Vulnerable submarine cables: New working group should help

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), reports, “Undersea cables transport 99 percent of international data exchange.” But almost every day one of these cables gets damaged somewhere; More than 200 disruptions were recorded in 2023. Repairs are expensive and can take time. To improve prevention, ITU has now established a working group in conjunction with the industry association International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC).

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The new body is called the International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience and its purpose is to collect and provide information on approaches that have proven successful in practice. These best practices are designed to help governments and businesses reduce the risk of damage, install and repair cables more quickly, and generally avoid disruptions in communications.

eloquent silence on sabotage

on him webpage emphasizes The Working Group emphasizes the importance of submarine cables and cites natural disasters, aging, and accidental damage caused by human activities such as fishing and anchoring as threat factors. Not a single syllable mentions the most unpleasant destruction: sabotage. Theoretically, the easiest way to avoid it is to avoid it.

Vulnerable submarine cables: New working group should help

In Europe, the damage to two data cables in the Baltic Sea made headlines recently, considered part of a Russian sabotage campaign against the West. Operators were also able to arrange for and afford quick repairs. Such attacks are common in other areas of the world. Two submarine cables on Taiwan’s Matsu Island to be cut 30 times from 2017 to 2023 Diplomat reports in spring 2023 Is.

At the time, 13,000 residents finally got online again after a 50-day internet diet – they had to share a 2.2 gigabit radio line, making it impossible to open websites or stream anything at all. Meanwhile, radio links have been quadrupled and Taiwan is building 700 satellite ground stations across the country as a backup to its undersea cables.

is in september Two submarines from German manufacturer ThyssenKrupp are in operation in Singapore taken. Their mission is to protect submarine cables. Submarines are powered by fuel cells, which are quieter than diesel engines and capable of operating for long periods underwater.

Repairs expensive and slow or very expensive

Undersea cable sabotage is so effective because global repair capabilities are modest. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies Although there are 77 cable laying ships around the world, only 20 of them specialize in repairs. And so they’re 28 years old on average, which means they’re often near the end of their life expectancy.

Meanwhile, the average repair time is becoming increasingly longer. This increased to approximately 80 days in 2022, partly as a result of the massive volcanic eruption in the ocean off Tonga. But even in the long-term trend, recovery is taking longer, with the average value approaching 50 days, as can be seen Recent Submarine Telecom Industry Report emerges. So the fate of the Taiwanese on Matsu Island is not a statistical exception.

There are many reasons for this trend. On the one hand, there are much more submarine cables than 20 years ago, but correspondingly not more submarine cable ships. On the other hand, the work has become more technically difficult. There are also geopolitical issues regarding access to the damaged cables. The industry complains about bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of security at present, particularly in the Middle East.

“Should there be no significant investment in the cable vessel fleet or some areas simplify their repair protocols, the trend (of increased repair times) may continue,” the Submarine Telecommunications Industry Report 2024/2025 warns. “

Although many submarine cable operators attempt to pool their resources regionally and reduce costs through joint action, repairing a damaged cable still costs at least six figures. If multiple damages occur at the same time, there may be competition for repair ships, where smaller network operators serving small island markets often cannot compete.

New York Declaration: Phasing out Chinese technology

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September, the U.S.A. New York Joint Statement on the Safety and Resilience of Undersea Cables in a Globally Digitalized World wait. Its purpose is international cooperation between partners who rely on each other for the safety, reliability, interoperability, stability and resilience of submarine cable infrastructure expansion, repair and maintenance (i.e. excluding the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation ).

In addition to the United States, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Zealand, South Korea, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, and some European Union states have signed individually. States want to allow only “reliable and trustworthy cable components and services”, i.e. no technology of Chinese origin. Furthermore, service providers and network operators must have “transparent ownership structures, partnerships and corporate governance structures”.

ITU is the oldest branch of the United Nations (UNO) and is headquartered in Geneva. The first chairs of the new international advisory body for submarine cable resilience are Nigerian Communications Minister Bosun Tijani and Portuguese Sandra Maximiano, chair of her country’s regulatory authority. The 40 additional members come from all six ITU world regions and represent submarine cable operators, telecommunications network operators, governments, regulators, industry associations, Google, META, the World Bank, and the think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The working group should meet at least twice a year; It will begin with a virtual meeting this month, followed by a meeting in Abuja in February.

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