wiredInUSA January 2017

Looking to the (Middle) East

Communication cut off for island

Daragh McDermott, director of corporate affairs for JT

Lemo Group has launched Lemo Middle East, to serve as a hub to support customers in the Gulf states and, at a later stage, to serve other countries of the Middle East. From its office in Dubai, Lemo Middle East will handle sales, and technical support, and will keep a local connector stock, representing the Lemo, Redel andNorthwire brands. Lemo’s board of directors has appointedMr Ahmed Abdallah as general manager for the new entity. An Egyptian national who is fluent in English and Arabic, Ahmed has been established in the UAE for nine years and has solid experience in the Gulf and Middle Eastern markets. His background is in electrical engineering, specializing in cables and accessories.

In late November 2016, the Channel island of Jersey suffered major telecommunication and broadband disruption after a ship, believed to be a liquefied petroleum gas tanker, dragged its anchor along the seabed and broke through three of the island’s four main undersea fiber optic cables. Predictions were that it could take local operator JT at least a week to repair the breaks, with most local traffic taking a detour via a separate cable to France. The fourth cable was safe due to being on the opposite side of Jersey. “It is unlucky and unprecedented for three submarine cables to the UK to be cut in the same day, and it proves the value of having multiple links in the network, in order to provide a back-up connection via France. There are lots of cables running across the seabed, and we understand that it is not just JT who have been affected in this way, with other cables also having been cut.” However, only one of the cables was repaired within the week. The remaining cables could be out of commission until the end of December 2016.

wiredInUSA - January 2017

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