WCA January 2017

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2017
From the Americas
Designed as a flexible cable system, PLCN reportedly will
permit the two parties to select their optical equipment
independently, allowing users to choose from a variety of
network equipment that will be interoperable within the
system. Before this, noted Facebook’s Najam Ahmad,
deployment of a new subsea cable was on a turnkey
basis, with the system vendor providing the initial optical
equipment on the basis of the technology available at the
time the cable was contracted.
In comparison, he wrote in a blog post, the commercial/
technical PLCN approach “allows for independence
between the wet plant and the optical technology.”
(“Google, Facebook Partner on LA-to-Hong Kong Fiber
Cable,” 12th October). What this means, Mr Ahmad said,
is that equipment can be refreshed as optical technology
improves, even if advances are made while the system is
under construction. When equipment can be continually
upgraded, costs should go down and bandwidth
rates should increase faster. According to Mr Ahmad,
construction on the PLCN project was to have begun by the
New Year, with commissioning scheduled for 2018.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
 Verizon apparently told its field technician crews in
Pennsylvania that they could lose their jobs if they try
to fix broken copper phone lines. As reported by Jon
Brodkin of Ars Technica (5 th October), workers must
instead try to replace copper lines with a connection
to the Verizon Wireless cell phone network. A 20th
September Verizon memo to workers warned, “Failure to
follow this directive may result in disciplinary action up
to and including dismissal.” The memo was made public
by the Communications Workers of America (CWA),
which asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
to put a stop to such copper-to-wireless conversions.
The union claims that the wireless home phone
service VoiceLink is not a proper replacement for
a copper phone line because it is inoperable with
security alarms, medical devices such as pacemakers
that require telephone monitoring, fax machines and
other equipment. For its part, Verizon – whose use of
VoiceLink to replace broken copper lines has been
controversial for years – defended its position to Ars
Technica. In response to Mr Brodkin’s question, a
Verizon spokesperson outlined the circumstances in
which the company will restore copper-based phone
connections:
“If the serving wire from the pole to the house is cut or
has a tree [interfering with it], we’ll tell our technicians
to address the situation. But in cases where the trouble
proves to be in the copper cable requiring another truck
roll (which will extend the out-of-service condition),
it makes sense to restore service to the customer
immediately. The tech can do this with VoiceLink. The
goal here is to restore service as quickly as possible to
the customer.”
 Australian National University (ANU) has found that
over two-thirds of respondents polled on “Attitudes to
National Security: Balancing Safety and Privacy” support
federal telecommunications data-retention laws intended
to protect national security.
An ANU phone survey conducted in June and July
2016 found that 67 per cent of 1,200 randomly selected
individuals believe the retention of communications
metadata is “justified as part of the effort to combat
terrorism and protect national security.” In addition,
almost 70 per cent of the respondents supported data
retention for counterterrorism purposes.
Corinne Reichert of ZDNet (10th October) reported
that legislation in effect since October 2015 stipulates
storage for two years by telecom carriers of Australians’
call records, location, IP addresses, billing information,
and other data, to be made accessible without a warrant
by law-enforcement agencies. In response to complaints
from small operators about the burden of compliance,
the government announced an AU$128.4 million
programme for covering the costs of mandatory data
retention. Grants ranging from AU$10,000 to AU$39.9
million were distributed among 180 Internet service
providers (ISPs).
The American economy
The latest jobs report bodes well for the
current expansion in the USA – but the key
to the future is in Mexican hands
USA employers added 156,000 jobs in September 2016,
the Labor Department said, enough to accommodate
new entrants to the labour force and attract workers who
dropped out after the recession of 2008-2010. Average
hourly earnings rose by 0.2 percentage points in the month,
bringing the wage gain over the previous year to 2.6 per
cent, well above the pace of inflation. The typical workweek
also grew slightly.
A striking feature of the improved employment report – not
apparent from the stark figures – is the important, indeed
vital, contribution of Hispanic workers. As noted by Conor
Sen of Bloomberg News, Since the low in December 2009,
employment in the USA has increased by 13.6 million
workers; and 43 per cent of that growth, or 5.9 million
workers, derives from Hispanics – some born in the USA,
others immigrants. In contrast to the white non-Hispanic
Americans in a shrinking labour pool, more Hispanics are
entering their prime working years, or are too young to
retire. Excluding Hispanics, the labour force in the USA is
virtually unchanged since 2008.
Further refining the picture, Mr Sen pointed out that
Mexico is by far the largest country of origin for Hispanic
immigrants to the USA. Net migration from Latin America
since the recession has been minimal (more Mexicans
leaving than arriving), so the strong Mexican component in
the USA labour force may be thought of as a “demographic
dividend” from Hispanic immigration in the 1980s, 1990s
and 2000s. (“The Future of the US Economy Lies in
Mexico,” 26th September)
This is very germane to the labour challenges that the
USA will confront over the next generation. The South and
West must find workers to support the construction of
needed housing and infrastructure, plus the service-sector