FAQ

Headquartered near Washington, DC, we are an industry-leading consultancy specializing in the planning, procurement, and implementation of submarine cable systems. We have served the telecommunications industry for more than 20 years and possess accredited ISO 9001:2015 Quality, ISO 14001:2015 Environmental and ISO 27001:2013 Information Security management systems for the implementation of submarine cable systems for commercial, governmental, and offshore energy companies throughout the world.

Yes. We are currently supporting three transpacific and two transatlantic cable projects, as well as numerous regional cables systems for various commercial, governmental and offshore energy clients.

We are presently supporting the Ministry of Telecommunications in Chile, for instance, in its development of a first-ever transpacific submarine cable to the Asia Pacific. Since our founding in 2001, we have accomplished some 135 telecommunications projects for 75 international clients, including 25 regional systems, 16 inter-platform systems and 16 transoceanic systems

We are a family owned and legacy operated company who understand and appreciate our unique place in the world of submarine telecoms yet are ‘big’ enough to receive the President’s “E” Award for Exports alongside American Express and other great US companies.

We are also incredibly proud to have been involved in several industry firsts for commercial, governmental and offshore energy clients in the Arctic, Australia, Caspian Sea, Eastern Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

Submarine cables are the backbone of the world’s communications – what we do is important work, but it is also cool. Where else can you be called responsible for bringing the world to a small island nation? Or have a small part in higher education to a remote tribe? Our industry is one of the world’s best kept secrets; few people are even aware of our networks or the work we do, and to make matters worse, we have an aging population in the industry that is becoming hard to ignore. Our industry is over 160 years old – in all that time, the process of laying cable has not changed significantly. Our history is rich, exciting and treasured. WFN Strategies strives to bridge the experience gap by fostering project teams comprised of seasoned industry veterans and junior engineers. We, like our industry, are focused on the long term.

Communication is a core tenant to the human experience, without even basic communications or collaboration we as a species would never have gotten off the ground. As a member of the submarine cable industry, we are responsible for installing and maintaining the literal backbone of the world’s communications network – without what we do, the world as we know it would not exist.

So how do telecoms actually help humanity? When we install a new cable to a place that has never had one, the local economy explodes, and business and educational opportunities pour in. Telecommunications offers opportunities at a speed our ancestors only dreamed of, communicating in real time with a team of experts across international time zones is not only possible, its common place. What we do helps keep the world turning!

Like any long standing or generational industry, the current generation of companies and professionals need to be good stewards for the next. This August, the submarine cable industry will turn 162 years old, it is our privilege to continue the traditions our forbearers have passed to us.

Priming the next generation remains one of our core missions – by not only fostering project teams with senior and junior team members, but also promoting enrichment exercises and giving rising engineers and technicians the opportunity to learn directly from the aged experts.

The submarine cable industry lacks a distinct accessible degree program. In fact, most people wind up in our industry either by apprentice programs or as a legacy. Because education is so important, companies in our industry must safeguard the expertise of the past and current generation for the next.

In our mind, it is not only a good business practice to foster young talent, but absolutely necessary for the continued success of our industry.

We were founded in 2001, almost twenty years ago. We as an organization have lived many lives, gone through many project and product reinventions – we were founded with a few key tenants in mind, not the least of which was to remain an agile and responsive business.
Fostering the ability to self-evaluate client business processes, products, or even personnel, is essential to the health of their company, from small one-man shops to massive corporations.

We have and always will be a consultancy, however our services and delivery methods have changed drastically over the years. Even just recently, we have reimagined our customer management system – instead of delivering PDF after PDF of reports, our customers receive a link to our brand-new PM 2.0 Operations Dashboard, a place they can log in and see every detail of their project.

While our offerings have remained largely the same, the types of projects, customers and delivery methods of our findings have evolved since 2001.

Continued innovation is essential, if you do not have the bright idea first, your competition will.

We are growing our PM 2.0 system beyond simply the implementation of a submarine cable, but as a standalone archival and history retrieval for the life of a system, which is underpinned by ISO 9001:2015 and PMP™ standards and practices.
Our project information systems have been developed and managed in accordance with ISO 27001:2013 (Information Technology Security Techniques and Management Systems) and ISO 27002:2013 (Information Technology Security Techniques and Code of Practice for Information Security Controls), and are presently accomplishing certification for both ISO IT standards.

We are developing our in-field services to align with today’s realities, including the implementation of a Virtual Representative capability as an add-on to our PM 2.0 Dashboard.