Most cable damage is caused by human error or natural activity but there are grey areas when it comes to legal responsibilities in international water – and this needs to change
The ITU’s new International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience first virtual meeting took place on 12 December but the body is already facing questions on what sort of mandate it will have to investigate things like the famous “whoops, I dragged my anchor for a hundred miles”.
Launched on 29 November, by the ITU and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), the new International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience to strengthen the resilience of this vital telecommunication infrastructure. Submarine telecommunication cables form the backbone of global communications, carrying most of the world’s internet traffic.
Ahead of the new meeting, ITU deputy secretary-general Tomas Lamanauskas said the body will identify key issues to ensure that submarine cables are built, deployed and maintained with a greater resiliency. “It’s definitely not just a technical issue, but an issue that can affect our economies and our societies. And however we see that this critical infrastructure is vulnerable to disruptions,” he said.
ITU figures show around 200 cable failures in 2023 with the vast majority of these thought to be caused by natural hazards or human accidents, such as being pierced by a boat anchor. The issue for the industry is that the world only has a finite number of cable ships – read not enough – and so these are booked up months and years in advance, making even repairs more complicated to resolve, particularly given the burgeoning number of proposed cables criss-crossing the world’s seas and oceans. Damage to submarine cables is not uncommon, with an average of 150 to 200 faults occurring globally each year and requiring about three cable repairs per week, according to the ICPC.
Lamanauskas dodged Reuters questions about the most recent whoopsie incident most in the Baltic Sea, telling journalists that the ITU does not attribute “the causes of the disruptions”. He instead hopes the new body would help address disruptions – whatever the cause – by restoring services more quickly by doing things like expediting permits.
Meet the body
The Advisory Body will address ways to improve cable resilience by promoting best practices for governments and industry players to ensure the timely deployment and repair of submarine cables, reduce the risks of damage, and enhance the continuity of communications over the cables. It comprises 40 experts from around the world from the public and private sectors including representatives from submarine cable operators, telecommunications companies and government agencies.
With an initial term of two years, the Advisory Body is co-chaired by Nigeria’s communications, innovation and digital economy minister Bosun Tijani, and ANACOM chair professor Sandra Maximiano. Members come from all world regions, ensuring diversity and inclusion from countries ranging from small island states to major economies. The Advisory Body will meet at least two times a year. It will consult with experts on telecommunications, digital resilience infrastructure development, infrastructure investment and international policy to provide strategic guidance and encourage sector-wide collaboration.
The Advisory Body will meet at least twice a year. The first physical meeting is currently scheduled to take place during the Submarine Cable Resilience Summit, planned for late February 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria.
It remains to be seen how much of a talk shop the new Advisory Body will be because there are some big problems to resolve as Ciena senior director of solutions marketing Brian Lavallée told Mobile Europe at the end of last year. Outside most countries’ exclusive economic zones – where there is a myriad of domestic laws from liberal to impenetrable around undersea cables – the only legislation protecting cables in international waters is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the international agreement often described as the “constitution of the oceans.”
According to a paper by the Jamestown Foundation, the UNCLOS framework fails to address several critical issues. For example, deliberate attacks on cables lying outside territorial seas are unlikely to be crimes under international law. In addition, coastal states have no legal obligation to adopt laws protecting submarine cables in their territorial seas.
“It’s very, very tough to prosecute somebody successfully outside of your jurisdictional waters,” he said at the time.