Alcatel, (Paris: CGEP.PA, NYSE: ALA), a provider of intelligent optical networking, has signed a thirty-three month agreement to provide maintenance for all submarine networks laid in the North Sea. This agreement has been awarded by the North Sea Cable Maintenance Agreement (NSCMA). This is a group of cable owning carriers, such as Concert, Deutsche Telekom, Tele Danmark, KPN, Telia and France Telecom, who agree to share the cost of maintenance cover. The contract will be effective from April 2002 until the end of 2004. Two vessels from Alcatel's maintenance fleet will be posted in the North Sea region to repair any eventual undersea system damage in the region. This contract is a major success for Alcatel's development in the business of submarine network maintenance.
Alcatel's maintenance service covers the sea between Lands End, Ushant, the Faeroe Islands and Norway. This region needs a substantial, efficient maintenance service since there is a high volume of fishing activity there, so the risk of potential damage can be 3 to 4 times higher than anywhere else in the world.
Alcatel will coordinate all operations from one point of contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. When an individual cable owner identifies a fault in its cable, it will deal directly with Alcatel, the sole company selected for the NSCMA.
Alcatel is in charge of supplying the vessels and the remote operation vehicles necessary to overhaul any damaged systems. It also provides a charting service to the customer to ensure their system documentation is updated at all times concerning the repairs done on their network. The maintenance cable vessels used by Alcatel have been specially designed to work in difficult areas such as the North Sea and have a successful track record in this field.
One of the vessels will be based in Calais, North of France, and the other will be in Korsoer, Denmark. All the Alcatel marine maintenance service will be coordinated from Copenhagen. In addition, Alcatel also proposes a tailored maintenance service, which involves a network-by-network approach, all over the globe. Services of this kind have already been awarded to Alcatel and include contracts for Apollo in the Atlantic and FNAL (FLAG North Asian Loop) in the Pacific.
About Alcatel:
Alcatel provides all optical network elements, from optical components, optical fibers, DWDM systems and microwave radio links to core routers and network intelligence, and from terrestrial to submarine solutions. For more information, visit www.alcatel.com.