Now, these two cables (the submarine communication cable connecting Europe and the United States in 1858) have finally connected the ancient world of Europe and the new world of America into a common world Because of the victory over space and time, I hope that mankind will always be friendly and United... " The Austrian writer Stephen Zweig tells the story of "the first call across the ocean" in his book when the stars shine. Today, a century and a half later, submarine optical cable has become the global "submarine information lifeline" and the "central nerve" of the Internet. The pattern of the coexistence of the US, Japan and Europe in the submarine cable industry has also ushered in a new change. China's submarine cable construction enterprises have become "black horses", which not only have first-class technology, but also occupy more and more global market share. However, in recent years, the United States has repeatedly suppressed and excluded Chinese submarine cable companies under the pretext of "national security risks". In addition to the damage to enterprises, the process of building a safe and reliable submarine optical cable system in China is also facing severe challenges.
The "black horse" of global cable industry comes from China
In November 2019, Xu Jiantao, assistant vice president of Huawei Ocean Network Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huawei ocean") gave a group of data at the "2019 global optical fiber and cable conference" jointly sponsored by Asia Pacific optical fiber and Cable Industry Association (APC) and Hengtong group. In his speech, Xu Jiantao, assistant vice president of Huawei Ocean Network Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huawei ocean"), gave a set of data: submarine cable carries 98% of the international bandwidth, and since 1990, the global accumulated investment has exceeded 50 billion US dollars With a total length of more than 1.4 million kilometers, the submarine cable can circle the earth 35 times. Over the past five years, bandwidth usage has grown by 40% annually. These figures undoubtedly prove that the submarine cable market is enough to be called a "big cake". However, it is not easy to cut off the "cake" of submarine cable. The construction of submarine optical cable is not just "pulling a line", it includes laying, relaying, repairing and other links, involving submarine operation, maritime transportation, power, network and other fields, which requires close cooperation of multinational and multi departments, and is also recognized by the world It is recognized as one of the most complex and difficult large-scale projects.
Nowadays, there are only a few countries in the world that can carry out submarine cable construction. Gao Junshi, director of the cable Institute of China Mobile Design Institute, told the global times that the indicators to measure whether a country is a strong submarine cable power mainly depend on the degree of autonomy in R & D, production and application, and whether domestic enterprises enter the "first echelon" of submarine cable suppliers. It is understood that there are three "first echelons": Alcatel lucent, NEC and Subcom. In order to win more large orders of overseas submarine cable projects, Japan issued the "overseas expansion action plan" at the beginning of this year. Japan electric recently completed the construction of the transatlantic submarine optical cable between Angola and Brazil.
In contrast, a number of Chinese submarine cable companies have become the "black horse" of the global industry in recent years, and become the "thorn in the eye" of the United States. In more than 10 years, Huawei ocean and other enterprises have built China into one of the world's important international submarine cable communication centers. The Wall Street Journal of the United States reported in March 2019 that in order to control the global network providing Internet services, the United States and China have opened up a new battlefield at the bottom of the sea. Since at least 2012, the United States has sought to prevent Chinese companies from participating in its telecommunications infrastructure, including submarine cables. Huawei ocean, founded in 2008, has participated in nearly 100 submarine cable laying or upgrading projects, and is rapidly catching up with the top three of the United States, France and Japan, the report said. The company's global market share has risen from less than 5 per cent to 20 per cent. Two transatlantic cables have also been upgraded in recent years: one from South Africa to the United Kingdom and the other in the Bahamas and Azores.
In just five years, Hengtong group's related enterprises have supplied the Comoros, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Chile and other major international projects, and the cumulative amount of submarine optical cable delivery has exceeded 20000 km.
Gao Junshi believes that in terms of technical capability, Chinese enterprises have no problem, but the construction of large-scale submarine optical cable, including many aspects of contract management and risk aversion, should be the areas that Chinese enterprises need to improve urgently.
A domestic cable operator told the Global Times reporter that there are about 11 sets of submarine cable systems currently used and landed in Chinese mainland. According to the industry, Shandong Qingdao, Shanghai Chongming and Nanhui, Fujian Fuzhou and Xiamen and Guangdong Shantou have mainland China's cable landing station. The landing stations of Fuzhou and Xiamen are connected to Taiwan. From the perspective of international communication, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are still in the category of international communication. Shantou International submarine cable landing station is the largest submarine optical cable landing station in China, and also the most important landing station of international submarine optical cable communication backbone network, connecting more than 30 countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Macao, India, France, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
According to Zhang Chi, a doctor of communications and a member of the China Association of popular science writers, international submarine cable construction is mostly in the form of clubs or "submarine cable organizations". Many operators and construction enterprises with the same intention form a joint club. Each party estimates the total investment of submarine cable according to the site selection of landing station, capacity demand and other factors, and then determines the investment proportion, the construction week of a submarine cable It will take about 3 to 5 years from planning to completion.
Laying submarine optical cables in the Pacific Ocean will always crush China
"Ever since what happened in Amsterdam, Moscow, Naples, Lisbon was known to Paris in the same minute, the world