Originally founded in 1955, SubCom has been part of the subsea cable industry since inception. The business was originally part of Bell Labs who invented the fundamental science that allows a light signal to transverse waves across oceans to become a recognisable data point on the other side. To date, SubCom has installed approximately a million kilometres of subsea cable around the world.
The business builds subsea digital infrastructure that empowers much of our daily life.
From videos on YouTube, through to telemedicine, and anything you might happen to download from the cloud, all are empowered by subsea cables.
In 2022, SubCom was awarded the contract to build the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable project. The system will connect the Middle East, Europe and South East Asia via a 21,700 km subsea cable.
The system consortium is made up of a number of members who include BSCCL, Bharti Airtel Limited, CU, Dhiraagu, Djibouti Telecom, Mobily, Network i2i Limited, Orange, Singtel, Sri Lanka Telecom, TM, PCCW Global, Trans World Associates (TWA), Telin, Telecom Egypt, and Bahrain Telecommunications Company B. S. C. (BATELCO).
SubCom CEO David Coughlan has been part of the company since 2002. He talks exclusively to Capacity about the progress of the Al Khaleej branch of the project, announced by Batelco in September 2023.
He comments, “we're manufacturing the cable as we speak. We are currently in the marine installation phase. This is a major project for the Kingdom of Bahrain and it's really going to provide them with access to the to the world's super-highway.
“Throughout history, the Middle East has served as a gateway of a kind between Europe and Asia. The region is generating its own demand at a record pace.
“I think the region is well positioned in terms of the geography, the educated workforce and the increase in the number of businesses that have digital demands, so it is effectively creating its own demand in itself. I think it will continue to be a crossroads like it was back in the trade days, but a crossroads for the digital world.”
It was reported in December 2023 that Houthis, a rebel movement based in Yemen, claimed responsibility for attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.
SEA-ME-WE 6 will involve working in the Red Sea, however Coughlan highlights that SubCom is actively working in other locations and are not yet scheduled to begin work in the Red Sea at this stage of the project.
According to Coughlan, “the project is full steam ahead. It’s certainly challenging in the Red Sea right now. But there’s plenty of other work to be done in the Mediterranean, in the Indian Ocean and in Asia. So, we are able to make progress on the project while the situation in the Red Sea hopefully calms down.
“The challenges there are really around safety of transit, of security to the crew and to the assets on board. We want to make sure that when we put the people and assets there, they're going to be safe.
“The good news is that the countries where the system is due to land - those governments want it to land. In order to do the work, we’ll need permits from those governments and they will only be granted when it’s completely safe to do so. So, in the meantime, we are focused on closing off other work that can be done, and then we'll come back collectively, with our customers, at a time when it's safe for personnel to operate and permits are available.”
Reflecting on his career Coughlan says, “I’ve experienced global tensions rising multiple times. Often when there are issues between two different countries and they don't want each other to land, you end up saying, Okay, well, how do I solve that problem a different way? And the end result is you end up with a with a different route. Those different routes provide opportunity for extra cable protection because you have diversity, they provide new landing points with new data centres, which provide great, highly technical jobs.”
Coughlan believes that the benefits of the project are ultimately what will ensure its successful completion.
“Consequently, what we're seeing in Asia and in the Middle East are countries that are recognising that landing these cables improves their GDP. Along with more employment you provide access to all the benefits that you can get from having capacity, whether it be telemedicine or telelearning. So, while tensions can create complexity, they can create delays, but overall, I think the world is moving inexorably towards being more connected.”
Note: This interview was conducted prior to the red sea cable cuts in March 2024.
