASN
Singapore –
Medan –
Chennai
3,200
2
Phase 1
finished
Phase 2
on hold
25
Asia
AAN
SingTel/NTT
MoU
signed
with NEC
?NEC?
Across Asia
?
sev.
26
Asia
JNAC
SingTel/NTT
No
?
Japan –
North America
?
?
No/concept
27
Asia
Russia – Japan
FTA
No
?
Sovetskaya
Gavan – Japan
?
?
1
1
No/planned
28
Asia
Russia – Japan
FTA
No
?
Nakhodka – Japan
?
1
No/planned
29
Asia
Russia – Korea –
China
FTA
No
?
Nakhodka –
Korea – China
?
2
No/planned
30
Asia
China-US II
Consortium
No
?
Ring System
?
4
No/planned
No/planned
Survey compl.
On hold
31
Asia
Fiji – Tahiti
?
No
Tyco ?
Fiji – Tahiti
4,000
1
Rumours
32
Asia
Pacific Express
Great Circle
No
?
US-Asia
?
?
No/concept
33
Asia
SEACN
Tycom
Yes
Tycom
Chennai –
Singapore –
Jakarta
10,000
2
No/on Hold
34
India/Australia
?
?
No
?
Chennai – Perth
?
?
No/Rumours
35
Australia
Tasman 3
Telstra
No
?
Australia –
New Zealand
?
?
No/planned
36
Australia
Australia –
Singapore
SingTel/
Telstra
No
?
Australia –
Singapore
?
?
No/planned
37
North America
Cuba – USA
?
No
?
?
?
?
Rumours
38
North America
AUFS-West
GCI
Tender
ongoing
?
Alaska – Oregon
2,500
1
No/planned
Survey compl.
39
World
Polarnet
Private Russian
Investors &
C&W
No
ASN/NEC?
UK – Norway –
Alaska – Oregon
– Japan
40
World
Axone Networks
Axone Networks
No
?
41
World
SEA-ME-WE4
Consortium
No
?
Page
57
20,000+ 4 – 5
No/planned
Survey partly
finished
UK – Med –
Middle East – India
20.000+
No/on Hold
UK – Singapore
11,793
?
No/planned
Project Overview
REPEATERLESS CABLE SYSTEMS
No.
Area
System
Owner/Operator
Contract
Supplier
km
Segm. Installed
1
Europe
Canaries
Auna
No
?
500
?
No/planned
2
Europe
Greece Silk
Silk Route
Yes
Pirelli
280
1
No/Financing
outstanding
3
Europe
Greece OTE
OTE
No
Alcatel or Fulgor
300
2
No/planned
4
Europe
GWEN Project
OTE
Yes
Alcatel
700
2
Installation
starting soon
5
Europe
Baltic
LinxTelecom
Yes
GMS/Ericsson
2,000
?
No/Financing
outstanding
6
Europe
Baltic
TransTelecom
No
?
900
5
No/Rumours
7
Europe
St. Petersburg –
Stockholm
FTA
No
?
?
1
No/planned
8
Europe
Riga – Stockholm
FTA
No
?
?
1
No/planned
9
Europe
Shetland –
Orkney – Scotland
Mainland
SSElectricity/BP/Shell
Shetland Council/
Orkney Council
No
?
600
3
No/planned
10
Europe
North Sea
(Sleipner – Grane)
Norsk Hydro
Yes
NSW/Corning
100
1
Installation
ongoing
11
Europe
North Sea (Grane –
Heimdal – Oseberg)
Norsk Hydro
?
Nexans?
150
2
No/planned
12
Europe
North Sea (Valhall)
BP
Yes
Subsea 7
120
Sev.
Installation
ongoing
13
Europe
Mediterranean
BCN
Yes
NSW/Corning
10,000
45
No/Financing
outstanding
14
Europe
Sardinia – Rome
Tiscali
No
?
270
1
No/planned
Rumours
15
Europe
Sardinia Festoon
System
Tiscali
No
?
?
?
No/Rumours
16
Europe
Malta – Sicily
Vodafone
Yes
?
260
1
No/planned
17
Europe
SCYLLANET
?
No
?
1,500
8
No/planned
18
Europe
Baltic
German – Swedish
Scientists
No
?
approx.
250
?
No/Rumours
19
Europe
Adriatic Ring
HCom Ltd
No
?
1,610
5
No/concept
20
Middle East
Masirah Island –
Sannah
Omantel
Tender
?
50
1
No/planned
21
Africa
African Festoon Sys.
?
No
?
40,000
?
No/Rumours
22
Africa
Angola Festoon
Angola Telecom
No
MOU with
Ericsson?
1,700
?
No/planned
23
Africa
Mozambique –
Festoon Extensions
TDM
No
?
1,800
5–6
No/concept
24
Africa
Mozambique –
South Africa
South African Telecom
– TDM
No
?
300
1
No/concept
25
India
India Festoon
System
?
No
?
15,000
22+
No/concept
26
Asia
Sumatra Backbone
Project
Telekom Indonesia
Yes
Pirelli/Siemens
345
1
Installation
ongoing
27
Asia
DMCS
Telekom Indonesia
/Telekom Malaysia
No
?
up to
300
1 or 2
No/planned
28
Asia
East-West-Link
Project
?
Yes
NSW/Corning
Siemens
976
3
Installation
ongoing
29
Asia
Excelcomindo –
SSSK
Excelcomindo
Yes
NSW/Corning
760
3
No/planned
continues on p. 59
Page
58
Project Overview
REPEATERLESS CABLE SYSTEMS
No.
Area
System
30
Asia
Perushan Gas
Negara
Owner/Operator
Perushan Gas
Negara
Contract
Yes
(continued)
Supplier
km
Nexans
219
Segm. Installed
1
No/planned
31
Asia
Vietnam Festoon
VNPT
No
?
3,000+
?
No/planned
32
Asia
ARENA
JAMSTEC
No
?
1,000
Sev.
No/concept
33
Asia
Sakhalin 1
Exxon Neftegas Ltd.
Tender
Siemens or NEC
130
Sev.
No/planned
34
Asia
Sakhalin 2
Sakhalin Energy
Investment Comp. Ltd.
Tender
Siemens or NEC
20
1
No/planned
35
Australia
Bass Strait
Telstra
Yes
ASN
240
1
Installation
completed
Cape Brenton
Nova Scotia
EastLink
Cablesystems
Yes
International
Telecom Inc.
?
2
No/planned
?
No
?
250
1
No/Rumours
36 North America
37 North America Iles de la Madeleine
to Gaspé
38 North America
Neptune
(Scientific Project)
US Government
No
?
5,755
Sev.
Survey
completed
39 North America
MARS
(Scientific Project)
US Government
Yes
ASN/Mari Pro
101
2
No/planned
Permits
received
40 North America
VENUS
(Scientific Project)
US Government
No
?
?
3
No/concept
41 North America
Northstar Extension
Northstar
Communications
Tender
ongoing
?
2,100
Sev.
No/planned
Survey
completed
42 North America FiberWeb Extensions
Gulf Fiber Corporation
No
?
500
Sev.
No/planned
43 North America
Chesapeske Bay –
Norfolk to Baltimore
Clearstream
Communications
No
?
500
1
No/planned
44 North America/
Hawaii
Inter Island
Connections
Sandwich Isles
Communications
No
?
1,500
Sev.
No/planned
45
Caribbean
WINONE
Private Investor
No
?
4,000
Sev.
No/concept
46
Caribbean
ARCOS 8
New World Network
No
MOU with NSW
3,000
1600
Sev.
No/concept
47
Caribbean
Calypso-1
Telkom Caribe
No
?
3,000+
Sev.
No/concept
48
Caribbean
SMPR-1
Smitcoms
Yes
NSW/Corning
374 km
(+)
1 (+)
No/planned
49
Caribbean
Florida – Bahamas
Cable Crossing Ltd.
Yes
IT International
Telecom
250 km
1
No/concept
50 South America
Aquatica
Schahin Telecom
Yes
NSW/Corning
and Pirelli
5,000
13
No/Financing
outstanding
51 South America
Festoon Columbia
?
No
?
?
?
No/Rumours
52 South America
Festoon Chile
?
No
?
?
?
No/Rumours
53 South America
Festoon Peru
?
No
?
?
?
No/Rumours
Page
59
Outlook
EDITION NO. 13 · July 2003
...
will be ready mid of July.
In the next Issue you will find
Eckhard Bruckschen,
Editor of www.SubCableNews.com
Dear reader of
www.SubCableNews.com,
I hope you enjoyed reading the twelfth issue of
the SubCableNews, the Newsletter for the whole
industry involved in the submarine cable market.
I always try to be up to date with all the information available. Any contribution is welcome
and should be forwarded to the editor.
●
●
●
●
Hibernia – A new approach?
Where is the upturn?
Updates on Projects
News, Press Releases of Companies, etc.
If you have any information regarding
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
New projects
New services
New technologies
New products
Carrier plans
Tenders
Contracts
Performances of Contractors
Jobs
Rumours etc.
Best regards
Your Eckhard Bruckschen
... and you want to share this information,
just contact [email protected]
If you want to present
DISCLAIMER
The information contained in www.SubCableNews.com is derived from sources,
which we believe to be accurate but is not
guaranteed. www.SubCableNews.com is
not responsible for any errors or omissions
and disclaims any liability incurred as a consequence of any of the contents of this
resource. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, duplicated, published or transmitted in any form by any means without
prior written permission from the publisher.
All rights reserved.
●
●
●
●
Your company
Your team
Your services
Your project
... in the next Newsletter, just let me know:
[email protected]
You want to advertise in the next Newsletter?
Please contact [email protected]
IMPRINT
EDITOR: Eckhard Bruckschen (E-Mail: [email protected]); ART DIRECTOR: Bernd Wiehl;
PUBLISHER: medienmenschen Verlag; Lucile-Grahn-Str. 27; 81675 Munich; Germany; Tel. +49 89-688-90-448;
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Page
60