The Case Against SMART Submarine Cables

I am a big fan and proponent of SMART submarine cables and have spent significant time understanding and evaluating them. And it is with deep regret I have reached to a conclusion that while the technology is good and required, political issues will not allow SMART cables to become mainstream in the near to medium future.

Unfortunately we live in an age where it is possible for governments to cry wolf over dumb pipes and create enough confusion in the minds of the common man that people start thinking every submarine cable is a tool for spies or espionage.

So while small intra-country installations like the SMART CAM project of Portugal linking the mainland to Azores and Madeira Islands in a ring configuration got funding and political backing from the EU, there is no breakthrough in any significant project connecting two or multiple countries using this technology.

This is really terrible considering the huge potential benefits of the SMART sensor technology in climate change monitoring, early earthquake and tsunami warning, ocean monitoring and so on. I was also in touch with a government agency that wanted to get rid of expensive buoys far out in the ocean with sensors embedded in submarine cables. Not only would that eliminate the maintenance and repair issues associated with the buoys but would also offer a long-term consistent and trusted data source. This agency was willing to enter in to a 25 year contract to provide them with the climate change data.

Imagine a world where major submarine cable becomes a SMART cable over time. You can then track the ships passing over them and send out location feeds to ensure they don't drop anchors in certain locations. Over time, this could potentially significantly reduce the number of cable cuts due to anchors dragging them -- if not eliminate them completely.

Also in this imagined world where every cable is SMART, it would end up saving millions of lives every year due to early earthquake/Tsunami warnings and save billions of dollars in the process. It would also be a major factor in the climate change solution with massive amounts of data fed in to AI systems around the world. And it would help us better understand the marvels of the deep sea -- of which we know little about.

The problem is as soon as you mention sensors to government agencies, they also start thinking of potential uses of the same for tracking warships and enemy submarines, etc. While each country would like to have the data, they do not want other countries to snoop on their naval fleet. They also have this biased version of cables in their head that unknown people or Chinese or Russians or aliens can somehow snoop on all the data with their majic wand even if there is no proof nor has it ever been done before. So the answer is automatically a No in spite of significant ecological and climate change advantages.

To address this problem, the ITU needs to take leadership and stop the noise and nonsense that is permeating in the industry mostly from the West. Similarly the typical far-left and liberal popular press -- ever eager to please their masters -- needs to be educated about this technology and any racist, biased or made-up articles on potential future cable espionage -- without a shred of evidence -- need to be repudiated publicly.

The irony is that the same loony-toon publishers like The New York Times, Washington Post, etc. who care so deeply about climate change are the ones creating obstacles to a path that will be the biggest game-changer in the space.

Unless the problem is addressed, the future of SMART cables is bleak and this is a story where dirty global politics has triumphed over world-changing technology ready for prime-time deployment.