Dr. Hervé Février has an engineer's brain. (His colleagues have actually used the term "technical wizard.")
After four decades in optical communications, he saw that the industry was as exciting as ever, brimming with digital infrastructure problems in need of solutions.
Looking at the landscape made his engineer's brain itch. This led him to start Landelles Consulting LLC, his own subsea cable consulting shop.
The new undertaking made troubleshooting industry challenges a full-time gig. Let the problem-solving begin!
Dr. Février is another expert in the ranks of TeleGeography's Preferred Partners. This network of telecom professionals is on deck to help us expand our research horizons and apply our data to new and different projects.
In our ongoing effort to introduce our readers to this brilliant lineup of partners, Hervé was kind enough to set aside some time to talk through his career trajectory, recent consulting projects with Landelles, and how his engineering background informs the way he thinks about digital infrastructure.
Read our full conversation below.
What brought you to subsea consulting? And what stepping stones in your career provided the best training ground for becoming an expert in this area?
After 40 years working in optical communications, retiring abruptly was too difficult when this subsea technology area is still evolving at a fast pace and there are so many interesting projects around.
Tell us about some of your recent projects with Landelles. What has been the most exciting to work on over the last year?
I started Landelles only a year ago. I split my activity between helping deep-technology-young companies related to the maritime environment (GEPS Techno, Cailabs, VR2Planets, and Unseenlabs) and special projects.
These projects are either subsea cable ones—like continuing to be involved in the 2Africa cable system—or terrestrial crossings mostly in the Middle East. One example is EAPC Israel crossing from Eilat to Ashkelon.
On that note, what are the biggest challenges your clients are facing in 2024?
Creating diversity routes fast enough! It is becoming increasingly critical with the explosive growth of traffic.
How does your engineering background (you’ve filed over 60 patents!) inform the way you tackle these challenges? Does that particular expertise inform the way you think about digital infrastructure?
Definitely. Lowering the geopolitical pressure by increasing diversity requires engineering creativity.
Let’s look to the future. What advancements in optical infrastructure are on your radar right now? Are there any new developments on the horizon that you find especially exciting?
First, it is important for the subsea industry to "look around” as the R&D money is limited and there is so much to be done. What is done by other industries involved in the maritime domain is very important and we should look even beyond.
It is important for the subsea industry to "look around” as the R&D money is limited and there is so much to be done.
To give a few very different examples: subsea cable powering technologies, improved tools for cable routing using virtual reality, use of satellites for maritime surveillance of dark vessels and even satellite optical communications are now reaching 100G, which opens complementarities between satellite constellations and subsea cable networks.
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