Undersea Cables 

Syllabus: GS3/Infrastructure

Context

• India is currently experiencing a significant boost in its digital backbone with the landing of new undersea cable systems, marking a pivotal step in enhancing its international bandwidth capacity and global internet connectivity.
  • Two major systems—2Africa Pearls, backed by Meta, and SEA-ME-WE-6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe-6)—have made their landing in India in 2024, specifically at Chennai and Mumbai.

The SEA-ME-WE 6

• It is a 21,700km submarine cable system between Singapore and France (Marseille), crossing Egypt through terrestrial cables. 
• The SMW6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) consortium includes telecommunications companies from countries like Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Djibouti, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, France, Myanmar, and Yemen

What Are Undersea Cables?

• Undersea cables connect global internet networks, providing vast data transfer capacity via fiber optic strands. 
  • These cables land at designated points and are linked to terrestrial networks.
  • They connect internet service providers and telecom operators everywhere with those in other countries. 
• These cables are a few inches thick and are heavily padded to withstand the hostile environment of the sea floor. 
• Importance of Undersea Cables: About 90% of global data, 80% of world trade, and key financial and government transactions rely on undersea cables.

Fig1: Undersea Telecommunication Cable System

India’s Cable Infrastructure

• India has two main cable hubs, Mumbai and Chennai, with 17 cable systems landing there. 
• India also has two domestic cable systems — the Chennai Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) cable to provide high-speed connectivity to the islands, and the Kochi Lakshadweep Islands project.

Concerns

• Capacity and Future Demand: While current capacity is adequate, the increasing data traffic may outgrow existing infrastructure, prompting concerns over future sufficiency.
• Risks of Cable Disruptions: 570 global subsea cables handle 90% of world data and 80% of trade.
  • If there’s a disruption at the Red Sea, 25% of India’s internet is affected.
  • India lacks local vessels for cable repairs, leading to delays.
• Challenges in Cable Deployment: Excessive regulatory permissions slow down the process. 

Improvement Suggestions:

• Streamlining the regulatory process and investing in local cable repair infrastructure are essential to improving India’s subsea cable capabilities.
• The government should categorize subsea cables as critical telecom infrastructure to secure tax exemptions and encourage investment.
• There’s a call for better regulatory clarity and the establishment of a separate cable corridor to prevent damage from fishing activities.

What are Optical Fibers? – They are incredibly thin strands of very pure glass or plastic. They transmit information in the form of light pulses. How do they work? – They work on the principle of Total Internal Reflection (TIR). An optical fiber has a central core surrounded by a cladding layer. The core has a slightly higher refractive index than the cladding.  – When light enters the core at a certain angle, it keeps bouncing off the cladding due to TIR, traveling down the fiber with minimal loss.

Source: TH