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Prysmian expands its presence in submarine telecom industry with its turnkey product and services

NSW GmbH is a leading manufacturer of communications, submarine, power and offshore cables as well as engineering plastics and environmental products. Following the acquisition of General Cable in 2018, NSW became part of Prysmian Group offering fibre-optic submarine cables, accessories and associated services up to full turnkey solutions to world-leading network operators.

Headquartered in Nordenham, Germany, NSW has been manufacturing underwater cables since 1899. The company laid its first transatlantic submarine telecommunication cable in 1904, approximately 7,993 kilometres in length. Since then, NSW has established itself as one of the leading global turnkey suppliers of state-of-the-art submarine cable systems. Fibre-optic submarine cables, accessories and associated services are now available to telecom and network operators, who are increasingly opting for the point-to-point or turnkey approach. Prysmian NSW is now one of most promising brand able to provide, fibre-optic submarine networks solutions which can easily be adjusted to ever-changing business environments and engineering concepts.

 

At the outset of a project, Prysmian NSW can perform a market analysis, help customers develop a business plan, and select system equipment and routing. This planning provides a basis for engineering requirements and legal and commercial preparations. A sea survey is carried out to confirm and update the preliminary study, compiling relevant data such as water depth and soil conditions along the planned route. Based on these studies, the precise cable route and protective measures necessary for the cable along the route are specified. Prysmian NSW manages the entire system installation phase, procures all necessary installation permits, plows the cables into the sea floor as needed, compiles complete system documentation, monitors testing and system acceptance, arranges preliminary and final customer acceptance, and trains customer personnel in system operation. If required, Prysmian NSW can provide comprehensive repair and maintenance to ensure optimal availability of the cable system.

 

One specific area of expertise is repeaterless and repeatered solutions for regional submarine cable systems. Together with existing networks, long-haul and ultra-long-haul submarine cable systems, NSW provides a worldwide grid of data highways, connecting vast data centers and global hot spots.  This is boosting demand for smaller regional feeder networks using repeaterless and repeatered technology. These regional networks need to be state-of-the-art, cost-effective, and offer the highest levels of security and network performance. Long experience in submarine cable design, logistics, implementation and project execution is mandatory for cost-effective project implementation. In repeatered and repeaterless systems, cable joints and transitions can be integrated during the cable manufacturing without the need of joint housings.

Recent progress in technology and achievable system lengths has made repeaterless links more attractive for regional systems. Compact, reduced weight cable designs allow for easy, cost-effective transport. Tailor-made cable designs and accessories for harsh environmental conditions or specific applications, like offshore Oil and Gas, are available. A wide variety of transmission technologies can be used with repeaterless systems, as the pure fiber is provided as interface. Optimized cable designs and accessories for repeaterless applications help optimize costs.

Transformation of short repeatered systems into cost-effective repeaterless systems is possible, adding flexibility without jeopardizing network performance. When exceeding the distance or design bandwidth limits of repeaterless systems, by distance and/or design bandwidth, repeatered transmission will be the technology of choice. Of course, there will be a step-up of costs, especially of cable and transmission technology. This increases the need for smart system design, which also includes a careful look at route engineering, cable protection measures, transport logistics and wet plant installation. The open system should be set up in such a way that it can grow with demand. Regional repeatered systems are assembled and integrated at the cable factory.

Prysmian NSW

Today, NSW, a division of Prysmian Group, is one of the world’s leading brands of submarine power and telecommunication cable systems as well as offshore and special cables.

  • Fiber-optic submarine cables and accessories for submarine cable systems
  • Turnkey submarine cable systems for established network operators and investors who wish to construct new submarine telecommunications networks
  • Repair and maintenance services for submarine cable systems to ensure optimal availability and reliability of these systems.

For over 115 years, NSW has been committed to the expansion and improvement of communications, and lot of success stories and projects increased its reputation and let the company become the leading manufacturer of communications, submarine, power and offshore cables as well as engineering plastics and environmental products.

Between these significant key milestones:

  • 1899: Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke AG (NSW) by Deutsche-Atlatische Telegraphengesellschaft (DAT) and Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk AG (F&G)
  • 1904: Successful production and implementation of 7933 km transatlantic cable system from Germany via Azores to New York
  • 1958: Delivery of 1885 km telephone submarine cables with PE-insulation for the Transatlantic connection TAT 2
  • 1965: Delivery of 2223 km cable for the Transatlantic connection TAT 4
  • 1989: Start of submarine repeaterless fiber optic telecommunication cables
  • 2009: First repeatered fiber optic telecom cable project (3500 km of submarine cable for Flag HAWK in the Mediterranean Sea)
  • 2020: Prysmian NSW executed 3500 km submarine cable project in Chile ‘PRAT ‘ on a Turnkey Basis