A timely announcement from the ITU, the United Nations specialised agency for digital technology, is aimed at enhancing efforts to protect the world's digital infrastructure and secure global connectivity. To be precise, it’s about submarine cables.
The ITU has said it is setting up an International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience whose aim is to “promote dialogue and collaboration on potential ways and means to improve resilience of this critical infrastructure that powers global communications and the digital economy”.
As for the drivers for this initiative, the ITU points out that, with the current frequency of service outages, submarine cables are more vulnerable than ever before.
Thus this advisory body will serve as a platform for international multistakeholder collaboration, bringing together governments, regulatory authorities, industry leaders and key stakeholders in areas related to enhancing the safety, redundancy and protection of submarine cables.
Its primary roles will include: providing strategic guidance to improve cable resilience; developing and promoting best practices to improve the protection of subsea cable systems; and facilitating international cooperation on technical development, policy frameworks and investment models.
The ITU is calling for nominations from a wide range of industry, government and regulatory bodies for an advisory council whose duties will include contributing to strategic direction, collaborating on best practices, strengthening engagement, attending a minimum of two meetings per year, facilitating working groups and upholding ethical standards.
The apparent vulnerability of subsea cable systems is a hot topic at the moment. Numerous outages affecting Vietnam have been reported here in recent years. We have also recently highlighted problems with African connectivity. Many other regions have had to manage the effect of natural and man-made disruption on their cable systems. There can be complex legal ramifications too, as this article pointed out in May.
All of which means that the new advisory body is undoubtedly going to be kept busy. In fact, as well as all their other duties, its members will be expected to contribute to the agenda for an upcoming Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in the first quarter of 2025.