Digital Lifelines in Deep Water

Submarine cables are the silent lifelines of the digital age, carrying 99 percent of global internet traffic and driving economic and societal growth.

- AJAY KUMAR

Following their own Moore's Law, cable capacity doubles every 2-2.5 years, with 70,000 to 100,000 km added annually and $10 billion in investments. As of 2024, over 550 systems span 1.4 million km—enough to circle the Earth 35 times. With India's exploding data needs, its undersea cable network is poised for exponential growth. Driven by private players, the industry has grown rapidly but in a haphazard manner, with extremely vulnerable dense clusters at chokepoints like the Luzon Strait and the Malacca Strait.

A lack of formal regulation is creating serious gaps in submarine cable governance, with major strategic consequences.

A strategic shift is redefining how nations view undersea cables—from commercial infrastructure to assets critical for sovereignty and global influence. The United States (US) has long dominated this space, but China is rapidly expanding its footprint, using its Belt and Road Initiative to control key communication routes. Pakistan, leveraging its geography, is aligning with China to gain a role in the Digital Silk Road. Rising concerns over Chinese-built cables have led to a push for "clean cable" consortia by the US, the European Union (EU), and Japan. After Chinese firms exited the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 cable project under geopolitical pressure, they regrouped under the Europe-Middle East-Asia project. Led by China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom, with Huawei Marine Technologies as the main contractor, China is now linking Hong Kong, Hainan, Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and France.