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58 j u l y 2011 ISSN 1948-3031 Voice of the Industry Regional Systems Edition In This Issue: The State of Submarine Cables in Africa The Communications Blockade SubOptic 2013 – April in Paris

58 TW1 Undersea Fiber Optic Cable System Van Oord to install and bury cabling for DanTysk offshore wind farm in Germany 6 Regional Systems Analytics Stephen 7 jarvis Reginal Systems:

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58j u l y

2011ISSN 1948-3031

Voiceof the

Industry

Regional Systems Edition

In This Issue:The State of Submarine Cables in AfricaThe Communications BlockadeSubOptic 2013 – April in Paris

2

Every year at this time I have a problem of focus. Since the 2nd of July my mind has found it

difficult to stay concentrated on the job at hand. Emails have gone unanswered; phone messages have not been promptly actioned; the staff has noticed a certain vacuous look in my eyes. Even a week at the beach has not positively impacted.

For the recent Father’s Day, my son and his wife gave me an “All Access” package, which allows me to receive a streaming live feed. So, until 11 AM or so each day, except rest days of course of which there has been only one to date, I am glued to my screen, comparing and contrasting the leaders with the peloton with team standings and so on.

The idea does not elude me that such access to live sports could only be possible through the submarine cables we so eagerly develop and install. Watching

the placement of the maillot jaune on a Frenchmen on Bastille Day in real time while sitting at my desk in Virginia seems not only fitting, but also makes one mindful of the things we in our industry make possible every day.

So, call or email after the 24th and I promise to be more attentive and engaged. In the meantime, vive le Tour de France!

ISSN 1948-3031Submarine Telecoms Forum is published bimonthly by WFN Strategies. The publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publishers. Submarine Telecoms Forum is an independent com mercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with submarine optical fibre technologies and techniques. Liability: while every care is taken in preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or any consequence arising from any errors or omissions. The publisher cannot be held responsible for any views expressed by contributors, and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted for publication.Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the Managing Editor:

PUBLISHER

Wayne NielsenTel: +[1] 703 444 2527

Email: [email protected]

EDITOR

Kevin G. SummersTel: +[1] 703 468 0554

Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2011 WFN Strategies

3

ExordiumWayne Nielsen

2

News Now 4

Regional Systems Analytics 6

Reginal Systems: The State of Submarine Cables in AfricaStephen Jarvis

7

The Communications BlockadeRich Potter

11

2011 SubTel Forum Awards:The Winners

15

Coming Full Circle in the Subsea Upgrade MarketMark Wickham, David Robles& Edwin Muth

17

Testing Submarine Cables 2,000Km From Landfall:Why A New Generation Of Faster Testers Is NecessaryAndy Cole

24

SubOptic 2013 – April in Paris 28

Back ReflectionStewart Ash

32

Cyta Strengthens its Telecommunications Hubin the Eastern MediterraneanYiannis Koulias

35

Conferences 40

A Funny Thing Happened... 41

Letter to a FriendJean Devos

42

Advertiser Index 43

CodaKevin G. Summers

44

In This Issue...

News Now Alcatel-Lucent and Mobily Deliver

Superfast Broadband with Successful Trial of Superfast Mobile Network in Saudi Arabia

AMP eyes Europe’s offshore wind sector

ARMM eyeing 6,000 new jobs

Bahamas Telecom Company extends U.S.-Caribbean cable to Haiti

Caribbean Crossings pays out $30m preference debt

Commercial operation of Cyprus-Egypt segment of ALEXANDROS submarine cable subsystem

Cuba gets high-speed internet connection

EA to invest $400m in fibre optic cables

EMU Limited detects the English Channel tsunami

Europe Persia Express Gateway Agreement (EPEG) Signed

Glo1, Julius Berger seal connectivity contract

Globe Telecom: Enabling seamless worldwide connections through diverse cable systems

Hibernia Atlantic’s Project Express Marine Survey is Underway

Huawei Marine Networks Complete Construction of the MATARAM-KUPANG Cable System

IHC Engineering Business targets the offshore trenching market with the appointment of a new Trenching Systems Sales Manager

Infinera Swiftly Supports Pacnet in the Restoration of Critical Services after Japan Earthquakes

Infraco to invest $74 million in infrastructure

Internet Solutions increase SAT-3/WACS capacity

Lebanon boosts internet access with link to I-ME-WE

Next generation ROV simulators announced

Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH and Global Marine Systems Ltd. to supply and install the infield cabling of the Global Tech I Wind Farm in the North Sea

Novosco Chooses Hibernia Atlantic for High Speed, Diverse Connectivity Throughout Europe

NTT Com to Launch New Data Center in Malaysia

NZ challenge to undersea cable monopoly

Offshore Marine Management launches survey and subsea business

Pac-West Announces Further Investment from Parent Company Columbia Ventures Corporation

Pacific Fibre questions Southern Cross cable internet capability

Pacific Fibre will not route cable to Wellington

Pacnet Boosts Japan Network Capabilities

Pacnet Named Wholesale Operator of the Year at Asia Communication Awards 2011

PTC’12 Proposal Submission Deadline: 5 July 2011

Rapid growth helps EMU become UK's marine consent and survey leader

RComm to launch undersea cable system ‘Hawk’

SEACOM Teams Up With Mozambique's TDM

Sidera Networks Continues to Deliver Superior Access and Speed With Connectivity to ancotel USA Colocation and Data Center Facility in Westbury, New York

South Africa: Undersea Cables Will Double Broadband Capacity, Pyramid Finds

Southern Cross Twins Committed to Ultra Fast Broadband and National Broadband Network

Subsea Construction Services Joint Venture Launches In The Middle East

SubTel Forum Achieves New Milestone

Syrian Internet Restored

Telecom Italia Sparkle, through its Mediterranean operations of MedNautilus, and Cyta, announce the agreement for the creation of the first submarine ring network connecting Cyprus to Greece

Tonga-Fiji submarine cable project safe

Transworld And TE Subcom To Upgrade TW1 Undersea Fiber Optic Cable System

Van Oord to install and bury cabling for DanTysk offshore wind farm in Germany

6

Regional Systems Analytics

7Stephen jarvis

Reginal Systems:The State of Submarine Cables in Africa

8

In many ways, change can be like a landslide – building over time, tied to many small pieces moving at once,

and unstoppable once begun. In Africa, a change has begun that is altering continent as much as a landslide can reshape the side of a mountain. A leading aspect of these changes has been the deregulation and subsequent boom of the telecoms industry. In 2005, South Africa deregulated the telecoms industry with the legislation of Voice over Internet Protocol, which promises a more affordable way to stay in contact with the world. While it hasn’t been as straight-forward an improvement as hoped, a certain trend seems to have occurred. “An estimated 15.1 million smartphones were sold in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 – 10% of all handset sales in the region, and this percentage is expected to rise to 30-40% by 2014

(according to Deon Liebenburg of RIM),” commented Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC. This previously unprecedented use of bandwidth by Africa has led to an influx of companies and increased deregulation by many countries in a similar manner to South Africa. This has allowed new businesses to begin laying submarine cables and providing competitive service to their respective regions.

“We announced last December that we would more than double the system’s 30Gbps initial lit capacity. We’ve now taken another look at that, and we are looking to increase it by two or three times more than our original plan because demand has moved so fast.” says Wood. WIOCC is the owner of the EASSy system, which was activated July of last year and measures 10,000km. It links South Africa with Sudan, but also is connected to multiple international cables, strongly connecting EASSy to the larger world community. Created with a capacity of 4.72Tbps, in a year it has increased from 1.4Tbps in an attempt to meet increasing demand in the region for access. Wood believes that demand for bandwidth will only continue to grow, and hopes to improve the system as technology progresses.

Deregulation is proving to be a growing trend in Africa. Angola, for instance, is a Sub-Saharan country with began its own deregulation with the creation of the Angola Cable Consortium in June 2009.

This association promoted a number of new international fiber systems. The competition that these new systems will bring will help to encourage lower prices and greater coverage by local industry leaders. It’s hope for changes such as this that has led to many African countries rethinking regulatory policies.

However, the change is not necessarily immediate. In South Africa, any noticeable change took nearly six years. In that time, a number of policy alterations and even the threat by Parliament to regulate call rates occurred. These were instigated by such factors as the unchangingly high rates of more strongly rooted companies, slowing the shift to a competitive system. It is only recently that the field has been cleared for newer companies to begin laying cable. But, as long as diversity of companies is protected by policy, competition will have a positive effect on African countries.

Diversity is apparently not going to be a problem. Three major cables have been launched in Africa this past year. Main One, Lion, and EASSy with an average bandwidth of 2.1 Tbps. Main One currently has operating landing points in Nigeria, Ghana, and Portugal and plans are underway to open a second stage extending to South Africa. Looking into the future, WACS (currently under construction with an RFS date of 2011), ACE, SAex, and Lion-2 are all planned major cables. These will only serve to

9

improve the competition and further local access.

Egypt has been another country that the Telecoms industry has greatly changed in recent years. According to the International Telecommunications Union, the penetration of internet in Egypt has gone from .64 per one-hundred people in 2000 to 24.26 in 2009. New cables are still being laid to keep up with the still growing need for bandwidth. One such cable is the new MENA system, with a planned capacity of 5.76Tbps and a length of 10,000km. It is planned for activation by the end of 2011. But deregulation and

an influx of new telecommunications options has had a particularly trying effect on Egypt.

Because of political destabilization in Egypt, the private access to the internet was suspended form January 28 to February 2. This is a far more complicated matter in light of the privately owned companies than if the only providers were state-run. Because of this, Egypt has allotted 100-million Egyptian pounds for compensation to mobile phone and internet providers. While there hasn’t been a notable trend towards deregulation and social turmoil, it can’t be denied that

at least in the case of Egypt, greater public access to services provided by the telecoms industry played a role in events.

The growing speed of telecoms access and use in Africa has practically become a force of nature. The changes it brings are new options for companies and new forms of communication previously unattainable for the greater African population. “Nowhere in the world is telecommunications growing as rapidly as in Africa. It is largely unencumbered by legacy systems, and investment in submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic networks is phenomenal. Deregulation and the resulting competitive environments are driving innovation, with new technologies and mobile applications quickly rolled out and adopted,” said Wood; summing up the future hopes for the African market. With deregulation becoming more of a trend, business will likely continue to grow, providing opportunity for companies which see Africa’s potential as well as the people whose live are being enriched by the growing industry.

Stephen Jarvis is a freelance writer in the Washington D.C. area. He has published articles and done editorial work with several publications including Submarine Telecoms Forum. Also, he has been a speaker for the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference.

10

11Rich Potter

The Communications Blockade

12

As has been widely reported, Venezuela, Cuba, and Jamaica are jointly installing an undersea fiber-

optic cable, dubbed ALBA-1, that will, according to Cuba’s Prensa Latina, “break the communications blockade imposed by the United States” and improve internet connection speeds in Cuba by a factor of 3,000. The connection between Cuba and Venezuela is projected to become operational in July at the earliest.

Venezuela’s CVG Telecomunicaciones C.A. (CVG Telecom) and Cuba’s Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) signed a preliminary accord for the project in October 2006, at which point Jamaica was not involved. The Venezuelan connection will be made at Camurí, near the port of La Guaira, just north of Caracas. The cable will connect to Cuba’s national network at Siboney, roughly 9 miles (14 kms) from Santiago de Cuba on the southeastern coast.

The project’s initial cost estimate was $55 million: $35 million for the undersea portion and $20 million to extend the cable to the Cuban and Venezuelan networks in Havana and Caracas. As of this January, however, Prensa Latina was reporting a total cost estimate of $70 million.

Currently, Cuba depends on costly and relatively slow satellite service. According to the Cuban government, this is largely the result of the US State Department’s refusal to permit Cuba to connect to a fiber

optic cable linking Cancún, Mexico and Miami, Florida, despite its passing only 20 miles [32 km] from Havana. In addition to increasing data and voice connection speeds, ALBA-1 is expected to reduce Cuba’s satellite costs by 25 percent.

Earlier this year, the first 994 miles (1,600 kms) of cable (of a total 3,125 miles / 5,000 kms) completed a trans-Atlantic voyage from Calais, France to Venezuela aboard the Ile de Gatz. The cable is being shipped from France as a result of the project contract having been awarded to Alcatel-Lucent. According to (this

author’s interpretation of) a document made available on WikiLeaks, Alcatel-Lucent bid on the project via their Chinese subsidiary, Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB; now Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell / ALSB), and in conjunction with a French subsidiary, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). The document indicates that ALSB’s main competitor was China’s Huawei, which created a Venezuelan subsidiary (Huawei Technologies de Venezuela) in 2001. Huawei cell phones are common in Venezuela and the company was selected by Venezuela’s dominant telecommunications corporation,

13

Compañía Anónima Nacional de Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), to upgrade its national fiber-optic backbone in 2004. (CANTV was re-nationalized in 2007.)

Given the close relationship between Venezuela and China, generally, and Huawei’s significant Venezuelan footprint, why would the Venezuelan and Cuban governments select a French/US transnational? Neither the Venezuelan nor the Cuban government will want to readily admit to granting such an important contract to yanqui capitalists. For instance, Cuba’s state-owned Juventud Rebelde newspaper has reported that the installation is being handled by “the french-chinese company Alcatel Shanghai Bell” (“la empresa franco-china Alcatel Shanghai Bell“) without making any mention of ASB’s French-US parent company, Alcatel-Lucent. (Alcatel and Lucent merged on December 1, 2006. Nonetheless, the bid document made available on WikiLeaks, copyrighted 2007, uses “Alcatel-Lucent” only once; all other instances, including the copyright, use “Alcatel”.) So why did Alcatel-Lucent get the ALBA-1 contract?

The answer may be that Alcatel-Lucent offered better technology without subcontracting any major elements of the project. As the leaked bid document put it, “ASB is the only Chinese partner able to provide turnkey submarine solution with inhouse field proven products and total independancy” [sic]. For example, Alcatel-Lucent billed its cable as resistant

to 7,000 meters versus only 1,500 meters of resistance for Huawei’s line. Alcatel-Lucent also committed to in-house “dry and wet” maintenance, as well as using its own “vessel fleet” for installation. According to Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei would have had to outsource those and other operations. Whether or not Alcatel’s claims of superiority are true, it seems more likely that another factor was more influential.

ASB claimed to be “fully compliant with Venezuela Cuba technical specifications” and listed “[f]ull repesct of Embargo regulation” [sic] among them. The document goes on to state that: “Alcatel,

Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel Submarine Networks are committing to deliver the project while respecting Embargo policy

• Alcatel group and ASN are french registered companies

• Alcatel Shanghai Bell is a chinese registered company

• Specific embargo clauses will be part of the T&C’s [terms and conditions] to ensure our commitment for the whole life of the project [sic]”

Of course, Huawei, being a Chinese company with an established Venezuelan subsidiary, should not have had any problems in avoiding the US embargo. Their supposed subcontractors, however, did pose some potential problems. Global Marine Systems Ltd. (GSML), for instance, was to handle the cable installation and maintenance. Based in the UK with representation in Singapore, Florida, and Boston, GSML itself may have avoided the embargo, but – according to the Alcatel-Lucent document – it was offering power-feed equipment from Spellman High Voltage Electronics Corporation, “an American company headquartered in NY state, USA [that] may cause Embargo enforcement issues in Cuba”. Alcatel-Lucent also pointed out that it would be using ASN repeaters, which have no US components or patents. Huawei, on the other hand, was said to be offering repeaters from UK-based Red Sky Telecom,

14

which rely on a US component and make use of 41 patents registered in the US.

An Executive Technical Summary of the project, dated October 8, 2006, makes clear that project managers were very aware of the complications imposed by the US embargo on Cuba. A section of that document, entitled “Analysis of the Political Environment” (“Análisis del entorno político“), reads as follows:

“The regulations imposed by the blockade against Cuba and the regulations imposed on the rest of the world through

extraterritorial laws, hinder enormously n e g o t i a t i o n s with companies interested in constructing an undersea cable that connects to Cuba. If the possibility of direct aggression against the cable itself is added to that situation, it will be essential to seek all possible protection in international law.

As such the proposal is for a submarine cable constructed and operated by legally established i n t e r n a t i o n a l

telecommunications operators, that should count on maximum protection from international organizations. See Appendix 1. [Appendix one lists the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC). ]

Furthermore for the Venezuelan State, the materialization of an international undersea cable system represents the fortification of the Nation’s communication infrastructure.

Political premises will be present when defining the geographic configuration of the undersea cable.”

So, were Venezuela and Cuba “forced” to select Alcatel-Lucent due to the US embargo? To be clear, that conclusion is merely speculation based on a couple of leaked documents. If the speculation is correct, however, then we have an odd case in which the socialist states of Cuba and Venezuela chose a French-US transnational over a “communist” Chinese corporation precisely in order to avoid the US embargo. Such, perhaps, are the intricate paradoxes of intellectual property in a neoliberally globalized world.

Rich Potter is a filmmaker and PhD Candidate in the Institute of Communications Research (ICR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is currently in Venezuela carrying out field research for a dissertation on community media. This

article is adapted from his blog, Transd[e]uce [https://t r a n s d e u c e . w o r d p r e s s .com/], where he writes about his research and other communication issues from a

critical perspective.

2011 SubTel Forum Awards

The Winners

16

The winner of the Innovation Award, awarded to the company or organization that has produced the best market innovation of the previous year, is presented to Ciena.

Editor’s AwardWinner

Innovation AwardWinner

The winner of the Industry Achievement Award, awarded to an individual or company that has done the most for the industry, is presented to John Hibbard.

The Editor's Award, awarded to author of the best SubTel Forum article and personally selected by the Editor of Submarine Telecoms Forum, is presented to Morgan Heim for her article "Telegraphing a Tsunami" from STF #50.

Industry Achievement Award Winner

17

Mark Wickham,David Robles& Edwin Muth

Coming Full Circle in the Subsea upgrade Market

18

T he subsea capacity upgrade market has undergone significant changes over the last decade. The intensity of

vendor competition has led to considerable price erosion, hastened the introduction of new technology, squeezed the edges of system design to greater cross sectional capacities and provided faster, easier and more creative approaches to doing business.

While the traditional subsea vendors may have been slow to react at first, the effect of new entrants in the market is becoming diffused. Today, with a marginal price differentiation, it is longer term, specialized technical and design considerations that are most critical when selecting an upgrade vendor. Not only is the upgrade decision fundamental to remaining competitive in the current market, but also to safeguarding the future potential of legacy cable systems and asset investment returns.

The well-documented explosion in global demand for broadband capacity has redefined the entire telecommunications industry and put increasing pressure on all telecom companies to pursue a faster, better, smarter business advantage. The world’s insatiable appetite for bandwidth, in all its forms and applications, has had a particularly transformative effect on the international subsea cable market. In particular, worldwide capacity growth has increased the demand for new cable systems between major cities; stimulated cable builds to new regions; and created significant demand for legacy cable systems upgrades.

This article does not aim to address the burgeoning global capacity demand, which has been confirmed by frequent studies and is generally unchallenged, but looks instead at the subsea upgrade market response to that demand and the parallels that can be drawn from the experiences of terrestrial equipment suppliers. We also look at what this means to cable owners and subsea system suppliers and, crucially, try to understand the benefits and the dangers of the current upgrade market for all concerned.

Despite the ongoing boom in bandwidth demand, the fortunes of the world’s telecommunications operators have been tempered by another global trend: telecoms deregulation that has given rise to multiple new operators in each deregulated country. This increased competition has, predictably, pushed prices to historic lows in liberalized markets.

The combined effects of greater demand with increased competition are forcing carriers to the extreme limits of operating

19

efficiency. Each network asset, whether terrestrial or subsea, must be exploited for maximum benefit before new development will be undertaken along the same routes. To be competitive in this business environment, network operators require:

• the lowest possible cost per bit;

• the fastest possible delivery of new equipment;

• maximum equipment flexibility;

• maximum upgradeability;

• the lowest cost of ownership.

These requirements have spurred network owners to push the limits of legacy systems far beyond their original design capacities, while applying unrelenting price pressure on equipment suppliers.

The Expanding Competitive Landscape

If we consider the terrestrial equipment space where supply competition and market liberalization have been maturing for more than two decades, a super competitive environment within this market has resulted. This is evidenced in the extremely challenging financial conditions those suppliers now face. Despite immense and sustained volume growth in equipment demand from network owners, profits have been driven beyond zero and into negative territory. Companies have been forced to merge or even focus investment elsewhere in the

hope of finding growth opportunities. In hindsight, it is not surprising that these suppliers should consider the subsea capacity upgrade market as an attractive horizontal market to pursue.

With relatively minor adjustments to their terrestrial products – what we might call “water-proofing” – these suppliers have dived into the subsea market, first at the edges and more recently into transoceanic spans. This new market, though small in comparison with their traditional arena, offers these suppliers higher margins, new customers, and access to new regions. Capacity upgrades enable easy entry into the subsea market, since the supplier isn’t required to provide cable, vessels, permits, or any other core competencies of the traditional subsea system supplier.

Ten years ago, perhaps four major subsea system suppliers existed: Alcatel, Fujitsu, NEC and TE SubCom (then known as Tyco Telecommunications) all providing various complete cable systems, as well as servicing the fledgling “upgrade market” with high quality, highly specified bespoke subsea transmission equipment.

As equipment and transmission standards have evolved over the last decade, however, the traditional demarkation between “terrestrial” and “submarine” has begun to fade in many cases. Apart from the ultra-long-haul applications (nominally, those more than 6,000 km), many network operators no longer insist that a subsea

20

system be procured and supplied as a complete “system.” Reinforced by their familiarity with high-volume terrestrial procurement, these operators are often prepared to sacrifice network optimization in exchange for lower costs.

Today, perhaps more than nine subsea equipment suppliers exist, including Alcatel-Lucent; Ciena; Fujitsu; Huawei; Infinera; Mitsubishi; NEC; TE SubCom and Xtera.

As a result of increased competition, the sorts of price declines previously seen in the terrestrial market are now common in the submarine market as well. The traditional submarine system suppliers have responded to this pressure with unprecedented discounts, so much so that, in the very near future, equipment pricing will no longer be a real differentiator in the upgrade market. To see the real differences between the various offerings, we must take a closer look at the technologies, the commercial terms, and the total cost of ownership.

Measuring the Technology

In addition to provoking price erosion, the new entrants to the subsea market have accelerated the technology race by applying terrestrial platforms to subsea applications. While 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps transmission supplanted 10G in terrestrial backbones about two years ago, the challenges of implementing these higher speeds in long-haul systems have inevitably resulted in some delay for these data rates in submarine applications. (This same pattern was observed in prior generations with the roll-out of 10G and 2.5G equipment.) Despite these additional challenges, however, the submarine equipment suppliers have responded to the call, accelerated R&D and are now proposing system capacities that far exceed demand forecasts on some long-haul routes.

As a result of these developments, submarine transmission technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace. For

the first time, new generations of SLTE are being developed, sold, manufactured and implemented in overlapping timeframes. For upgrades as well as new builds, carriers must choose from among many equipment platforms and plan future upgrades accordingly. Given this array of choices, the natural procurement reflex is to buy the lowest-cost option for each upgrade requirement. While this has led to some initial success for the new market entrants, it also presents a number of challenges and risks that deserve careful consideration.

One of the effects of upgrading with a “dry-only” supplier is that the responsibility for system integration shifts from the system vendor to the network operator. The assessment of risk and the long-term future-proofing of the system becomes the operator’s burden. Considerations such as optimization for the specific system and its future upgrade plans touches a number of technical areas, such as FEC coding,

21

capacity /spectral efficiency and resulting system overhead inefficiencies through the use of standardized protocols. Once the original system supplier is removed from the upgrade design process, all of the above issues become the network operator’s burden.

Upgrades performed by a dry-only supplier are typically undertaken only after the supplier has performed rigorous field trials to characterize the wet plant, which generally require the fiber to be taken out of service for some time. Yet, no matter how thorough these investigations may be, the upgrade supplier will always be challenged to maximize the performance of a wet plant that was optimized for a different set of SLTE characteristics. Ultimately, the network operator may find the upgrade to be costly in terms of available capacity over the life of the system, thus denying the operator the opportunity for a portion of the future lease revenue.

Areas of Optimization

The opportunity is there for submarine equipment suppliers to leverage their deep system knowledge and understanding of how system parameters change over time. Areas for potential optimization include coding schemes and improved co-existence of 10G direct detection transmission and 40G coherent transmission. There is no doubt that coherent solutions in the upgrade market will be deployed on

dispersion mapped fibers in the wet plant. This raises issues of channel cross talk, polarization dependent loss, polarization mode distortion, optimization for reach, and other transmission effects in the fiber plant. Understanding the transmission characteristics of the wet plant is important, for example, in choosing the location of the channels within the band to ensure optimal capacity.

Some parameters may be understood through trials, but a system engineering approach, taking into account the existing wet plant, proposing a roadmap that optimizes this capital investment and ensures performance over time, is of benefit to the operators. As an example, a migration plan to higher capacity over ultra-long-haul distances, a market which dry-plant vendors have found most challenging, is a task that submarine

equipment vendors view as a routine planning activity, as evidenced by their published results.

Total Cost of Ownership Considerations

When viewed as the total cost of ownership, it behooves operators to consider factors such as warranty, network management, and LMS management in the context of the current trend for price oriented procurement. Total cost of ownership considerations should supplement equipment cost considerations, and the traditional submarine system providers have offered such benefits for many years by optimizing the wet plant and SLTE as a comprehensive system. In those cases where the network is expanded over time to include multiple generations of product from multiple vendors, the cost of ownership increases and thus achieving maximum capacity and performance of the network becomes a challenge for the operators. This situation is a fallout of the accelerated technology curve from dry-only vendors.

Another consideration for total cost of ownership is the vendor’s financial health in the competitive, profit-challenged WDM transmission sector. Such vendor risk maps into assessable, probabilistic, TCO cost elements to the operator as they are shifted from the submarine system provider to the network operator. This assessment further impacts repair, replacement and other operations costs.

22

N o n e of the above, of

course, precludes the need for submarine equipment

suppliers to be cost competitive with a TCO approach. These

suppliers understand the commercial price points needed to be competitive and also have the right technology roadmap to maximize profitability within the unique system design challenges of the submarine systems. Specific cases in legacy systems can be planned on a case-by-case basis, and these vendors will continue to deliver technology surpassing the terrestrial equipment of dry-only vendors’ solutions in terms of reach (footnote), capacity, spectral efficiency and total cost of ownership.

The conclusion we draw from this is that, while increased competition for equipment supply has had a positive effect

for n e t w o r k owners over the short term, the industry’s upgrade “story” will draw to a close by coming full circle. Having eliminated price as a differentiator, subsea system suppliers will ultimately find themselves in the strongest possible position by minimizing the total cost of ownership for the network operator over the long term.

Reference: “Coherent 40 Gb/s Transmission with High Spectral Efficiency Over Transpacific Distance”, D. Foursa et al, OFC 2011 conference.

SubCom authors:

Mark Wickham, Managing Director, Global Solutions and Sales for the Americas Region

David Robles, Sales Director, Americas Region

Edwin Muth, Director, Product Line Management

24Andy Cole

Testing Submarine Cables 2,000Km From landfall:Why A New Generation Of Faster Testers Is Necessary

25

The most advanced optical fibre cabling linking the continents of the world today carries data at

unimaginably fast 40Gb/s and even 100Gb/s rates. This vast throughput is a response to consumers’ and businesses’ growing demand for super-fast broadband internet access for video-on-demand and other bandwidth-intensive computing activities. It is an outdated term, but the fibre-optic ‘information superhighways’ lying on the seabed underneath the Atlantic and other great oceans are critical to the operation of the internet.

The first Atlantic telegraph cable might have been laid between Ireland and the US as long ago as the 1850s, but installing and repairing submarine cable has barely become easier in the ensuing years. The marine environment is harsh, and requires specialised equipment and people for submarine cable repair or installation. The operating cost of an ocean-going vessel

suitable for cabling work is many tens of thousands of pounds per day.

The network owner has to bear this cost when undersea cables are broken or faulty and need repairing. On top of this, every minute of downtime represents a large amount of foregone revenue. The quicker the fault is located, the quicker it can be repaired and chargeable service restored.

Today, the test instrument of choice for testing and fault-finding the physical layer in submarine optical fibre is the coherent optical time-domain reflectometer (C-OTDR). C-OTDRs have proved useful because they allow the tester to characterise cables and locate faults at extremely long distances from the test location with extremely high precision. The approximately 5,000km span between the UK and the east coast of the US is easily within the range of a C-OTDR. Currently the longest cable is 9,120km between

Sydney (Australia) and Keawaula (Hawaii).

The problem for network engineers responsible for maintaining or repairing optical fibre is that most C-OTDRs in use today typically take six or more hours to run tests that provide adequate fault-location information. This represents a vast cost in terms of vessel-hire and lost revenue. The problem is exacerbated because older C-OTDRs are configured in two large and very heavy equipment mainframes, which are difficult to move from one location to another.

Nevertheless, there is no practicable alternative to using C-OTDRs for testing submarine cables. An illustration of the operation of OTDRs shows why.

What is an OTDR?Traditionally, a plain OTDR is used to verify the installation of optical fibre or to locate faults in an optical fibre cable.

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OTDRs use the precisely characterised nature of the glass in optical fibre to derive their measurements. The glass used in the manufacture of optical fibre is very pure, but still contains tiny amounts of impurities called dopants. The OTDR sends a pulse of light through the fibre to be tested. Most of the light injected into the cable travels through the fibre unimpeded, but when light hits a particle, a small amount is scattered (a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering) in all directions. A fraction of this scattered light heads back towards the instrument sensor (backscatter) and can be measured by the OTDR.

High-quality manufacturing processes ensure the fibre has consistent characteristics. The effect of backscatter can therefore be precisely measured and a backscatter co-efficient provided by the fibre manufacturer for each length of fibre it produces. The Backscatter Co-efficient can then be used by the OTDR to calculate the loss along the length of fibre.

By measuring the time it takes for the backscattered light to be received after the pulse of light was sent, and applying the Index of Refraction (IOR) supplied by the fibre manufacturer, an OTDR can calculate the distance from the instrument to the effective end of the cable – which might be the true end, or a break or other catastrophic fault at some point along the length of the

cable (see Figure 1). The measurement of backscatter also enables the instrument to detect and locate ‘reflective’ phenomena, such as connectors and fibre ends, and ‘non-reflective’ phenomena, such as splice joints and splitters.

Fig. 1: trace from a standard OTDR, showing here the precise distance to a reflective event

Ordinary OTDRs unsuited to submarine cable testingMany fibre installations employ amplifiers to boost the level of the signal to achieve satisfactory transmission over very long distances. While the pulse of light successfully travels through an amplifier, a traditional amplifier is unable to return the backscattered light towards the source. Therefore a traditional OTDR cannot be used to measure optical fibres across amplifiers. For terrestrial installations this is not a major problem, because the engineer can drive to the next amplifier and test on from there. However, submarine cables lie

on the seabed. The cable can be accessed at each amplifier location, but this entails the use of sea-going vessels, equipment and staff. Adopting this approach is therefore extremely expensive.

To overcome this problem, the amplifiers used for submarine applications provide a feedback, which allows returning light to travel back towards the instrument on a separate fibre (see Figure 2). This returning light is also amplified as it travels back to the instrument.

Fig. 2: submarine fibre-optic cable is installed in two-way pairs. Feedbacks provide a route for backscattered light to return without being impeded by amplifiers.

Traditional OTDRs test a single fibre at a time, with a single port on the instrument both to send the light pulse and receive the backscattered light. Because backscattered light in a submarine system is returned on a second fibre, it is not possible to make the measurement with a standard OTDR. A C-OTDR has the dual-port architecture

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required to support submarine cable testing, and the internal electronics to synchronise the two ports and match incoming backscatter with its corresponding outbound light pulse. Closely coupled synchronisation is required for a coherent receiver to work, and this coherent detection method is what makes it possible to measure submarine networks.

So, while standard OTDRs commonly available today can provide far faster test results than the older C-OTDRs, they cannot replace them in submarine applications.

Now, however, a new generation of C-OTDR is emerging that combines the fast measuring speed of standard OTDRs with the sophisticated dual-port capability of C-OTDRs. Typified by the MW90010A instrument from Anritsu (see Figure 3), these instruments implement technology that derives precise fault-location information at very long distances far more quickly than previous generations

of equipment could do, and in a much smaller, single-chassis instrument.

The time saving is in part the result of the huge improvements in performance available from microprocessors today compared to their equivalents five or ten years ago. Today’s processors used in the latest C-OTDRs can handle more data points and carry out operations on the data far faster than the devices in previous generations of instrument. Older C-OTDRs typically measure a few thousand data points along the length of a cable under test. The MW90010A, by contrast, tests at a maximum 1.2 million data points. Over the maximum 12,000km cable length that it can test, these 1.2 million data points provide resolution of 10m intervals along the cable.

In older instruments scanning far fewer data points, resolution is much less fine – in some cases it rises to 10km. In fault-location mode, such imprecision is costly, because it requires submarine cable technicians

to search the sea floor for the fault over a wide area before even beginning to repair it. By contrast, with resolution of 10m the repair vessel can be navigated directly to the fault location and repair work can start on the fault immediately.

At the same time, for shorter cable lengths the MW90010A scales down the number of data

points in order to maintain measurement resolution of 10m. For a 6,000km cable, for instance, the instrument measures just 600,000 data points. By halving the number of data points, measurement processing time is shortened.

This scaling of the data input to the instrument is another of the ways in which the MW90010A accelerates test time. Using a new-generation C-OTDR such as the MW90010A, test results can typically be produced in less than 15 minutes.

ConclusionEngineers in the electronics industry are familiar with the story of ever-increasing performance. In the case of C-OTDRs, the improvement is dramatic, and promises to slash the cost of maintaining and repairing the superhighway that keeps us supplied with our everyday diet of downloaded movies and VoIP conversations.

Andrew Cole has over 30 years experience in the communications industry. After completing an apprenticeship with BT, Andrew worked as an engineer

for many years specialising in test and measurement, before moving to Business Analysis then Sales & Marketing Management. Andrew joined Anritsu in 2007 and has a dual role as UK Business Development Manager and Applications Engineer, specialising in the company’s IP / Datacom and Optics products.

Fig. 3: the M W 9 0 0 1 0 A C-OTDR from Anritsu

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SubOptic 2013 – April in Paris

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The dates and location for SubOptic 2013, have now been fixed. It will be held in Paris from April 22-25th 2013

at the Marriot Rive Gauche Hotel, hosted by Alcatel-Lucent. This will be the fourth time that the event has been held in France and the third time in Paris, but it is hard to resist the charms of the beautiful city of Paris during the spring.

Apart from its charm, Paris has been chosen because it is a good transport hub for visitors from all areas of the world, and the European Union has good visa-friendly arrangements with most countries, which should make delegates’ travel to France easy.

Paris also provides a marvellous centre for a wide range of activities for accompanying persons, from visits to superb museums and historic buildings such as Versailles and Fontainebleau to shopping on the Champs Elysees and cruises and walks along the river Seine. For the more adventurous, the Normandy coast and Champagne regions are less than a three hours’ drive away

The Marriot Rive Gauche Hotel is easily accessible by public transport (RER (Paris Regional Rail Network) from the two main Paris airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, and also from the Gare du Nord, one of the main railway stations. It is also only a few stops on the metro to the Eiffel Tower and the city centre.

SubOptic 2013 will be the eighth event in the series and is the only conference organised by the industry for the industry on a non-profit making basis. It is the largest event of its kind and regularly attracts over 600 attendees from more than 200 companies.

After the success of last year’s event held in Yokohama, Japan, the organisers have listened to the feedback from the attendees and once again the conference will be held in an integrated facility, combining conference and exhibition facilities together with accommodation.

In many ways it will be organised in a similar way to the event held in Baltimore in 2007, which was also held in a Marriot Hotel.

With just under two years to run, the SubOptic Executive Committee, together with the Host, are already deeply involved in the planning for the event.

As always with SubOptic conferences, we pride ourselves on making the Programme the centre piece of the event. We believe this is an important differentiator between our conference and the commercial events in our field, and in this respect SubOptic 2013 will be no different.

To help make our programme of even greater value to the industry and to potential attendees, we are changing the way our Programme Committee operates. For the Chairperson, we will select an

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individual who does not come from the vendor side of the industry and will have great flexibility in choosing the structure, topics to be presented and the way in which some speakers and papers are chosen. The individual will have the support of a number of individuals from within our industry to make sure the breadth and depth of our programme is representative of all segments of our community.

The Programme Committee will also be supported by a Papers Committee, who will go through the traditional “Call for Papers” and peer review selection process

for topic areas selected by the Programme Committee, to ensure that our professional credibility is still maintained

We expect the full composition of these two committees to be known during the autumn of this year and this will form the basis for a separate article in SubTel Forum.

So what apart from the programme element are we working upon!

The Host is now working to select event management expertise to work with them and the hotel management to ensure that

all the facilities we require are provided to the standard expected for a SubOptic event.

This will include the Exhibition Hall that will be able to contain 60+ exhibition booths, the presentation rooms for the Plenary and Tutorial/Oral Presentation sessions and Hospitality rooms, based upon Hotel Suites. As in the past two events we will also be organising a separate Poster Session, which will be arranged to take place in the late afternoon, accompanied by a drinks reception.

The Host has also negotiated a very good hotel rate for the event of just over 200Euro per night including breakfast, internet access and taxes, and this rate will be available up to three days before and three days after the event, subject to room availability, for those attendees wishing to have an extended stay in Paris.

As always, the SubOptic website www.suboptic.org will form the main portal for accessing information about our event. Our current site will be rebranded during the next month or so and will then provide facilities to reserve exhibition booths, sponsorship packages, hospitality rooms, input abstracts and papers in response to our formal “Call for Papers,” online registration and much more.

The timescale to access these facilities has still to be finalised, but our provisional timeline is as follows:

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• Exhibition booths, hospitality rooms and sponsorship packages to be available at the end of 2011.

• A “Call for Papers” to be issued in the late Spring of 2012 with abstracts being requested in the early Autumn of 2012 and

• Registration facilities being available from early winter 2012.

To be sure you receive all the latest information, why not go to our website and register for our E-Alerts.

A Vision for our future

On a similar timeframe to the planning for SubOptic 2013, the SubOptic Executive Committee are also considering how our organisation should be structured to provide a more valuable and continuing service to the industry. As an organisation set up for the industry by the industry, we recognise that we will only continue to survive if the industry finds our activities of value.

Traditionally, this value has been provided by presenting a conference every 3-4years where all elements of the industry can meet, exchange ideas, network and hear about the latest products or services that organisations have to offer.

As the industry has changed, we have tried to change the structure and the content

of the programme of each conference to be representative of these changes and to make the event attractive to new entrants to the industry. However, at the end of each conference cycle the team that organised that successful conference is disbanded, a new Host is appointed and a new team set up, with minimum continuity from the previous event.

This consumes new resources, mainly provided by the Host for each event and given the increasing commercial pressures being placed upon companies, provides an ever greater challenge for each event.

We no longer feel that this is a viable model for SubOptic, if we wish to provide high-quality conferences after the SubOptic 2013 event.

A working team from the SubOptic Executive Committee has therefore been formed to look at the way in which we should organise our body to deliver future events.

As part of that review the working group will also examine what additional services SubOptic should consider providing that may be of value to our industry.

This will be in addition to those we have recently provided between events: such as the publication of a Model Contract with Guidelines for the provision of a submarine cable system project and the current work on developing an online educational resource, to supplement the archive of past conference papers/presentations we maintain.

This working group will be continuing its activities during 2011/12, with the expectation that the finally agreed outcome will be presented at SubOptic 2013, as part of the debate about our future.

We will of course keep you updated as this review continues.

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Back Reflection by Stewart Ash

Optical Transmission, a French Invention?

As this month’s edition coincides with Bastille Day, it seems appropriate to tell a story of a

French pioneer of telecommunications whose career was stimulated by the famous event. Here is a brief summary of the inventive, determined, but ultimately tragic life of Claude Chappe.

On 12th July 1793, the official field test of, arguably, the first optical telecommunications system was conducted via Ecouen between Belleville and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, which are to the northeast of Paris, a total distance of some 26km. The following message (translated) was transmitted successfully in just 11 minutes.

“Daunou has arrived here. He announces that the National Convention has just authorized his Committee of General Security to put seals on the papers of the deputies.”

The system of transmission was devised by Claude Chappe and his brothers and was called by them a “tachygraphy” or rapid writer, but later became known as the “Optical Telegraph”.

Claude Chappe was born on Christmas Day 1763 in the town of Brûlon, 200km to the southwest of Paris. He was the grandson of a Baron and, therefore of the nobility, but as a second son of ten children he was raised for the priesthood and studied to become an Abbé Commendataire.

On 14th July 1789, the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille in Paris, and the French society changed forever. In the following months, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were evicted from the Palace in Versailles and moved to Paris, and the traditional privileges held by the nobility and the religious orders were abolished by a new Legislative Assembly. A side effect of this was that Claude Chappe lost his religious sinecure on 2nd November 1789 and had to return

to Brûlon, unemployed. In the turmoil of the revolution, Claude’s brothers had also lost their jobs and returned home to Brûlon. Together they decided work on developing a telegraph system.

The Chappe brothers spent the winter of 1790-91 experimenting on different methods of telegraphy, and by March of 1791 they had come up with a method they called the “Pendulum System,” but has also been called the Synchronised System.” They conducted tests between Brûlon and Parcé, a distance of some 16km. Unfortunately, very little information has survived about these experiments or the design of Synchronised System. The method of synchronising the system is unknown, but it is believed that electricity was considered and abandoned due to the lack of a suitable insulator. The tests were relatively successful and it encouraged Chappe to approach the Legislative Assembly to conduct further experiments in Paris. He did obtain permission from a commune near the Etoile to erect a

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telegraph, but this never came to fruition because, according to his brother, the materials were stolen.

Not in the least discouraged, Chappe submitted another application, to the Legislative Assembly and the decision was delegated to a committee. Six months passed and Chappe, having abandoned the Pendulum System was able to work on an alternative method. This design was called the “Panel Telegraph” and comprised a rectangular wooden frame with five sliding panels (persiennes) that could be displayed or obscured individually with pulleys. The five panels provided a five-bit binary code, with 25 = 32 possible combinations. This was more than three times as many codes as used in the pendulum design.

well. The experiment could not be continued...”

Shortly after the destruction of the Panel Telegraphs, Chappe wrote yet another letter to the Legislative Assembly, describing his difficulties, but also announcing that he could be ready to perform a demonstration within two weeks. However, his timing was poor because the Legislative Assembly was disbanded the same month, and replaced with a National Convention. The National Convention temporarily had more important things on its agenda than a new proposal for a telegraph. On 10 thAugust 1792, a mob stormed the royal palace at the Tuileries, and the imprisoned King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were then moved to the infamous “Temple.” In its first session, on 21 September 1792, the National Convention approved this move and voted unanimously to abolish the monarchy and to establish a French Republic.

Undeterred, Claude Chappe resubmitted his proposal to the National Convention on 9th October, which decided to delegate it to a fresh committee. Then, on 15th October 1792, Chappe sent another letter to the convention, asking for official authorization to rebuild his telegraph, that request was also delegated to a committee.

The story took another turn as the infamous “Reign of Terror” began. On 21st January 1793, King Louis XVI was beheaded, and in April of that year the Committee of Public Safety started its persecution of all those suspected of opposing the revolution. On 33

To avoid further mishaps, Chappe moved from the Etoile to the quieter park of Ménilmontant in Belleville. However, this was to no avail, before tests could be performed, in the summer of 1791, the telegraphs were destroyed by an angry mob. The system was suspected of being a subversive instrument, meant to send signals to the enemy, which at this time included royalists, Austrians, Prussians, and Englishmen. Ignace Chappe, Claude’s elder brother, described the events as follows:

“This new experiment carried some risks for those involved: a crowd had formed in the Parc Saint-Fargeau; the telegraph was set on fire, and when the workers returned to the park to continue their work, the crowd had to be prevented from throwing them into the fire as

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1st February war was declared on Britain and the Netherlands, and on 7th March war was also declared on Spain. Given the prevailing circumstances it is miraculous that the telegraph study was not discarded as an utterly irrelevance.

Around the same time, Chappe came to the conclusion that the Panel Telegraph was not the correct approach and began work on the Semaphore or “Optical Telegraph.” He had finally gained some support in the legislative bodies and gained approval to build his telegraph. However, the danger of having the telegraphs demolished by mobs still existed. A report was filed on Chappe’s behalf, requesting officially that the mayors of the three communities where the telegraphs were being erected should be ordered to take measures for the protection of the telegraphs. This recommendation was accepted. The Optical Telegraph system was based on a form of semaphore transmitted between line of sight relay stations, spaced 12 to 25km apart. At each station the signalling mechanism comprised a cross-beam with an arm at each end. Each counter balanced arm could be configured in one of seven different positioned and the cross-beam could be configured in four positions, permitting 196 different codes to be transmitted. Each relay station had two telescopes to look up and down the relay line. Lamps mounted on the arms and cross-beam allowed the system to used effectively at night.

With the success of the field test, things moved quickly. On 26th July 1793, the decision was made to establish a French state telegraph. On 4th August 1793 the National Convention appropriated 58,400 francs for the construction of a first line of fifteen stations from Paris to Lille, about

190 km north of Paris. On 24th September 1793, the Convention gave blanket permission to the Chappe brothers to place telegraphs in any belfries, towers, or emplacements of their choosing. They also had permission to remove any trees that interfered with the line of vision between the stations. Permission was also granted for Chappe to hire personnel, and to draft the first rules and regulations for the French telegraph.

By 1804, Chappe was arguably at the peak of success. Construction on a line to Milan was begun at the explicit request of Napoleon Bonaparte. However, Claude Chappe became increasingly despondent. He was especially upset when people attacked his designs, claiming credit for having invented the telegraph earlier. These critics included Bréguet, who had helped with the mechanics of the first stations in 1794, and Bétancourt, who together with Bréguet had made an unsuccessful attempt in 1797 to have Chappe’s design replaced with their own. A third critic was Captain De Courrejolles, who had also been unsuccessful in promoting his own design for an optical telegraph in 1783.

Towards the end of 1804, Claude Chappe fell ill during a routine inspection tour of some of the new lines that were under construction. When Chappe returned to Paris after a sickness of several months, he sank into a depression from which he never recover. On Wednesday 23rd January 1805, he committed suicide by jumping into a well outside the Telegraph Administration at l’Hôtel Villeroy in Paris. According to some newspapers reports of the time, a short note was found in his hand writing:

“Je me donne la mort pour éviter l’ennui de la vie qui m’accable; je n’ai point dereproches à me faire.”

35yiannis Koulias

Cyta Strengthens its Telecommunications Hubin the Eastern Mediterranean

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Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority) is the primary telecommunications provider in

the Republic of Cyprus. The company is a customer-driven enterprise operating in a competitive market and provides the full spectrum of advanced telecommunications products and services. Cyta is a major provider of fixed and mobile communications and the major Internet Service Provider in Cyprus. It also offers broadband access via ADSL and was among the first providers to bundle this technology with IPTV. The company has solid finances with long term profitability and expanding turnover.

Cytaglobal, the International Wholesale Division of Cyta, is a semi-autonomous strategic business unit, specialising in providing global electronic communication products and services. Cyta, through Cytaglobal, is active in the international market and provides products and services to telecommunications operators and business customers around the world. Cyta operates a state-of-the-art telecommunications network and has an impressive submarine cable and satellite teleport infrastructure. The company couples a strategically situated telecommunications gateway in Cyprus with POPs in major telecommunications centers in Europe.

Taking advantage of the island’s privileged geographical location at the crossroads of three continents the company’s extensive submarine fibre optic cable network connects Cyprus with neighbouring countries and thereafter with the rest of the world. Cyta participates in various regional and global cable systems such as the SEA-ME-WE 3, which links Western Europe and South Eastern Asia, via the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and the MED NAUTILUS System which

connects the Mediterranean with WesternEurope and beyond. Cyta’s international telecommunications hub is further enhanced through the MINERVA cable subsystem, the first submersible ring connecting Cyprus and Europe directly.

In December 2010, Cyta and MedNautilus, announced a new sub-network system connecting Israel to France. MedNautilus is the Mediterranean operations of the Telecom Italia Sparkle Group and is the

37

only telecommunication submarine cable ring in the Mediterranean since 2001. TheMedNautilus network provides end-to-end connectivity from the eastern part of the Mediterranean to major destinations in Europe.

The TELMAR subsystem leverages the recently upgraded LEV cable, connecting Israel to Cyprus, provides new multiple wavelength links between Israel and

France and represents a new connectivity option created to serve the growing need for diversification of the Israeli market. Cyta and MedNautilus intend to use existing Cyta’s MINERVA cable subsystem and MedNautilus cable facilities in addition to TI Sparkle’s Pan European Backbone to offer protection to TELMAR. To this perspective, the parties will upgrade the MINERVA subsystem with more 10Gbps wavelengths which will also be employed

to increase Cyta’s current IP connectivity to TI Sparkle’s IP Backbone Seabone in Catania. Cyta and MedNautilus also intend to lit-up a new fiber of the MedNautilus system connecting Haifa to Pentaskhinos, in order to create the first fiber ring network between Israel and Cyprus.

Earlier in 2010, Cyta finalised an agreement with the Syrian Telecommunications Operator, STE and the Lebanese Telecommunications Operator, OGERO, for the upgrade of the existing submarine cable systems UGARIT, BERYTAR and CADMOS, forming a high-capacity resilient ring connecting Cyprus with its two neighbouring countries.

In June 2009, Cyta and Telecom Egypt announced their agreement to cooperate through extension of Telecom Egypt’s TEN submarine cable system to Cyprus, thereby creating reciprocal Eurasia and Eastern Mediterranean business opportunities. As part of this strategic cooperation, Cyta acquired ALEXANDROS subsystem consisting of a fiber-pair connecting Cyprus to Egypt and a fiber-pair connecting Cyprus to France. ALEXANDROS subsystem complements existing Cyta’s international facilities, enhancing the robustness of international access through physical diversity and significant increase in bandwidth.

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Cyta also operates an extensive satellite network consisting of two separate teleport sites with a complement of more than 25 satellite earth stations, providing connectivity with Intelsat, Eutelsat, SES World Skies, AsiaSat, ABS, Arabsat and other major satellite systems. The companyshares multiyear experience in satellite communications as it has been running satellite services since 1980. Services offered via Cyta’s satellite teleports include a broad collection of products ranging from satellite television on permanent and occasional basis, to international telephony, monitoring services, data and internet connectivity. The teleports also offer VSAT services, hosting services to third parties and serve as a video head-end for Cyta’s IPTV offering in the Cyprus market.

After Cyprus accession in the European Union, Cyprus has now become Europe’s furthermost border in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cyta aims to become the Telecommunications Bridge between East and West and an excellent centre of telecommunications services in the broader Easter Mediterranean region.

Yiannis Koulias is Director of National and International Wholesale Market Division at Cyta, based in Cyprus.

The Division incorporates Cytaglobal, a semi-autonomous strategic business unit specialising in international communications, with special emphasis on submarine cable systems. He is also the Managing Director of Cyta wholly-owned subsidiary Cyta UK Ltd based in the UK, and the Vice-Chairman of Cyta wholly-owned subsidiary Cytaglobal

Hellas AE, based in Greece. Yiannis Koulias holds a BSc Honours Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology and an MSc Degree in Microwaves & Modern Optics from University College London. He is a Chartered Engineer and Member of various professional institutions.

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Submarine Networks World 201127-29 September 2011SingaporeWebsite

Offshore Communication Conference8-10 November 2011Houston, Texas USAWebsite

Pacific Telecommunications Council15-18 January 2012Honolulu, HawaiiWebsite

Conferences

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A F

unny

Thi

ng H

app

ened

...

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My Fiend,

We in France are currently celebrating the 800 year anniversary of the Reims cathedral! It is an impressive monument--a true masterpiece. The main construction took place between 1211 and 1291, roughly 80 years, under the leadership of three consecutive architects. It is easy to imagine that the number of people who worked on this program is huge. Many spent their full lives working hard, knowing that they will never see the final result of their labors. The stonemasons,

carpenters, blacksmiths, roofers, glaziers and many other specialists contributed to the construction, each one performing his limited work without the knowledge of the overall design. In other words, they probably had a somewhat limited perception of the full picture, and neither did they know that the building would have such a long life

But they knew perfectly that they were building something for the glory of God, something very important that would attract the God's blessing. They were

proud to bring their capabilities for the good of the collective.

I was chatting the other day with a project engineer who was working on a small, regional submarine cable project. He was basically in charge of the project detail planning and associated logistics. I quickly realized that he didn’t have what one might call a "submarine cable culture." He had no idea about the history of the domain, no real sense of the technology involved, he was unable to give the names of the main players, and he was unaware of the current large projects in the industry.

I could not believe it!

I was not at all surprised to hear that he didn't find his job particulary attractive, and that he was already looking at other opportunities.

My Friend, how is it possible that this person has not been made aware that he was contributing, modestly but surely, to the construction of a Cathedral?

letter to a Friend

jean Devos

43

Huawei Marine Networks www.huaweimarine.com 10

Nexans www.nexans.com 23

OFS www.ofsoptics.com 4

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44What do you think? Click on the Letter To The Editor icon and drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.

Ok, I'll admit it. I love country music. Not the watered-down, pop/country thing they play these

days, but the outlaw country from the 70s and 80s, and the Grand Ole Opry music from the 50s and 60s. Porter Wagner, Tom T. Hall, Kris Kristofferson, and the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.

I grew up listening to whatever my parents listened to, and for the most part that meant the folk music of the

late 60s and country & western in the 70s. Those were the kind of songs that told a story, usually one that involved Mama, a train, a truck or prison (or perhaps all of the above--see David Allen Coe). Surely those early influeces played a large part in my present choice in music.

I have 4 gb of legal music from Johnny Cash alone on my iPod, much to the chagrin

of my co-workers (sorry Meredith). My iPhone plays Ring of Fire whenever my wife calls, and my kids know all the words to The Ballad of Paladin. In our house, we're country even if country isn't cool.

So, what does this have to do with submarine cables? About as much as the Tour de France, right?

I recently subscribed to Pandora, the streaming radio service where you enter the name of an artist you like and the program plays music from similar artists. I was skeptical at first, but to my amazement, Pandora has a pretty good line on my taste in music. Pandora, of course, wouldn't be possible without the fiber optic backbone of the internet.

When I was a kid, there wasn't really a means of testing out a new (or old) artist without simply going to the store (remember record stores?) and buying their CD. If they were current, and mainstream, you could hear them on the radio, but that was it. Now, thanks to internet, I can hear

anything from anyone, and it's up to me to decide what I like, not some disc jockey or record company.

That's all for now. Marty Robbins is playing on Pandora, and I have to go.

by Kevin G. Summers

Congratulationsto john Gaskell who won an iPod Touch

after completing our industry survey