Ocean Specialists Inc (OSI) looks back on a fruitful week at SubOptic 2019. After three years in the making, SubOptic 2019 lived up to and surpassed attendees’ expectations. With over 900 global telecom specialists on site, this year’s event was the largest in the conference’s records. 

Some of us will recall the last downturn in the submarine cable industry which occurred from roughly 2002 until 2007 or perhaps longer. During that time, system suppliers and many others sought out new markets and one of the most promising was cabled ocean observatories. These systems are used to provide scientific sensors with permanent communications and power, a huge advantage over battery powered sensor deployments that are left on the seabed for months or even years before any of the data can be accessed. Several dozen such systems have been installed around the world, the largest of which are NEPTUNE Canada, located in British Columbia, and the Regional Scale Node system installed in Washington and Oregon states. The Japanese DONET and S-Net systems are primarily for seismic and Tsunami warnings but can also be considered cabled observatories.

Ocean Specialists Inc. (OSI) and SubCableWorld (part of OSI’s sister company TSC), will be exhibiting at the 2019 SubOptic conference being held in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 8 – 11th. With a theme that will focus on “rethinking global networks,” SubOptic is expected to attract hundreds of telecommunication executives from all over the world. OSI and SubCableWorld’s attendance reinforces our commitment to the growing and rapidly evolving subsea network market.

The Continental Shelf Associates (CSA) family of companies takes pride in crafting creative venues and consumables for its annual employee party held in Stuart, Florida. Previous years have seen us eating crawdads or having a fish fry, usually outdoors at picnic tables under festive tents and surrounded by games for the kids and adults alike.

With the proliferation of new, high capacity cable systems and the excitement that surrounds bringing these cables into service, the question of what to do with older systems is not necessarily the most interesting topic. Nonetheless, the question of when to retire an older cable system is one that many of us in the industry will be called upon to address. A bit over a year ago, OSI was asked to evaluate an older cable and determine whether continued operation made sense. While the details of that analysis remain private, some of the key questions are relevant to any similar analysis.

It is with our warmest aloha that we say goodbye to PTC19. With over 7900 attendees from more than 75 nations, the conference proved to be, once more, a hub for telecommunication industry networking, not only in the Asia Pacific region but worldwide. In addition to the ever-growing presence of the the large content provider projects, independently-owned regional systems continue to be announced.  This year was also marked by significant acquisition activity in the system supplier sector, with major suppliers in play.