Submarine Overland Cable Technology#

Nic Breytenbach - Seacom (Senior Transmission Architect), Afrim Beka - Nokia | Director of Subsea Networks Solutions

• Why: Long-haul optical transport is squarely in the PM's physical-networking core (WAN interconnect, optics). The premise — carrying subsea cable engineering onto terrestrial routes — speaks to two live problems: extending resilient capacity into remote and climate-challenged regions, and meeting AI/ML-driven traffic growth.
• What: How subsea transmission techniques — spanning thousands of kilometres without regeneration and long distances without amplification — can be applied as powerful solutions for extending resilient, high-performance connectivity into terrestrial networks (from abstract only).
• How: Mechanism detail is thin in the abstract; expect coherent long-reach optics and cable-system design that minimises regeneration/amplification sites, presented as a new approach for terrestrial builds serving both basic connectivity and AI/ML demand.
• Where applicable: Long-haul subsea and terrestrial transport builds; most relevant where routes are long and terrain/climate makes frequent regeneration sites costly — an Africa-flavoured problem, but the engineering transfers to any long-haul WAN build. Vendor-anchored session (Nokia subsea solutions), jointly presented with Seacom's transmission architect — expect some product positioning around the technique.