#Telecom Cabling And Connectivity

[datacomm61]

Telecom Cabling And Connectivity

Ensure reliable telecom cabling and connectivity with our comprehensive solutions. From cables to connectors, our high-quality products deliver seamless communication and data transfer. Streamline your telecom infrastructure and optimize your network performance. Shop now for dependable cabling and connectivity solutions.

[tomorrowusa]

Undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea connecting NATO members have been intentionally damaged. Russia is suspected of involvement.

Poland has suggested a regional effort to patrol the Baltic to reduce acts of sabotage.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday he wanted to launch a “navy policing” program to secure the Baltic Sea against Russian threats. Speaking to reporters in Warsaw ahead of a summit of Nordic and Baltic leaders in Sweden, Tusk said the initiative would be “a joint venture of countries located at the Baltic Sea, which have the same sense of threat posed by Russia.” "If Europe is united, then Russia is a technological, financial and economic dwarf in relation to Europe,” he added. “But if Europe is divided, Russia poses a threat to each and every European country individually.”

A fragmented Europe is easy prey for Putin. Countries in the region need to act together to ward off acts of terrorism.

The suggestion comes after a 1,000-kilometer-long undersea telecoms cable linking Finland and Germany, and another connecting Sweden to Lithuania were severed last week. A Chinese-flagged ship that departed Russia and sailed through the Baltic Sea is suspected of being involved.

The Baltic Sea is accessible only through Danish waters or through Germany's Kiel Canal.

Any country which isn't playing nice could theoretically see its access to the sea restricted.

[beardedmrbean]

WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland's military intervened after a ship from the Russian "shadow fleet" was seen performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable connecting Poland with Sweden, Poland's prime minister said on Wednesday.

NATO has stepped up security in the Baltic following a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines were damaged in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"A Russian ship from the 'shadow fleet' covered by sanctions performed suspicious maneuvers near the power cable connecting Poland with Sweden," Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. "After the effective intervention of our military, the ship sailed to one of the Russian ports."

"Shadow fleet" refers to vessels used by Russia to ship oil, arms and grains in violation of international sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion.

Speaking later to reporters, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said a patrol flight scared the ship off and said the Polish Navy's ORP Heweliusz was sailing to the scene.

Vice Admiral Krzysztof Jaworski, Poland's maritime component commander, told Reuters that the tanker in question was called Sun and it sailed under the Antigua flag.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw declined to comment. In the past, Moscow has denied involvement in undersea sabotage in the Baltic, saying the West was using such claims to curb Russia's sea-borne oil exports.

The 600-megawatt undersea cable links the Swedish coast near Karlshamn with Ustka in northern Poland and allows both grids to rely on cross-border supplies when electricity is cheaper in the other system.

A spokesperson for Polish grid operator PSE said the cable was working. PSE data showed over 600 megawatts were flowing to Sweden through the cable at 1130 GMT.

"This shows how dangerous the times we live in are, how serious the situation in the Baltic Sea is," Kosiniak-Kamysz told a news conference.

"Since Sweden and Finland joined the North Atlantic Alliance, the Baltic Sea has become a key marine area, where the largest number of incidents occur, the most common incidents related to cable breaks... and sabotage."

He vowed a "firm response" from Poland and NATO to any attack on Baltic Sea infrastructure.

Stockholm, asked about the incident, said Swedish authorities were ready to respond to developments in the vicinity.

"We are in contact with the authorities and our allies regarding developments affecting the security situation," Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said in an emailed comment.

[mariacallous]

For more than three weeks, Gaza has faced an almost total internet blackout. The cables, cell towers, and infrastructure needed to keep people online have been damaged or destroyed as Israel launched thousands of missiles in response to Hamas attacking Israel and taking hundreds of hostages on October 7. Then, this evening, amid reports of heavy bombing in Gaza, some of the last remaining connectivity disappeared.

In the days after October 7, people living in Gaza have been unable to communicate with family or friends, leaving them unsure whether loved ones are alive. Finding reliable news about events has become harder. Rescue workers have not been able to connect to mobile networks, hampering recovery efforts. And information flowing out of Gaza, showing the conditions on the ground, has been stymied.

As the Israel Defense Forces said it was expanding its ground operations in Gaza this evening, internet connectivity fell further. Paltel, the main Palestinian communications company, has been able to keep some of its services online during Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attack. However, at around 7:30 pm local time today, internet monitoring firm NetBlocks confirmed a “collapse” in connectivity in the Gaza Strip, mostly impacting remaining Paltel services.

“We regret to announce a complete interruption of all communications and internet services within the Gaza Strip,” Paltel posted in a post on its Facebook page. The company claimed that bombing had “caused the destruction of all remaining international routes.” An identical post was made on the Facebook page of Jawwal, the region’s biggest mobile provider, which is owned by Paltel. Separately, Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization, said on X (formerly Twitter) that it had lost contact with its operation room in Gaza and is “deeply concerned” about its ability to keep caring for people, with landline, cell, and internet connections being inaccessible.

“This is a terrifying development,” Marwa Fatafta, a policy manager focusing on the Middle East and North Africa at the digital rights group Access Now, tells WIRED. “Taking Gaza completely off the grid while launching an unprecedented bombardment campaign only means something atrocious is about to happen.”

A WIRED review of internet analysis data, social media posts, and Palestinian internet and telecom company statements shows how connectivity in the Gaza Strip drastically plummeted after October 7 and how some buildings linked to internet firms have been damaged in attacks. Photos and videos show sites that house various internet and telecom firms have been damaged, while reports from official organizations, including the United Nations, describe the impact of people being offline.

Damaged Lines

Around the world, the internet and telecoms networks that typically give web users access to international video calls, online banking, and endless social media are a complicated, sprawling mix of hardware and software. Networks of networks, combining data centers, servers, switches, and reams of cables, communicate with each other and send data globally. Local internet access is provided by a mix of companies with no clear public documentation of their infrastructure, making it difficult to monitor the overall status of the system as a whole. In Gaza, experts say, internet connectivity is heavily reliant on Israeli infrastructure to connect to the outside world.

Amid Israel’s intense bombing of Gaza, physical systems powering the internet have been destroyed. On October 10, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which oversees emergency responses, said air strikes “targeted several telecommunication installations” and had destroyed two of the three main lines of communications going into Gaza.

Prior to tonight’s blackout, internet connectivity remained but was “extremely slow and limited,” Access Now’s Fatafta says. People she has spoken to from Gaza say it could take a day to upload and send a few photos. “They have to send like 20 messages in order for one to go through,” Fatafta says. “They are desperately—especially for Gazans that live outside—trying to get through to their families.”

“Every time I try to call someone from family or friends, I try to call between seven to 10 times,” says Ramadan Al-Agha, a digital marketer who lives in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip. “The call may be cut off two or three times,” he told WIRED in a WhatsApp message before the latest outages. “We cannot access news quickly and clearly.” People in the region have simultaneously faced electricity blackouts, dwindling supplies of fuel used to power generators, and a lack of clean water, food, and medical supplies. “It is a humanitarian disaster,” Al-Agha says.

Connectivity in Gaza started to drop not long after Israel responded to the October 7 Hamas attack. Rene Wilhelm, a senior R&D engineer at the nonprofit internet infrastructure organization Ripe Network Coordination Center, says based on an analysis of internet routing data it collects that 11 Palestinian networks, which may operate both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, began to experience disruption after October 7. Eight of the networks were no longer visible to the global internet as of October 23, Wilhelm says. Ahead of this evening’s blackout, there was around 15 percent of normal connectivity, according to data from Georgia Tech’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis project. That dropped to around 7 percent as reports of the blackout circulated.

One office belonging to Paltel in the Al Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City has been destroyed in the attacks, photos and videos show. Floors have been destroyed and windows blown away in the multistory building, and piles of rubble surround the entrances. (It is unclear what equipment the building housed or how many floors Paltel occupied.) Another internet provider, AlfaNet, is listed as being based in the Al-Watan Tower. The company posted to its Facebook page on October 8 that the tower had been destroyed and its services have stopped, with other online posts also saying the tower has been destroyed.

Multiple Palestinian internet and telecoms firms have said their services have been disrupted during the war, mostly posting to social media. Internet provider Fusion initially said its engineers were trying to repair its infrastructure, although it has since said this is not continuing. “The network was destroyed, and the cables and poles were badly damaged by the bombing,” it wrote on Facebook. JetNet said there had been a “sudden disruption” to access points. SpeedClick posted that the situation was out of its control. And HiNet posted that it has “no more to offer to ensure” people could stay online following “the attacks and destruction our internet servers have suffered.”

Across Paltel’s network on October 19, according to an update shared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 83 percent of fixed line users had been disconnected, with 53 percent of sites providing fixed line connections also being offline. Half of the company’s fiber optic internet lines in Gaza weren’t operational, the update says. The connectivity disappeared this evening, according to Paltel’s Facebook post, which says there has been a “complete interruption” of all its services. Paltel, AlfaNet, Fusion, and SpeedClick could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.

Lost Connections

In recent years, governments and authoritarian regimes have frequently turned to shutting down the internet for millions of people in attempts to suppress protests and curtail free speech. Targeting the communications networks is common during conflicts. During Russia's war in Ukraine, its forces have decimated communications networks, tried to take over the internet, and set up new mobile companies to control information flows. When Hamas first attacked Israel on October 7, it used drones to bomb communications equipment at surveillance posts along the borders of the Gaza Strip.

Monika Gehner, the head of corporate communications at the International Telecommunication Union, says the body is always “alarmed” by damage inflicted on any telecommunications infrastructure during conflicts. The ITU, the United Nations’ primary internet governance body, believes “efficient telecommunication services” are crucial to peace and international cooperation, and its secretary-general has called for respecting infrastructure in the Middle East, Gehner says.

Officials in Israel have consistently claimed they are targeting Hamas militants within Gaza, not civilians, while responding to the Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry within Gaza has said more than 7,000 people have been killed there and released a list of names. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to WIRED’s questions about internet disruptions within Gaza.

Hanna Kreitem, a senior adviser for internet technology and development in the Middle East and North Africa at the Internet Society, an open internet advocacy nonprofit, says Palestinian firms have a “big reliance” on Israeli internet firms. “Palestinians are not controlling any of the ICT infrastructure,” says Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Mobile networks in the Gaza Strip rely on 2G technologies. Al-Agha, the digital marketer, shared a screenshot showing mobile internet speeds of 7.18 kilobytes per second; average mobile speeds in the US in 2022 were 24 megabits per second, according to mobile analytics firm Statista.

“The internet is vital in times of war in crises,” says Fatafta, the Access Now policy manager, who adds that there can be “terrible consequences” linked to connectivity blackouts. The UN’s OCHA said rescue workers have had a harder time “carrying out their mission” partly due to the “limited or no connection to mobile networks.” Al-Agha says he has lost some clients due to the disruptions. The lack of connectivity can obscure events that are happening on the ground, Fatafta says. News crews have told WIRED they have footage from the ground but are “losing the story because of the internet.”

Kreitem says that a lack of electricity and access to the equipment will have made an impact on top of any physical damage to communications networks. “We don't know how many of the people that actually operate these networks are still alive,” Kreitem says. “The network operators are part of the world there, there's no place for them to run. They are as affected as any other person.”

[silicacid]

Keeping Gaza online: Telecom heroes risk life and limb under Israel’s bombs

The cost of keeping Gaza connected has been high. At least five PalTel staff members in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks while many other staff members have lost family members, including wives and children.

Humanitarian workers and journalists have said the operation of communication networks in Gaza is essential for rescue services and for documenting the reality of conditions on the ground to the outside world.

“We have faced a lot of different incidents during the previous wars. We’re doing more protection than any other operator,” CEO Abdul Majeed Melhem told Al Jazeera.

The cables that connect Gaza to the outside world run through Israel, and the country on at least two occasions has deliberately cut off the strip’s international communications. “It’s clear for us that it was cut off by a decision. What proves this is that we didn’t do anything to get it back,” Melhem said.

[soon-palestine]

While most telecom networks bury their cables 60cm (about 2ft) underground, PalTel buries its cables up to 8 metres (26ft)  deep. In case the Israelis cut off electricity, its data centres in Gaza also have three layers of redundancy: generators, solar panels and batteries. The company has also developed emergency protocols to direct workers remotely from the occupied West Bank, and if severed communications make this impossible, Gazan staff are empowered to act autonomously. Despite all the redundancies and preparations, the sheer scale of bombings these past weeks has still crippled the network. About 70 percent of the mobile network has been taken offline. Solar panels have been rendered mostly useless either by being destroyed in attacks or covered in dust and debris. The relentless nature of the conflict is also weighing on staff, who are dogged by danger from their house to the field. Rabih*, a fibre optics technician, was called to repair a cable just metres from the border on October 15. Prior to going, he had to give an exhaustive list of the repair team’s names, the colour of their cars and registration numbers to the Israelis, because “a mistake could be deadly”. As Rabih and his team laboured for two hours to fix the cable, the buzz of a drone above him and the sounds of shelling intermingled with the sound of their excavator. “Any wrong move could mean being targeted. I cannot explain to my wife and kids why I do that or why I volunteer to go out during the war. My company doesn’t oblige me, but if someone can do it, it has to be me,” he said. No matter how many metres deep they dig or the number of solar panels they install, Gaza’s connections to the outside world ultimately relies on the Israelis.

The cables that connect Gaza to the outside world run through Israel, and the country on at least two occasions has deliberately cut off the strip’s international communications. “It’s clear for us that it was cut off by a decision. What proves this is that we didn’t do anything to get it back,” Melhem said. Israel also controls fuel to Gaza, allowing a small trickle into Gaza on Friday after weeks of pressure from the United States. Described as a “drop in the bucket” by humanitarian groups, Israel announced that 120,000 litres (31,700 gallons) of fuel would be allowed into the territory every two days for use by hospitals, bakeries and other essential services. PalTel will also be given 20,000 litres (5,283 gallons) of fuel every two days for its generators. On Thursday, the company had announced it would go into a full telecoms blackout because its fuel reserves were exhausted for the first time during the current war. According to Mamoon Fares, the corporate support director at PalTel, the 20,000 litres provided “should be enough to operate a good part of the network”. However, Gaza’s telecoms network will still be at the mercy of Israel should it decide to cut off fuel deliveries or network services that run through its territory. Without the ability to communicate, the already dismal situation in Gaza would only further deteriorate. “No ambulances, no emergency services, no civil defence or humanitarian organisations can work without telecommunications,” Melhem said. * Names have been changed to protect the individuals’ safety.

[darkmaga-returns]

The newspaper said the Global Connect fiber optic network suffered a massive failure in Finland

HELSINKI, December 3. /TASS/. A telecom cable of the Global Connect company has ruptured between Sweden and Finland. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stated that Finnish police suspected sabotage. Subsequently, it was determined that the break was caused by excavation works.

TASS has put together the key facts about the incident.

Circumstances of the cable severance

- The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported a telecom cable rupture between Sweden and Finland that occurred in Finland last night.

- According to the report, the Finnish police suspected a deliberate attack and informed the Swedish authorities.

- The Helsingin Sanomat said the Global Connect fiber optic network suffered a massive failure in Finland.

- According to Global Connect's website, the company grappled with "isolated outages" in its fiber-optic network, which followed damage to cables in two locations.

- The Swedish government said it is monitoring developments around the incident in Finland.

- Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stated that the Finnish police are investigating the incident and suspect a sabotage attack, given the circumstances.

- Finnish police said they were not conducting a criminal investigation into the cable damage.

Causes of the damage

- The cable was damaged by an excavator during excavation work, said Jaakko Wallenius, director of security at telecom operator Elisa.

- According to the executive, the Global Connect's cable suffered damage in two locations in Finland, in the towns of Espoo and Vihti.

- Wallenius ruled out the theory of sabotage, insisting it was an accident. He said repairs finished on Tuesday morning.

Previous incidents

- Two underwater cables were damaged under the Baltic Sea on November 17 and 18. One connected Germany and Finland, and the other Sweden and Lithuania.

- The first cable runs along the Nord Stream pipeline. Its failure was reported by the Finnish government-owned telecom operator Cinia.

- The damage to the second cable was later reported by the Swedish telecom company Telia.

- According to the MarineTraffic ship tracking service, the China-flagged ship Yi Peng 3 was close to the spot where the cable between Sweden and Lithuania was severed. The same ship later moved across the area where the C-Lion1 cable between Germany and Finland was damaged.

- Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said on November 19 that governments in the Baltic Sea region learned from the mistakes of the investigation into the damage to the Balticconnector pipeline and are ready to stop any ship if it is suspected of damaging data cables.

- The Danish Navy later confirmed its presence near the Yi Peng 3, but would not comment on reports of it being stopped or detained.

- The damage was repaired at the end of last week.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil pushing for plan to safeguard submarine fiber cables

Brazil is looking to structure a framework to safeguard the 15 submarine fiber cables that currently connect the country, both internally and to other parts of the world, guaranteeing critical connectivity and content delivery to users and companies.

The move comes after plans to construct a desalination plant in Fortaleza sparked concerns in the telecom industry and among telecom authorities about potential harm to cables landing in the northeast city. Ceará state capital Fortaleza, the major Brazilian city closest to Europe, harbors 10 of the cables.

According to a source from the communications ministry, the topic is being debated internally at a ministerial level and in coordination with telecoms watchdog Anatel, which is in charge of overseeing the systems. The idea is to advance with a more structured policy in the coming year.

“This case illustrates how much we need an improved national security policy for these networks. The government is not inert to this,” the source told BNamericas.

Continue reading.

[workersolidarity]

🇫🇮🇪🇪 💥SUSPECTED SABOTAGE DAMAGES GAS PIPELINE BETWEEN FINLAND AND ESTONIA💥

A suspected explosion on Sunday led authorities to shut down the Finland-Estonia Baltic-Connector Gas Pipeline after recording a sudden drop of pressure.

The Baltic-Connector, a natural gas pipeline, connects Finland and Estonia's gas grids together. The pipeline provides Finland with access to natural gas piped from the Incukalns underground gas storage facility located in Latvia.

Petteri Orpo, the current Finnish Prime Minister said Tuesday that the source of the leak had, in fact, been found and was now being investigated by both countries but said the cause of the explosion was not yet clear.

Damage to a telecoms cable was also foind in a separate location from the damage to the pipeline, occurring along two points of Finland's Exclusive Economic Zone.

On Sunday, Norsar, Norway's seismological institute said it had detected a "probable explosion" of a magnitude 1.0 along the Baltic coast at approximately 01:20, a far smaller magnitude explosion than that recorded in the Nordstream pipeline bombings.

"The discovered damage could not have been caused by normal use of the pipeline or pressure fluctuations," Mr Orpo told a press conference Tuesday. The Finnish authorities have since ruled out the possibility that the seismic activity was naturally caused, indicating they believe it might have been deliberate and caused by "external activity."

Of course, European and NATO leadership are already turning their sights on Russia and their arch-nemesis, Russian President Vladimir Putin with one Finnish source telling the BBC, "Frankly we were expecting something like this sooner."

Authorities in Helsinki however, are remaining relatively quiet about their suspicions for now, avoiding putting the blame on Moscow too publicly in case they come up empty after a intensive investigation.

Although the pipeline is Finland's only direct link to the European Union's wider gas network, Prime Minister Orpo insists there are enough alternative sources for Finland to ensure its energy security.

#source

WorkerSolidarityNews Telegram

[wolfliving]

The "Digital Silk Road" and the Chinese IoT

*Sort of.

(...)

Precisely what activities fall under the umbrella of the DSR has not been officially disclosed, but all known projects work to integrate the hard and soft infrastructures underpinning next-generation IoT capabilities. Examples include 5G antenna and base stations, fiber optic cables, data centers, smart city initiatives, and e-commerce platforms. Across the board, Beijing has encouraged tech companies to deepen cooperation with recipient countries. Some of the flagship companies that have joined the project are state-owned enterprises such as China Telecom and Unicom, as well as ostensibly private operators like China Mobile, Huawei, ZTE, and Dahua. The common denominator among these actors is a commitment to consolidating China’s presence in emerging markets and developing economies. 

Over the past decade, Beijing has been able to build a parallel technological ecosystem that challenges Western-dominated norms. While this Initiative has the potential to enhance digital connectivity in developing economies, it also provides Beijing with a mechanism that can be used both to test its surveillance technology in third countries and to train these countries’ leaders on how to leverage the information that they collect. In a 2018 report, Freedom House cited a seminar on “Cyberspace Management for Officials from Countries Along the Belt and Road Initiative” that was repeated this year.  It saw foreign officials visit the offices of a Chinese company that uses a big data toolkit to track negative public sentiment in real time and promote positive opinions of the government.

This style of surveillance and public opinion “guidance” is consistent with some of the other projects DSR sponsors have exported to third countries. In Venezuela, for example, PRC tech giant ZTE has been closely working with authorities to develop a system that can monitor citizens and, most importantly, their voting preferences.

FacebookTwitterEmailShare

[blueweave8]

Horizontal Directional Drilling Market Demand, Trends, Forecast 2022-2029

BlueWeave Consulting, a leading strategic consulting and market research firm, in its recent study, estimated the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Marketsize at USD 9.46 billion in 2022. During the forecast period between 2023 and 2029, BlueWeave expects Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Marketsize to grow at a significant CAGR of 5.7% reaching a value of USD 13.21 billion by 2029. Major growth drivers for the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Marketinclude the increasing adoption of HDD technology for precise and minimally invasive drilling operations. This technique facilitates the drilling and reverse reaming of pipes with precision, navigating through obstacles in the underground terrain while minimizing harm to ecosystems. Market expansion is further fueled by increasing investments in shale gas projects and the ongoing development of high-speed connectivity in the telecom industry. Notably, The global surge in oil and gas activities has spurred an increase in horizontal directional drilling (HDD) worldwide. Recognizing the environmental impact of conventional drilling methods, there is a growing emphasis on employing eco-friendly drilling technology, leading to the expansion of the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market. The horizontal directional drilling approach stands out for its precision and reduced power consumption compared to vertical maneuvering techniques. Another significant driving force is the rapid globalization and urbanization, fueled by the escalating energy and fuel demand in developing nations. This surge in demand is closely tied to ongoing infrastructure development, utility system construction, and advancements in the telecommunications sector, including 5G testing. These factors, along with related developments, are anticipated to contribute significantly to the market's swift growth during the forecast period. The increasing utilization of horizontal directional drilling products in surveying, designing, and installing subsurface electrical systems for subterranean cables further propels the expansion of the market. Also, the rising demand for natural gas and electricity distribution in middle and upper pipeline lines is expected to drive market growth. The use of horizontal directional drilling fasteners in utility, communications, and oil and gas industries offers benefits such as increased stability, enhanced device management, and improved treatment and monitoring outcomes. However, high costs and technical challenges are anticipated to restrain the overall market growth during the forecast period.

Impact of Escalating Geopolitical Tensions on Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market

The Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market has been significantly impacted by intensifying geopolitical disruptions in recent times. For instance, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted supply chains decreased service demand, and increased uncertainty for businesses. This turmoil extended to energy markets, causing turbulence due to Russia's significant role as a major gas supplier, resulting in noticeable price fluctuations. In addition, the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other have had widespread implications, injecting a level of risk for investors across various sectors. Beyond the war zones and disputed areas, the ongoing crisis jeopardizes stability on a global scale. It becomes imperative for businesses and investors alike to comprehend and adeptly manage these interconnected challenges.

Despite the current challenges posed by geopolitical tensions, there are potential growth opportunities for the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market. The ongoing infrastructure projects, utility installations, and the continuous expansion of the telecommunications industry. This demand underscores the market's resilience. Emphasizing strategic adaptation is crucial in navigating these complex circumstances, ensuring sustained success amid global challenges and uncertainties.

Sample Request @ https://www.blueweaveconsulting.com/report/biodegradable-sanitary-napkins-market/report-sample

Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market – By End User

On the basis of end user, the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market is divided into Oil & Gas Excavation, Utilities, and Telecommunication segments. The oil & gas excavation segment holds the highest share in the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market by end user. The existing and robust infrastructure generates a significant demand for drilling rigs, contributing to the predominant market position of the oil and gas excavation segment. Also, efforts to manage the increasing expenses linked to exploration and production endeavors in untapped regions are anticipated to strengthen the prominence of this segment. Meanwhile, the telecommunications segment holds the highest share in the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market. The increasing need for faster broadband access propels telecommunications operators to adopt advanced and reliable drilling services, including horizontal directional drilling. This method facilitates the expansion of optic fiber cable networks by deploying conduits and pipes through holes nearly 4 feet in diameter and 6,500 feet in length, particularly in offshore locations. The growing demand for 4G and 5G networks is expected to contribute significantly to the segment's growth throughout the forecast period.

Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market – By Region

The in-depth research report on the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market covers various country-specific markets across five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America holds the highest share in the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, liquid fuel consumption in 2022 was reported at 8.8 billion barrels per day. The growing prevalence of infrastructure and utility projects in North America is a key driver for the increased demand in horizontal directional drilling equipment and services. The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region emerged as the second-largest user of drilling services for oil and gas excavation activities.

Competitive Landscape

Major players operating in the Global Horizontal Directional Drilling Market include Baker Hughes Company, Barbco Inc., China Oilfield Services Limited, Ellingson Companies, Halliburton Company, Helmerich & Payne Inc., Herrenknecht AG, Nabors Industries Ltd, NOV Inc., Schlumberger Limited, The Toro Company, Vermeer Corporation, Weatherford International plc, Drillto Trenchless Co. Ltd, Laney Directional Drilling, Prime Drilling GmbH, XCMG Group, and TRACTO. To further enhance their market share, these companies employ various strategies, including mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, license agreements, and new product launches

Contact Us:

BlueWeave Consulting & Research Pvt. Ltd

+1 866 658 6826 | +1 425 320 4776 | +44 1865 60 0662

info@blueweaveconsulting.com

[suntelecomcn]

FTTA: High-Performance Solution for Integrated Optical Fiber and 5G Networks

There is a huge demand for high-speed data transfers in today’s mobile telecommunications networks. FTTA (Fiber-to-the-Antenna) is an essential element of 5G networks and ensures reliable, robust, and future-proof installation, improves user experience and reduces costs. This article helps you to understand FTTA.

What is FTTA?

FTTA is a broadband network architecture to connect the building baseband unit (BBU) to the remote radio unit (RRU) at the top of the tower by using optical fibers to replace all or part of the coaxial network. FTTA can reduce the loss of signal power. And up to 20km's maximum transmission distance helps realize centralized placement of base stations (BS) in lower-cost telecommunication rooms and more flexible and modularized network planning.

FTTA Solution

FTTA solution reduces installation time and saves the cost of installation and maintenance. FTTA solution includes outdoor optic fibers, PDLC outdoor waterproof patch cords, terminal boxes, etc.

Benefits of FTTA

Perhaps the most benefit of FTTA stems from the physical content of the cable itself. The smaller diameter and lighter weight allow many fiber optic cables to occupy the same amount of space as a single coax cable. Because cellular towers are naturally subject to the elements, the physical size and properties of optical cabling are much less susceptible to damage from gusts of wind.

Other benefits of FTTA relate to the shift from analog to digital. Due to signal losses, the coax cable limited the distance between the antenna and the base station to as low as around 100m. Optical cabling can span up to 20 km with minimal losses.

FTTA provides improved energy consumption and signal integrity. Tower amplifiers are no longer required to combat the inherent noise floor of extended coax runs. The cooling of power amplifiers through air conditioning in a traditional base unit is replaced by ambient air cooling of the RRH, which significantly reduces the electrical power consumption of the system.

FTTA also provides flexible deployment, reduced complexity, saves installation time and space on the tower, lower investment, and high reliability.

Typical FTTA Scenario

Fiber optic networks aim to perform high-speed, error-free data transmission. Adequate testing during each phase of the network deployment guarantees that products meet specifications. It minimizes costly and time-consuming troubleshooting efforts, including locating dirty/damaged connectors, questionable splices, and other faulty components before they disrupt service.

One of the most crucial factors in ensuring proper transmission is controlling power loss in the network against the link loss-budget specifications from the network design recommendation, which establishes a total end-to-end loss budget with sufficient margin while reducing back reflection to a minimum.

What is the Future of FTTA?

Consumer demand and technological advancement will continue to challenge the broadband infrastructure and necessitate more innovation. As incremental improvements such as active antennas integrated with the RRH to eliminate the need for all coax, small cell technology, and tower construction continues to evolve, it is safe to assume the future of FTTA may hold a few more surprises.

5G network provides speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G, which requires more small cell sites/DAS and improvements in conventional antenna tower bandwidth. Fiber optics will continue to provide the lifeblood to this ever-evolving network because only fiber can support the backhaul of these small cell sites produced by this intense proliferation of traffic.

Conclusion

FTTA is an innovative, flexible, and future-oriented way to install the network. It secures your network connectivity today and in the future.

Sun Telecom specializes in providing one-stop total fiber optic solutions for all fiber optic application industries worldwide. Contact us if you have any needs.

[beardedmrbean]

Sweden is investigating a series of suspected sabotage incidents involving more than 30 telecom towers, raising alarms over infrastructure vulnerability amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in Europe.

The affected infrastructure spans locations along Sweden's E22 highway, where cables were severed and technical equipment damaged at multiple sites, according to local media and Data Center Dynamics.

Why It Matters

Sweden, which joined NATO in March 2024, is among several member states seeing increased focus on critical infrastructure protection, particularly in the context of the Baltic region's elevated security posture following Russia's war in Ukraine.

Though the motive and perpetrator remain unknown, the nature of the damage has heightened concerns within Sweden's security community.

"This stands out and is more than usual," Roger Gustafsson, head of security at Sweden's Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), told the national broadcaster SVT Nyheter.

What To Know

The incidents started during Easter weekend at more than 30 locations and led to outages on mobile networks in some cases but nothing major.

The E22, also known as the European Road, is part of a road network that stretches for more than 3,300 miles, connecting the U.K. in the west to Russia in the east.

Detective Superintendent Håkan Wessung, head of serious crime in Kalmar, said investigators "don't rule anything out," including the possibility of deliberate attacks, according to The Economic Times.

Previous incidents in Sweden include a 2016 case in which a 300-meter mast was deliberately taken down, affecting tens of thousands of households.

Meanwhile, concerns about infrastructure security have extended to undersea cables.

In February, a fiber-optic cable between Finland and Germany was damaged in Swedish waters near Gotland. Swedish authorities opened a sabotage investigation, although the Finnish operator reported no service disruption.

"These incidents must be viewed in the context of the existing serious security situation," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.

Similar sabotage acts previously affected NATO member states, including Sweden, such as the cutting of key underwater communications cables in the Baltic, arson attacks on logistics facilities in Germany, and cyberattacks targeting defense firms.

What People Are Saying

Swedish prosecutor Michelle Stein, who is leading the police investigation, told SVT: "There are circumstances that make everything seem to be connected, but it is something that the investigation will have to show."

Multiple European telecommunications firms, in an open letter to the European Union, U.K. and NATO In April: "At this crucial time for Europe's security and resilience, we commend your efforts to strengthen collective defence and protect critical infrastructure. Subsea cables play a vital role in Europe's connectivity, competitiveness, defence readiness, and economic stability. We recommend the EU/EEA and UK authorities as well as NATO renew their collaboration to address this situation effectively, together with the industry stakeholders from the EU and from the UK.

"With the rise in hybrid threats, including incidents affecting subsea cables in the Baltic and North Sea, we emphasize the importance of enhanced, coordinated action to safeguard Europe's cross-border networks. The EU Action Plan on Cable Security provides a clear approach to further increase the resilience and security of subsea cables."

What Happens Next

Swedish authorities continue to investigate the tower incidents, with assistance from security services and technical experts. They have not announced arrests or released findings confirming sabotage.

In the meantime, national and regional coordination on critical infrastructure protection is expected to intensify.

The developments have pushed telecommunications and energy security higher on Sweden's national agenda as European nations adapt to a security environment reshaped by war and technological vulnerability.

[mariacallous]

Long-distance internet cables in France have been cut in an act of sabotage, causing disruption to internet services across the country. This is the second disruption during the Olympic Games in Paris, after high-speed train lines were targeted in a series of arson attacks hours before the Games kicked off.

Marina Ferrari, France’s junior minister for digital affairs, said on X that in the early hours of Monday morning, multiple locations around France were affected by several “damages” that impacted telecommunications providers and have resulted in “localized consequences” to fiber optic services as well mobile internet connectivity. Internet companies confirmed the damage.

The French Ministry of the Interior, which oversees policing agencies in the country, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. French cybersecurity agency ANSSI told WIRED the problems are not linked to a cybersecurity incident.

At the time of writing, nobody has claimed responsibility for either attack. Officials have yet to identify any suspects involved in the cable-cutting sabotage, but they believe the disruption to train services could have been committed by people with “ultra-left” political leanings.

The incidents around the Olympics come at a time when Russia has been blamed for a string of disinformation targeting France and has also been linked to a series of potential sabotage attacks in Europe.

The second largest French telecoms company, SFR, appeared to be one of the most impacted by the vandalism. “Our long-distance fiber network was sabotaged between 1 am and 3 am last night in five different locations,” a spokesperson from SFR told WIRED. SFR says its maintenance teams are working on repairing the damage and said the impact on its customers was “limited.”

“Also, between three and eight other operators are impacted since they use our long-distance network,” the spokesperson said.

Nicolas Guillaume, the CEO of telecom firm Nasca Group, which owns the ISP company Netalis, told WIRED he believed the damage was “deliberate” and that ISPs serving both customers and businesses have been impacted. Several of the damaged cables, according to images shared on X by the CEO, appear to have clean cuts across them. Guillaume says it is likely that people opened the ducts where cables are stored and cut them. Internet company Free 1337 also confirmed it was working on fixing the damage.

While billions of people around the world use wireless connections, the underlying internet backbone is made up of cables traversing across countries and under seas. This infrastructure, which is able to automatically reroute traffic to limit outages, can be fragile and vulnerable to attack or disruption. EU politicians have called for internet infrastructure security to be improved.

But the sabotage is not the first time that internet cables in France have been damaged in potentially deliberate acts. At the end of April 2022, crucial long-distance internet cables around Paris were deliberately cut and damaged—causing outages that impacted around 10 internet and infrastructure companies.

In that instance, according to photographs published by telecoms companies, the cables appeared to have been surgically cut, all at around the same time, in three locations, to the north, south, and east of Paris. Thousands of people around Paris—and also some farther away from the French capital—were plunged into a temporary internet blackout as network operators rerouted traffic. “It is the work of professionals,” Guillaume said at the time.

Arthur PB Laudrain, a postdoctoral research associate in cyber diplomacy at King’s College London, says the most recent incident seems “less serious” than the 2022 outages. “Such actions are within the capabilities of ultra-left or ecologist and anarchist groups, especially if they benefited from insider assistance or knowledge (current or former rail or network workers),” Laudrain says. “However, we cannot rule out the fact that a state actor is encouraging, supporting, or directing such domestic groups to create plausible deniability of their involvement.”

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Hey, did you know that digital space exists in real space?

Did you know that the Internet is an interconnected network of physical connections between computers?

Did you know that vast sections of that physical network are still in lead casing cable with paper insulation put up in the forties? Did you know that the only reason those networks can handle today's Internet traffic are because they were massively overbuilt throughout the cold war, and we've been living off that largess for the last 50 years?

If you have a high-speed fiber optic connection, if you have 5G, if you have cell service, the other end of that connection is older than your parents. Telecom companies are much more interested in making a profit by providing a service than maintaining the network required to provide that service.

[edit: Tumblr ate the rest of the reblog]

There is only a very small handful of skilled senior linemen who maintain the physical structure of the internet that we all live our lives on. As in the entire West Coast has a few hundred. the apprenticeships are open and pretty plush as far as apprenticeships go, but they can't fill demand fast enough. The old guys are retirement age but there's that giant gap mentioned above. plus there's been a massive technology leap and backward compatibility issues because if you have a 5g connection and the server you're accessing has a fiberoptic hardline, somewhere in the middle there are patches of the network that haven't been updated since the Carter administration.

so the guy who goes out to fix it is a 60-something should-be-retired lineman with a twenty-something following him around trying to pull together the knowledge base of a 40-year career so they can update a 70-year-old utility structure to handle modern-day traffic.

.