Offshore Communications

NSC Expands North Sea Network

North Sea Communications AS (NSC) is expanding its submarine fiber optic cable network serving oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.  The company, which is 100% owned by the TeliaSonera group, was established in 1998, with the single purpose to build and operate a fiber optical cable between Norway and the United Kingdom.

North Sea Communications AS (NSC) is expanding its submarine fiber optic cable network serving oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.  The company, which is 100% owned by the TeliaSonera group, was established in 1998, with the single purpose to build and operate a fiber optical cable between Norway and the United Kingdom.

A fault on a submarine fiber optic cable in Hawaii caused loss of Internet, phone and cable television services on some islands for up to 12 hours.  Although service has been restored using other cables, it could be five weeks until the cable is repaired and the cause of the fault is determined.

Taiwan’s international Internet bandwidth saw another huge jump in the second quarter of 2010, as demand for Internet services continues to reach new heights.

New Submarine Cable Systems

Pacnet Joins Pacific Fibre to Build Trans-Pacific Subsea Cable

Pacnet and Pacific Fibre Limited have announced plans to jointly build the Pacific Fibre cable, a city-to-city, low-latency subsea fiber optic cable that will boost connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Pacnet and Pacific Fibre Limited have announced plans to jointly build the Pacific Fibre cable, a city-to-city, low-latency subsea fiber optic cable that will boost connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

AT&T has announced the planned expansion of its network capacity for the Asia Pacific region through the upgrade of the APCN2, of which AT&T is part of the ownership group. The fourfold rise in capacity in the state-of-the-art dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) cable will increase the original design capacity from the existing 10Gb/s DWDM to 40Gb/s expansion. This represents one of the world’s large-scale upgrade of a major undersea cable network.

As part of our periodic look at the financial health of large international carriers, the following is a summary of recently reported financial results for the quarter ending June 30, 2010.  We look at the financial results of selected international carriers as these are the companies likely to invest in new submarine fiber optic cables or capacity on existing cables, such as the AT&T investment noted above.  In general, results reported to date are solid, if unspectacular, with strong growth in core areas.

Marine Services

Global Marine Systems Launches Predator Inspection Class ROV

Global Marine Systems is launching ‘Predator,’ a new Inspection class ROV, at HydroVision International (27th-30th July 2010), in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Global Marine Systems is launching ‘Predator,’ a new Inspection class ROV, at HydroVision International (27th-30th July 2010), in Charlotte, North Carolina.