Focus on Issues:

The Impact of Reliable Communications Technology

[Editor’s Note: Of special interest to many PTC members is the arena of submarine cable telecommunications.   The SubOptic 2007 conference, 14-17 May, InnerHarbor-Baltimore, Maryland, USA, will be attended by a number of PTC members.   PTC was pleased to have a SubOptic program organizer, Tyco Telecommunications, as a Platinum Sponsor and SubOptic as a Bronze Sponsor at PTC’07.]

Business leaders around the globe recognize the need for stable, reliable communications systems – systems that will not be damaged or destroyed during periods of severe, unpredictable weather or catastrophic incidents.

This is especially true for the offshore oil and gas industry, which sustained significant blows during the 2005 hurricane season in the southern United States. According to the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), the impact of the 2005 storms on the outer continental shelf was severe; destroying 113 offshore platforms, seriously damaging 52 more and shutting-in over 95% of offshore Gulf crude oil production, or roughly 27% of total U.S. crude oil production.

Another notable communications loss occurred in December 2006 when southern Taiwan was rocked by an earthquake. The event knocked out eight cables serving as the primary telecommunications conduits for Asia. Telephone and internet networks in Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan and India crashed.

In efforts to prepare for the unknown, communications providers are looking to identify a reliable communications technology that can protect their systems from the dooming cost of uncertainty.

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This will be a key area of discussion during SubOptic 2007, which will take place this year in Baltimore, Maryland at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel from May 14 -May 17, 2007. This is the undersea telecommunication industry’s premier summit for ideas and business networking.

One session is specifically designed to address the challenges the industry faced after the Taiwan earthquake. William Barney, CEO of AsiaNetcom and member of the PTC Board of Governors, will offer his observations on that event during a special presentation on May 16.

This will be one of many topical discussions, both formal and informal, at SubOptic 2007. The 4-day conference will include approximately 40 hours of presentations, debates and speeches, including three keynote speakers. On Tuesday, May 15 at 9 a.m., computer scientist Jaron Lanier will open the day’s program. U.S. Ambassador David Gross, an expert on communications policy, will speak at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and Forbes Magazine publisher and author Richard Karlgaard on Thursday.

The Program Committee, chaired by David Robles of Tyco Telecommunications, has designed the content of the program to reflect and address each segment of the SubOptic audience. The tutorial program, for example, features new faces and topics not explored at previous SubOptic conferences. The tutorials will include sessions on surveillance and security applications, a primer on the fundamentals of project finance.

In addition, a session on offshore platform applications will discuss the importance of their communication systems and determining which communications system to choose.  Communications providers must consider that proven and innovative high performance communications solutions like undersea cables can increase revenue, profitability and oilfield yield, lessen environmental impact, and improve worker safety.

The offshore platform applications discussion will touch on these key elements, as well as the cost of reliable communications, identifying reliable communications and the technology employed by these systems.

To find out more about these SubOptic 2007 programs and more, or to register for the conference, please log on to www.suboptic.org.