Agenda

THE SUBMARINE NETWORKS EMEA 2025
CONFERENCE AGENDA

All times are listed in GMT

 

London, 18 - 19 February 2025

Schedule

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Feb 188:00
Conference pass

Registration opens

Exhibition Hall

Doors open for Submarine Networks EMEA 2025! Head down early to beat the queues and collect your badge.

Feb 189:00
Conference pass

Keynote panel - You get a cable, you get a cable, and you get a cable: A privatised subsea cable world

Keynotes
  • How much of the subsea market is being driven by hyperscalers?
  • Is the market heading towards total privatisation of cable systems?
  • What roles do incumbent telcos and PE firms play in a privatised world?
  • What are the effects on the market when the few suppliers cater to the needs of only a few hyperscalers?
Tansy McCluskie, Network Investments, Meta
Leigh Frame, COO, Xtera Ltd
Feb 189:40
Conference pass

Keynote: The state of the submarine cable industry 2025

Keynotes

Keynote address from a senior speaker at Ciena, Title Partner of Submarine Networks EMEA 2025.

Thomas Soerensen, Vice President, Sales, Ciena
Feb 1810:00
Conference pass

Keynote address: European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA)

Keynotes
Stephen Dawe, Chairman, European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA)
Feb 1810:15
Conference pass

Networking break

Exhibition Hall

Head to the exhibition hall to network with 1,000+ stakeholders from the global subsea industry.

Feb 1810:30
Conference pass

News in Brief: Grid Telecom: Creating a new open-access connectivity node in the Balkan-Med Region

Keynotes
Feb 1810:40
Conference pass

News in Brief: IOEMA

Keynotes
Eckhard Bruckschen, CTO, IOEMA Fibre Ltd
Feb 1810:50
Conference pass

News in Brief: Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition

Keynotes
Martin Prins, Ambassador, Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition
Feb 1811:00
Conference pass

News in Brief: Atlantic CAM

Keynotes
Alberto Passos, Head of Business and Submarine Project CAM, IP Telecom
Feb 1811:10
Conference pass

News in Brief: Canalink

Keynotes
Zakariaa Edouieb, General Manager, Canarias Submarine Link S.L.
Feb 1811:20
Conference pass

News in Brief: TAMTAM

Keynotes
Simon Fletcher, Director, Prima Limited
Feb 1811:30
Conference pass

News in Brief: Polar Connect

Keynotes
Ieva Muraškienė, Strategy and Policy Officer, NORDUnet
Feb 1811:40
Conference pass

News in Brief: Pisces

Keynotes
Tom McMahon, Director, MDM
Feb 1811:50
Conference pass

News in Brief: Update from HaDEA: Harnessing EU funding for robust digital infrastructure

Keynotes

Update from the European Health & Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).

Feb 1812:00
Conference pass

News in Brief: EllaLink

Keynotes
Philippe Dumont, CEO, EllaLink
Feb 1812:10
Conference pass

News in Brief: Digital Realty

Keynotes
Feb 1812:20
Conference pass

The legal landscape of the subsea industry

Track 1
  • What is the impact of current drivers of demand (e.g. AI, Quantum) on commercial strategy for subsea businesses?
  • From a legal perspective, how can cable owners and operators best manage network and data security issues?
  • ESG and sustainability from a legal standpoint
Sandra Delany, General Counsel, Aqua Comms
Moderator: Philip James, Partner, Eversheds Sutherland
Feb 1812:20
Conference pass

Using fibre sensing technologies to help secure existing cables

Track 2
  • Exploration of the advancement of sensing technologies
  • What benefits can these technologies bring to cable owners?
  • What is the potential to commercialise the technology?
  • What role can sensing technologies play in addressing geopolitical and security considerations?
Feb 1812:20
Conference pass

Regional spotlight: MENA

Track 3
  • Updates and future outlook on connectivity in the MENA region
  • How to attract more players to invest in the region?
  • How can subsea and terrestrial networks be better integrated to overcome cable route planning challenges?
Feb 1813:00
Conference pass

Resilience of critical island subsea telecommunications connections: complexity and diversity of natural hazards

Track 1
Isobel Yeo, Researcher, National Oceanography Centre
Feb 1813:00
Conference pass

A view on the Mediterranean Hub

Track 3

A perspective on the importance of the Mediterranean region in international connectivity and how it reflects capacity growth. We will delve into the concentration of PoPs and subsea cables, examining how the current geopolitical situation impacts resilience and redundancy—and what actions need to be taken.

Feb 1813:20
Conference pass

Networking break

Exhibition Hall

Head to the exhibition hall to network with 1,000+ stakeholders from the global subsea industry.

Feb 1814:10
Conference pass

Gold Sponsor presentation: HMN Technologies Co., Limited

Track 2

Presentation from a senior speaker at HMN Technologies Co., Limited

Feb 1814:10
Conference pass

The Technical Facility Domain: Digital and Commercial Impacts

Track 3

As technology continues to evolve the digitalisation space with richer content, AI, IoT and Automation, what is the impact on technical facilities? The distributed Datacenter, blurred lines between telecom and data PoPs, repurposing existing properties, and bringing the compute closer to the end user. Is the facility domain ready for the next wave?

Jon Abbott, Technologies Director at Vertiv, outlines the challenges and opportunities.

Jon Abbott, Telecom Strategic Clients Director, Vertiv
Feb 1814:30
Conference pass

The future of SMART cables

Track 1
  • What does the future look like for SMART?
  • Which projects have agreed to or are considering adding SMART capabilities?
  • How are challenges being overcome e.g. financing and legal considerations?
  • Opportunities for collaboration
Steen Hansen, Head of Planning (Network, backbone and technical infrastructure, Tusass A/S
Moderator: José Barros, Executive Council, JTF for SMART Cables
Alberto Passos, Head of Business and Submarine Project CAM, IP Telecom
Ik Icard, Director, Far North Digital
Georgios Tselentis, Programme & Policy officer, European Commission DG CONNECT
Feb 1814:30
Conference pass

Scaling capacity on subsea cables to meet increasing bandwidth demands

Track 2
  • As we approach the Shannon Limit, how can we increase capacity on subsea cables?
  • The role of multi-core fibre, hollow-core fibre and other fibre innovations
  • Strategies for overcoming power constraints
Hervé Jost, Director, Infrastructure Business Development and Eurotunnel Concession, Colt Technology Services
Moderator: Ed McCormack, Director, MC Corporate Services
Uruge Majeed, Optical Network Engineer, Google
Richard Norris, Senior Director, Sales Engineering, Ciena
Feb 1814:30
Conference pass

Collaboration to ensure the resilience and security of subsea infrastructure

Track 3
  • What does collaboration between governments, academia and industry look like?
  • What should the roles of different stakeholders be?
  • Managing cable faults and cuts: what mechanisms do stakeholders have in place to manage these situations?
John Tibbles, Advisor, SubOptic Foundation
Camino Kavanagh, Senior Visting Fellow, Dept. of War Studies, King's College London
Sandra Maximiano, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Communications Authority of the Republic of Portugal, ANACOM
Feb 1815:10
Conference pass

Celebrating your landing party: How best to survive a 25-year relationship

Track 1
Feb 1815:10
Conference pass

Technology path options towards petabit cable

Track 2

Presentation from a senior speaker at Ciena, Title Partner of Submarine Networks EMEA 2025.

Kevin Preboy, Senior Advisor, Product Line Management, Ciena
Feb 1815:10
Conference pass

Regional spotlight: Africa

Track 3
  • What are the current opportunities and challenges in the region?
  • Strategies for financing new subsea projects in Africa
  • The role of partnerships in developing new digital infrastructure across the continent
  • Network resilience: how is the African market dealing with cable cuts and outages?
Feb 1815:30
Conference pass

SMART cables: Data management and governance

Track 2
  • How should the data be collected and managed?
  • Who owns the data? Who has a right to access the data?
  • Should SMART data be monetised? And if so, how?
  • Legal considerations
Feb 1815:50
Conference pass

Financing strategies for global subsea and data centre infrastructure

Track 1
  • An investor’s perspective on the subsea and data centre industries
  • What is the market outlook?
Carlo Maria Rossotto, Principal Investment Officer - Global Head TMT Upstream, IFC - International Finance Corporation
Stuart Blythe, Lawyer, BAKER BOTTS (UK) LLP
Feb 1815:50
Conference pass

Sustainability and the subsea industry

Track 3
  • As an industry, where are we when it comes to climate sustainability?
  • Update on best practices
  • What actions do stakeholders need to take to drive real and quantifiable progress?
Feb 1816:30
Conference pass

Networking break

Exhibition Hall

Head to the exhibition hall to network with 1,000+ stakeholders from the global subsea industry.

Feb 1816:50
Conference pass

Update from ESCA’s Next Generation Working Group

Keynotes
Frankie Targett, Principal Submarine Cable Engineer, Vodafone Group
Isabel Triggs, Project Engineer, Red Penguin Marine LTD
Feb 1817:05
Conference pass

Keynote address: International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC)

Keynotes

Keynote address from the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC).

Feb 1817:25
Conference pass

Increasing use of the seabed: A focus on the unintended consequences of human activities

Keynotes
Michael Clare, ICPC Marine Scientific Advisor & Principal Researcher, National Oceanography Centre
Moderator: John Wrottesley, Executive Director, European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA)
Feb 1818:00
Conference pass

Networking drinks reception

Exhibition Hall

Join us and 1,000 subsea leaders in the Exhibition Hall for our evening drinks reception.

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Feb 198:30
Conference pass

Registration opens

Exhibition Hall

Doors open from 8.30am on day 2.

Feb 199:10
Conference pass

How is the evolving data centre landscape influencing cable system builds?

Keynotes
  • What impact is AI development having on the sector e.g. cable route planning, volume of cables?
  • What do data centre providers need to do to overcome resistance from some governments and nations?
  • Overcoming power and space considerations
Feb 199:55
Conference pass

Keynote address from SubOptic & Update on SubOptic 2025

Keynotes
Feb 1910:15
Conference pass

Networking break

Exhibition Hall

Head to the exhibition hall to network with 1,000+ stakeholders from the global subsea industry.

Feb 1910:15
Conference pass

"Junior Top Dogs" Networking Event

Track 3

This networking event is the ideal opportunity for new entrants to the subsea industry to meet with some of its senior leaders. The session will include speed networking and roundtable discussions - full agenda to be revealed soon.

Eckhard Bruckschen, CTO, IOEMA Fibre Ltd
Feb 1910:55
Conference pass

News in Brief: Confluence-1

Keynotes
Paul Scott, Chief Executive Officer, Confluence Networks
Feb 1911:05
Conference pass

News in Brief: Unitirreno

Keynotes
Chris van Zinnicq Bergmann, CCO, Unitirreno
Feb 1911:15
Conference pass

News in Brief: Tusass Connect

Keynotes
Steen Hansen, Head of Planning (Network, backbone and technical infrastructure, Tusass A/S
Feb 1911:25
Conference pass

News in Brief: Update from Colt

Keynotes
Hervé Jost, Director, Infrastructure Business Development and Eurotunnel Concession, Colt Technology Services
Feb 1911:35
Conference pass

News in Brief: Update from GlobalConnect Carrier

Keynotes
Feb 1911:45
Conference pass

News in Brief: BlueMed

Keynotes
Feb 1911:55
Conference pass

News in Brief: Update from Islalink

Keynotes
Feb 1912:15
Conference pass

News in Brief: Update from Cinturion Group

Keynotes
Bill Marra, Chief Commercial Officer, Cinturion Group
Feb 1912:35
Conference pass

Networking break

Exhibition Hall

Head to the exhibition hall to network with 1,000+ stakeholders from the global subsea industry.

Feb 1913:30
Conference pass

How do you solve the subsea maintenance question?

Track 2
  • Is the subsea maintenance sector really broken?
  • Does it need a change in how its run? And what might this change look like?
  • How do you invest in the industry if you don't know what's going to be built in the next 5-10 years?
  • If all the planned cables are built, do we have enough resources to carry out the work?
Feb 1913:50
Conference pass

Good citizens and good managers of the seabed: Working towards common goals

Track 1
Alice Ramsay, Telecoms & Pipelines Portfolio Manager, The Crown Estate
Moderator: John Wrottesley, Executive Director, European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA)
Jody Edmunds, Network Environmental Manager, Meta
Feb 1914:10
Conference pass

Strategies for ensuring resilience for smaller nations

Track 2
  • Connectivity concerns for nations who rely on one subsea cable or ageing infrastructure
  • How do you build a business case for further investment in infrastructure?
Feb 1914:30
Conference pass

How does the industry organise itself to protect submarine cables?

Track 1
  • An opportunity to hear how industry bodies and global cable protection committees are organising themselves
Andy Palmer-Felgate, Submarine Cable Engineer, Meta
Stephen Dawe, Chairman, European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA)
last published: 07/Feb/25 16:25 GMT