Summary Bullets:
- The role of hyperscalers has changed over the last decade as their investment in subsea cables has almost tripled over the last seven years.
- Governments must work with their counterparts to help protect subsea cable infrastructure from environmental, accidental, and malicious threats including cyberattacks.
The subsea cable industry was once led by telecommunication and network carriers sharing ownership of subsea cables. Over the last two decades the tides have been shifting with a strong current of hyperscalers muscling in and changing the market landscape. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are now carving up the ocean floor and investing in their own underwater infrastructure highway while navigating autonomously through open waters, while enhancing connectivity and data security. There are concerns that while these developments will improve internet access, greater control by governments is needed to regulate and to protect the critical infrastructure ecosystem.
The role of hyperscalers has changed as their investment in subsea cables has almost tripled over the last seven years. Over the last decade, the share of subsea capacity consumed by the four major hyperscalers has increased from 10% to 71%, predominately driven by the growth in cloud computing services and artificial intelligence (AI), making it financially beneficial for hyperscalers to invest and influence the construction of cables, rather than just buying capacity from telecom operators. However, while hyperscalers have the money, they lack experience in deployment, maintenance, and operations that could be gained by partnering with a telco. Governments should look to play their part by joining telecom operators and hyperscalers working towards a more cohesive ecosystem.
With more than 97% of the world’s internet traffic now passing through subsea cables, it is becoming more critical for governments to protect subsea cable infrastructure from environmental, accidental, and other threats – including cyberattacks. Governments must work bilaterally via legislation to protect subsea infrastructure, with the rise of damage/sabotage. A recent example of this was in the Baltic Sea, with two cable cuts in back-to-back incidents, affecting one between Lithuania and Sweden, and another connecting Finland and Germany.
Some governments have already taken steps to protect this infrastructure. an example of this is in Australia, with its government body Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) establishing protection zones for its submarine cables in Australian waters. This could be expanded on to protect global cable infrastructure through endorsement from the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), a submarine cable protection non-profit organization with over 190 members from over 69 nations, including cable operators, owners, manufacturers, industry service providers, including governments. The ICPC collaborates with the United Nations through its Environment Programme (UNEP). Working through international bodies can help to advocate for stronger legislation to safeguard critical infrastructure globally.