Beneath the Waves, Cables Learn to Think

New fiber sensing tools are turning submarine cables into early warning systems across Asia Pacific

25 Feb 2026

Beneath the Pacific and Indian oceans lies the true backbone of the digital economy. Submarine cables carry more than 95% of global internet traffic, yet for decades they have been curiously mute, transmitting data but revealing little about their own condition. That may be changing.

Cable breaks are rare but disruptive. A single rupture can slow cloud services, unsettle financial markets and sever national links. Repairs are slow and costly, especially in busy corridors such as the South China Sea, where storms and ship traffic complicate access. Fixing a fault can take weeks and cost millions of dollars. For operators, prevention is cheaper than cure, if only it were possible.

Suppliers such as NEC and Ciena are now testing fibre optic sensing systems that promise just that. By detecting small shifts in temperature, vibration and strain along a cable’s length, these tools can flag unusual activity in real time. Instead of waiting for traffic to fail, operators may be able to spot weaknesses early and intervene in safer weather windows, reducing the need for emergency vessel deployments.

Predictive maintenance is not yet the norm. Retrofitting older cables is expensive, and analysing the torrent of sensor data demands sophisticated software and skilled staff. For now, most deployments are limited to trials, new builds or high value stretches of network.

The approach differs from established SMART cable projects, which embed sensors to monitor earthquakes and ocean conditions. Those initiatives have shown that subsea infrastructure can double as scientific equipment. The newer wave of fibre sensing is more prosaic. Its focus is the cable itself, its integrity, its uptime and, ultimately, its profitability.

As Asia Pacific cements its role as a global data hub, traffic from data centres, streaming services and artificial intelligence workloads is climbing fast. Downtime is becoming more expensive. In that context, cables that can sense their surroundings look less like a novelty and more like prudent insurance.

The ocean will remain unpredictable. But the infrastructure beneath it may no longer be silent.