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Re: Undersea fiber cut after Taiwan earthquake - PCCW / Singtel / KTe tc connectivity disrupted

  • From: W.D.McKinney
  • Date: Fri Dec 29 01:47:03 2006

I was formerly employed by WCI Cable in Forest Grove, OR. which had the landing station for cable to Alaska, Australia, Japan, etc. It was not Alaska Northstar then, but Alaska FiberStar.

-Dee

----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Heutte [mailto:[email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
Sent: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:28:36 -0900
Subject: Re: Undersea fiber cut after Taiwan earthquake - PCCW / Singtel / KT e tc connectivity disrupted


> 
> There are significant cable landing sites at Pacific City and at 
> Nedonna Beach near Rockaway, Oregon, not far from here in Portland.
> They connect variously to Japan, Hawaii (and Australia), Alaska
> and California.
> 
> Quite a bit about these cable terminuses can be found at the
> Oregon Fishermen's Cable Committee web site.
> 
> www.ofcc.com/cable_locations.htm
> 
> The OFCC worked closely from the mid-1990s onward with at least
> three cable operators, Tyco, Alaska Northstar and Southern Cross
> (which has the main US-Australia loops).  They have a special
> agreement that basically amounts to a collaborative approach to 
> actual or potential cable snags by trawlers.  
> 
> The background makes for interesting reading.  "The Oregon 
> Fishermen's Undersea Cable Committee Agreement (Oregon 
> Fishermen's Agreement) is the first effort by two industries to 
> discuss, describe and delineate their shared use of a community 
> resource -- the ocean . . . The Oregon Fishermen's Agreement is 
> intended to prevent damage to the fiber optic cable by releasing 
> a Participating Fisherman from possible civil liability for ordinary 
> negligence to WCICI/ANC/NorthStar Network under defined 
> circumstances rather than by relying on fear and litigation."
> 
> www.ofcc.com/about_ofcc.htm
> 
> There's also an International Cable Protection Committee with what
> looks like a pretty complete listing of all active, retired and planned
> cable routes at:
> 
> www.iscpc.org
> 
> -- fh 
>   
> -----------------
> >
> >Frank Coluccio wrote:
> >> 
> >> Kidding aside, these "errors" are actually intentional, and the publisher makes
> >> no bones about it at the bottom of the page. See disclaimer under the South
> >> Atlantic Ocean:
> >> 
> >> "Cable Routes do not represent all subsea cable networks and do not reflect
> >> actual location of cables"
> >
> >The relevant charts and or current navigation software have the cables
> >well marked because mariners have an obligation under several
> >international treaties (going back to 1884) not to hit them... If you
> >have the tools to go on a "fishing trip" you have the tools to find the
> >cable.  If you obfuscate the location of cables I can plead ignorance
> >when I drag it up with my achor.
> >
> >http://mapserver.maptech.com/mapserver/nautical_symbols/L4.html
> >
> >Like with back-hoeing through fiber, if you think hitting a submarine
> >cable is bad there's plenty other stuff out there that has potentially
> >disastrous consequences, gas lines, oil lines, well heads, high voltage
> >power lines, and of course lots of other things that fall into the
> >category of navigational hazards.
> >
> >joelja
> >-- 
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Joel Jaeggli             Unix Consulting              [email protected]
> >GPG Key Fingerprint:   5C6E 0104 BAF0 40B0 5BD3 C38B F000 35AB B67F 56B2
> >
> 
>