Severe Subsea Outages – Dealing with Emergency Restoration 33 rd SATA Annual Conference

1. Severe Subsea Outages – Dealing with Emergency Restoration33rd SATA Annual Conference AUTHOR: WR Marais 18.03.2011

2. The objectives of today Overview of Subsea outages SEACOM (TEN) and EIG Cut - Restoration Process Repair of Subsea System (TEN) Network Diversity - SAMS Summary AGENDA 18.03.2011 SATA 2

4. Subsea Cable Systems are exposed to external elements Overview of Subsea Outages • Resulting in: • Partial or complete break of the physical cable system • Penetration of outer protective layer to DC feed (Shunt Faults) • Possible cause of Subsea System outages include: • Tectonic plate movement, Earthquakes, Rock fall • Ship Anchor drags and/or drops • Ocean current dragging/moving cable over seabed • Shark bites… • Repair Process: • Identify location of break • Commission Repair vessel to fault location • Locate and lift cable with grapples and/or ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) • Repair damaged cable • Relay cable and resurvey (“As Repaired”) 18.03.2011 SATA 4

5. 22 March 05:56 GMT SEACOM (TEN) SEACOM (TEN) and EIG Cut - Restoration Process • On 22 March ‘13 at 05:56 GMT SEACOM (TEN) segment between Abu Talat Egypt and Marseilles France reported failure – report followed +/- 56 minutes after information released that EIG was effected along the same route through the Mediterranean impacting services on EASSy • All SEACOM SDH/IPLC services affected, SEACOM IP-MPLS network remained operational via Asia • SEACOM Team immediately put in place an emergency restoration team • Regular Customer communication on service impact, possible RFO and available restoration options provided • Identified alternative routes split between IMEWE & SeaMeWe-4 • Management of multi providers for terrestrial & subsea segments • Started restoring customer circuits from 23 March ‘13 • All customers partial or fully restored by 2:00 GMT 27 March ’13 • At 6:20 GMT 27 March ‘13 reports of outage on SeaMeWe-4 18.03.2011 SATA 5

6. 27 March 06:20 GMT SeaMeWe-4 Services Cut on Restoration Capacity SeaMeWe-4 • On 27 March ‘13 at 06:20 GMT SeaMeWe-4 segment between Alexandria Egypt and Marseilles France reported • SEACOM impacted on 50% of the restoration capacity which was restored only a few hours prior • Immediate action was taken to secure additional IMEWE capacity • Due to limited IMEWE capacity restoration costs increased significantly • SEACOM Team continued with customer communication • All services was restored (again!) by 14:30 GMT 30 March ‘13 18.03.2011 SATA 6

7. Repair commenced on 17 April ‘13 Repair of SEACOM Subsea System (TEN) • 17 April ’13 • After completion of repair to EIG the repair vessel arrived at location of SEACOM (TEN) break, +/- 19 kms north of Abu Talat • Repair of the TEN segment commenced • 20 April ’13 • SEACOM TEN cable segment repaired and testing of the system commenced • 23 April ’13 07:56 GMT • All SEACOM customers services switched back to the SEACOM System after the repair of TEN segment • Restoration capacity remains in place for full restoration period for switch back if required 18.03.2011 SATA 7

8. Network Diversity – SAMS 18.03.2011 SATA 8

9. Summary • Subsea Cable systems are exposed to external elements, service effecting breaks do occur • Subsea repairs could be complex and take time to complete, clearly understand the impact to your customers (service and commercial impact) – manage expectations • During a service effecting outage, ensure clear and regular customer communication through multiple channels (calls, social media channels, customer meetings) • Network diversity and resilience are important factors to prevent single points of failure by delivering services on multiple cable systems (East/West if commercially viable) • Consider use of IP-Transit services for additional network diversity using a meshed network 18.03.2011 SATA 9

10. Thank you. SEACOM South Africa 2nd Floor, Imola Building The Campus, 57 Sloane Street Bryanston, Johannesburg T +27 11 575 0171 E info@seacom.mu www.seacom.mu 18.03.2011