Global Marine Group is a British-headquartered specialist provider of installation, maintenance and repairs of submarine communications cable for the telecommunications, oil & gas and deep sea research industries. Global Marine provides engineering and underwater services in response to the subsea cable installation, maintenance and burial requirements of their customers around the world. With a fleet of vessels, ROVs and specialised subsea trenching and burial equipment, Global Marine works in the Oil & Gas, Telecom and Deep Sea Research sectors. Global Marine, the legacy of Cable & Wireless Marine and British Telecom Marine, was purchased by Global Crossing in 1999, at which time it received the name it carries today. In 2004 Global Marine Systems was purchased by Bridgehouse Marine and was completely restructured. In September 2014 Global Marine was acquired by HC2. Historically, the company has a legacy of over 160 years of cable installation, stemming from the first telegraph cables laid in the 1850s. Global Marine has a worldwide presence, with offices in Chelmsford, UK and Singapore; depots in Portland, UK; Bermuda; Vancouver, Canada; Batangas, Philippines and Batam, Indonesia; Ships are stationed around the world to support both installation of new cables and the maintenance and protection of existing cables. The company is also involved in joint ventures with China Telecom and Huawei. Since 2002 Global Marine has become increasingly active in the installation of submarine power cables and gained significant market share in the European Offshore Renewables market, in addition to undertaking a number of large power interconnect projects. The company was responsible for installing the cables connecting the turbines on a host of windfarm projects including Blythe, Horns Rev 1, Thornton Bank, Kentish Flats and others. To support this business Global Marine formed a subsidiary in 2011 called Global Marine Energy. The development of the energy business included the opening of a new office in Middlesbrough and the construction of a specialist vessel, Cable Enterprise. The subsidiary company was sold to Prysmian Group, the world’s largest cable manufacturer at the time of sale, in September 2012. Global Marine today focuses primarily on supporting the telecoms, oil & gas and deep sea research markets.
Group historical achievements
1988 Installed first transatlantic fibre optic submarine cable, TAT-8,
1989 Installed first private transatlantic fibre optic submarine cable, PTAT
1990 Installed first transpacific fibre optic submarine cable, NPC
1992 First to plough unarmoured cable over 1,000 km in one continuous operation between Brunei and Singapore
1994 First to post-lay bury to 2,000 metres, Pacific Rim West
1995 First to bury cable to 10 metres and 4 metres in rock, APCN
1997 Installed first dedicated internet cable between US and UK
2003 Achieved deepest water ploughing to a depth of 1699m on the Svalbard system installed 1,350 km within the Arctic Circle.
2010 Achieved deepest recorded cable burial at Port Klang in Malaysia achieving 14 meters on a power cable connecting to the Island of Pulau Ketam
2014 Global Marine installed the 2014 Uninett project in Svalbard Norway, delivering the world's most northerly fibre optic cable system, deep within the Arctic Circle.
To date Global Marine has installed over 300,000 km of subsea cable, 23% of the world's total. In addition to this Global Marine with joint venture partners has performed 35% of maintenance operations on world fibre optic cables.
