Cuba has contracted with France’s Orange, asking the French telecom to build an underwater cable that will link it to the island of Martinique.

Per multiple media reports, the news came about a week after the Biden administration recommended that U.S. regulators deny a request by submarine cable operator ARCOS-1 to connect Cuba to the United States through a new undersea cable landing station.

The objection from the U.S. was based on concerns that the cable-landing system in Cuba would be owned and controlled by Cuba’s state-owned telecom monopoly, Empresa de Telecommunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA). The proposal would have created the only direct, commercial undersea cable connection between the U.S. and Cuba.

No details were released about the cost or capacity of the cable, which is to be supplied by Alcatel Submarine ETECSA. President Tania Velazquez said that work had begun on the project. “Today the official act was held to begin the technical work of installing the new submarine cable, the joint work of ETECSA and Orange, which will allow the diversification of Internet connection routes in Cuba,” he said on Twitter.

The sole undersea telecom that Cuba has is to Venezuela, part of ALBA-1, an 8,400-km fiber-optic cable system that was launched in 2001. ALBA-1 extends between the United States, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico.

Per Wikipedia, ETECSA is the sole lawful provider of telephony and communications services in Cuba, in essence, a communications state monopoly that has some eight million clients, both national and foreign.

After more than 30 years of leadership in manufacturing and nearly a decade with the company, Kathleen Edge, Southwire’s executive vice president of operations, has retired. She joined Southwire in 2013 and led the company’s wire and cable operations, including Southwire’s single largest strategic initiative, modernization. As part of the transition, Rebecca Cranford, senior vice president, construction systems & solutions, will assume leadership for all wire and cable manufacturing. Aaron Asher will now be responsible for wire and cable distribution and materials management, reporting to Norman Adkins. Based in Carrollton, Georgia, Southwire is a leading manufacturer of wire and cable used in the transmission and distribution of electricity.

Patty Brooks has been promoted to plant manager of Liberty Engineered Wire Products in Warren, Ohio, where she had been the assistant plant manager. She previously worked for eight years for sister company Liberty Bar Products, where she started out as an inside sales representative, then served as office and customer relations manager and then as assistant plant manager. Previous employers included Avatar Corporation, Keystone Bar Products and Bonnell Aluminum. Based in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and with production facilities in Warren and Las Cruces, New Mexico, Liberty Engineered Wire Products manufactures welded wire reinforcement.

Jaxon Lang has joined AFL as COO, responsible for overseeing the company’s operational performance as well as managing its supply chain, commercial sales, marketing and customer service divisions across AFL’s five core markets. He has more than 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, and has a solid record of leading and managing businesses through transformations, including mergers and acquisitions. He will assist AFL and Fujikura in the future growth of the business. He most recently was president and CEO of FiberRise, and prior to that held key positions over two decades at CommScope, TE Connectivity and ADC. A subsidiary of Fujikura, AFL manufactures a wide range of fiber optic cable.

Thomas W. Walker has been named senior vice president of marketing and business development of Wire and Cable Consulting, LLC. In 1984, he joined Crellin, Inc. (which later became Sonoco/Crellin) as an account manager, selling plastic and wire reels, tapes, bobbins and solder spools. He later joined Pittsfield Plastics Engineering, serving as its president until he retired in 2022. A WAI Life Member, he is a recipient of the Charles Scott Distinguished Award and has served on the board of the Wire & Cable Manufacturers Association. Wire and Cable Consulting, LLC, provides sales representation, marketing and new product development services.

Jonathan Reeves has joined the technical support department of AESA Cortalloid. He previously worked at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), where he participated in the development of energy extraction devices used in quench protection systems for superconducting magnets in the CERN particle accelerator complex. He holds a master’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Nottingham (UK). Based in Sweden, AESA Cortalloid supplies measuring systems and services to the wire and cable industry.

TE Connectivity has promoted Rebecca Graham from distribution account manager to industrial sales manager for Australia. Based in the Greater Brisbane area, she previously worked for NKT Australia for more than seven years. Prior to that she worked a year for AUSSA Power Products. A global business, TE Connectivity’s products include a range of wire and cable.

Encore Wire Corporation announced that Bret J. Eckert, the company’s CFO, has taken on the additional position of executive vice president. He joined the company in 2019 and formally assumed the CFO role in 2020. Prior to joining Encore, he served for a year as an executive managing director for Riveron Consulting LLC, and prior to that was senior vice president and CFO of Atmos Energy Corporation for five years. Before that, he spent 22 years with Ernst & Young LLP, where he was a partner for 10 years. Based in McKinney, Texas, Encore Wire is a leading manufacturer of a broad range of copper and aluminum electrical wire and cable

Obituary
John Schleicher, director of technical services & wire products manager for IWM International LLC, died Nov. 28, 2022, at age 62. Prior to joining IWM in 2016. He worked for about two years as director of technical services for Mount Joy Wire and 19 years for New York Wire, where he served in positions from senior engineer to wire operations manager. A WAI member, he was a life member of the SME and was greatly valued for his wire industry relationships. He held a BSIE degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering from Penn State University. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; daughters Anna and Molly; a son, Samuel; a brother, Thomas; and grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews, and extended family.