The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the role and importance of telecommunication industry services. Healthcare entities, government agencies, commercial enterprises, and even the general consumers have become more reliant on telecommunication services for their various needs in the troubled times.

In early 2020, COVID-19 crisis resulted in shut down of entire countries and drove an unprecedented surge in demand for bandwidth. Homeworking, educating, communicating, socializing and entertainment all became online pursuits during lockdown. Lockdowns, social distancing, and working from home pushed users to explore new scenarios to maintain business continuity and made Internet connection a basic need. As millions of people went online for entertainment and more, total internet hits surged by 70%.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are aggressively expanding their fiber footprint and extending network capacity on fiber as well as wireless networks. Capital expenditures included advancing wireless speeds and coverage, supporting systems reliability and operational efficiency and effectiveness efforts, and the addition of homes and businesses directly to fiber-optic technology. In response to increased demand for network capacity, the wireless industry quickly deployed Wi-Fi hotspots and services in new spectrums. At the same time, many countries have continued with their introductions of the 5G network.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Submarine Optical Fiber Cables estimated at US$13.3 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$30.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 14.3% over the analysis period. The market in the Americas is estimated at US$4.5 Billion in the year 2021. Transpacific is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$4.2 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 16.2% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Intra-Asia and Transatlantic, each forecast to grow at 10.5% and 17.8% respectively over the analysis period.

Submarine optical fiber cables dominate international voice and data traffic, due largely to the advantages offered in terms of high reliability, security and capacity, cost-effectiveness on major routes. The growing prominence of Cloud and Big Data also necessitates high degree of investments into data centers dispersed across the world. For cloud and big data concepts to be realized, telecom sector requires strong connectivity between these data centers, thus further raising importance of submarine optical fiber cables.

Growing demand for high speed Internet due to the increasing internet usage has led to a rapid surge in the demand for higher bandwidth globally. This growing demand for more bandwidth has been one of the major factors driving the growth of submarine fiber cable market. Other factors that add to the market growth include large scale deployment of cables in oil and gas industry, increasing use of smart devices, and growing fiber connectivity in developing regions such as Asia and Africa.

Select Competitors (Total 119 Featured)

• Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks SAS

• Ciena Corporation

• Fujitsu Limited

• Huawei Marine Networks Co. Limited

• Infinera Corporation

• Kokusai Cable Ship Co. Ltd.

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

• NEC Corporation

• Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH

• NTT World Engineering Marine Corporation

• Orange Marine

• S. B. Submarine Systems Co. Ltd.

• Seaborn Networks LLC

• TE SubCom

• Xtera Communications, Inc.