Page 24: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2006)

24 MTR April 2006 industries, and there was a subsequent downsizing at Tyco

Telecommunications to the 650 it employs today.

While painful, Cuccio notes that the company was able to retain its core of top-tier talent, and he said that today the business is in recovery mode, with the company slow- ly starting to increase its numbers to meet demand.

An area of growth of particular interest to the company is the burgeoning offshore market, which demands high- bandwidth communication capabilities at locations increasingly further offshore. Cuccio believes that Tyco

Telecommunications is well-positioned to capitalize, as he notes it is the only U.S. company with its breadth of product, service and engineering expertise.

The offshore Oil & Gas market, particularly domesti- cally in the Gulf of Mexico region, has recently undergone its own metamorphosis, both planned, with the expansion of operations further from shore in increasingly deep waters, and unplanned via the one-two natural disaster punch of Hurricane's Katrina and Rita late last summer. "We look at the offshore industry as an emerging mar- ket, as we have the capability to provide a quality of serv- ice and are in a position to connect to the offshore envi- ronment with a high availability, high bandwidth com- munication pipeline," said Cuccio. The company broke into the market nearly six year ago with a submarine sys- tem installation for a Brazilian deepwater facility, and today's push further out in the Gulf of Mexico with semi- submersible, floating platforms and stationary drill ships presents a significant opportunity. "Unplanned events (due to hurricanes) cost the Oil & Gas industry millions each year," as major hurricanes can take an offshore facil- ity off-line for days, weeks, and in some cases, months,

Cuccio said. With a robust, secure and reliable high-band- width fiber optic link from shore, companies can evacuate crews, control operations from the beach, and maintain a wider operating window. Once the storm passes, the fiber optic link will allow a status assessment and a re-start in a more timely fashion. "Currently, it takes about five days to get a rig back up, the industry wants to get it down to three days," Cuccio said.

Table 1

Pierson - Moskowitz Sea Spectrum - Values are worst case forecasts for open water in vicinity of referenced point (www.oceandata.com)

Wind Speed Sea Significant Significant Range Average Average Length (knots) State Waves (Ft.) of Periods (Sec.) Period (Sec.) of Waves (Ft.) 3 0 <.5 <.5 - 1 0.5 1.5 4 0 <.5 .5 - 1 1 2 5 1 0.5 1 - 2.5 1.5 9.5 7 1 1 1 - 3.5 2 13 8 1 1 4-Jan 2 16 9 2 1.5 1.5 - 4 2.5 20 10 2 2 1.5 - 5 3 26 11 2.5 2.5 1.5 - 5.5 3 33 13 2.5 3 6-Feb 3.5 39.5 14 3 3.5 2 - 6.5 3.5 46 15 3 4 7-Feb 4 52.5 16 3.5 4.5 2.5 - 7 4 59 17 3.5 5 2.5 - 7.5 4.5 65.5 18 4 6 2.5 - 8.5 5 79 19 4 7 9-Mar 5 92 20 4 7.5 3 - 9.5 5.5 99 21 5 8 10-Mar 5.5 105 22 5 9 3.5 - 10.5 6 118 23 5 10 3.5 - 11 6 131.5 25 5 12 12-Apr 7 157.5 27 6 14 13-Apr 7.5 184 29 6 16 4.5 - 13.5 8 210 31 6 18 4.5 - 14.5 8.5 236.5 33 6 20 5 - 15.5 9 262.5 37 7 25 5.5 - 17 10 328.5 40 7 30 19-Jun 11 394 43 7 35 6.5 - 21 12 460 46 7 40 22-Jul 12.5 525.5 49 8 45 7.5 - 23 13 591 52 8 50 7.5 - 24 14 655 54 8 55 8 - 25.5 14.5 722.5 57 8 60 8.5 - 26.5 15 788 61 9 70 9 - 28.5 16.5 920 65 9 80 10 - 30.5 17.5 1099 69 9 90 10.5 - 32.5 18.5 1182 73 9 100 11 - 34.5 19.5 1313.5

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