| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Chelmsford, England, UK |
| Area served | Global |
| Employees | 600 |
| Website | globalmarinesystems.com |
Global Marine Systems is a specialist-shipping company that installs, maintains and repairs submarine communications and power cables.
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The General Post Office ship Monarch IV was responsible for laying the first transatlantic co-axial cable system. After the UK Government created the National telephone company, the cable ships were split between two entities, one focused on the UK and one on the rest of the British Empire.
These two entities eventually became British Telecom and Cable & Wireless, and in 1995 BT agreed to sell its Southampton based division BT Marine to Cable & Wireless. In 1998, C&W Marine acquired competitor General Offshore.
In 1999 during the dot.com boom, Cable & Wireless sold the company to Global Crossing, who renamed the company 'Global Marine Systems Limited. After the dot.com boom started to collapse, Global Crossing came under increased financial pressure, and so sold the company in 2004 ownership was transferred to Bridgehouse Marine.
Global Marine is now an independent company able to offer planning, installation, and maintenance of a submarine network system. Global Marine provides support in four distinct markets: telecoms; renewable energy; the oil and gas industry; and defence. Global Marine employs just over 600 people worldwide, with two thirds of them based at sea. Its head office is in Chelmsford, Essex in the UK, with representation in Singapore, Florida and Boston. The company has five depots, based in:
The NPC (cable system) was the first laser regenerative (repeatered) system to completely cross the Pacific Ocean from the US mainland to Japan. Running 9,531 km, the US portion of NPC was manufactured in Portland, Oregon in 1990 at STC Submarine Systems, and later Alcatel Submarine Networks (the plant was shutdown in 2001). The system was laid by Cable & Wireless Marine on the CS Cable Venture in 1991. The cable was retired in 2003 after 13years service.