Telecommunications infrastructure

International consensus emerges on submarine cable governance

The International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit concluded in Porto with a strong call for proactive action to protect the infrastructure that underpins global digital connectivity. Hosted by Portugal’s regulator Anacom and co-chaired by Professor Sandra Maximiano and Nigerian Minister of Communications Bosun Tijani, the summit brought together more than 350 participants from over 70 countries, spanning governments, industry, and international organisations, including the ITU and the International Cable Protection Committee.

ITU Deputy Secretary-General Thomas Lamanauskas framed the summit as a milestone in a broader global effort, noting that ITU members have designated this period as a ‘year of resilience,’ with submarine cables at its core. He described the Porto meeting as the culmination of two years of work following the first summit in Abuja, marking a shift from reacting to cable failures toward systematically strengthening resilience before disruptions occur.

Concrete progress was reported through three working groups that have been active since the Abuja summit, focusing on repair procedures and permitting, risk mitigation, and connectivity for underserved regions.

Undersea cables

John Wrottesley of the ICPC credited the close involvement of governments alongside technical experts for producing recommendations that are both realistic and implementable, saying this collaboration injected new momentum into the process.

A central theme of the closing session was the recognition that resilience starts long before cables are damaged. Lamanauskas stressed that adequate protection depends on planning, routing, monitoring, and marine awareness, rather than relying solely on faster repairs after incidents.

Wrottesley reinforced this point from an industry perspective, arguing that well-designed cables and streamlined administrative processes are just as critical as ships and technology when outages occur.

The speakers also highlighted the importance of continuous coordination between governments and operators, including round-the-clock communication frameworks to enable rapid response. Investment was another key issue, with participants stressing that resilience requires sustained funding not only for new systems, but also for existing cables, repair ships, and coverage gaps that still leave some regions highly exposed.

The session culminated in the formal endorsement of the Porto Declaration on Submarine Cable Resilience by the International Advisory Body. Minister Tijani described the declaration as a forward-looking response to the disruptions experienced in 2024, reflecting the reality that connectivity has become foundational to economic and social life. He acknowledged the contributions of working group leaders from countries and organisations, including the United Kingdom, China, the World Bank, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, North American Submarine Cable, and South Africa.

The declaration emphasises inclusion, capacity development, and long-term cooperation, particularly for small island states, least developed countries, and landlocked nations.

As the summit closed, Wrottesley underlined that the real test lies in implementation, with working groups set to continue their work through mid-2026. The Porto Declaration was adopted by acclamation, signalling broad agreement that protecting submarine cables requires sustained collaboration to keep global connectivity open, reliable, and resilient.

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How to make submarine cables work in underserved regions

A panel at the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit 2026 in Porto examined how economic viability and resilience intersect in efforts to extend submarine cable connectivity to underserved regions. Moderated by Aliu Yusuf Aboki, the discussion brought together development banks, regulators, and international organisations to explore how financing models, policy reforms, and partnerships can turn fragile cable projects into sustainable foundations for digital growth.

Aboki opened by stressing that resilience directly affects the economics of connectivity, influencing insurance costs, repair times, service continuity, and investor confidence. Referring to the 2024 West Africa cable outages, he warned that a single failure could trigger widespread economic disruption and derail projects already financially marginal, making resilience a prerequisite for attracting long-term investment.

German Cufré of the World Bank Group outlined how traditional financing approaches often fail in challenging markets and argued for flexible risk-sharing models that combine public and private stakeholders. He described a West African project where governments, private open-access operators, and blended finance instruments each took equal stakes, supported by in-kind public assets such as landing stations and fibre networks. Cufré also emphasised the World Bank’s insistence on wholesale open access, ensuring that publicly supported cables remain non-discriminatory, even within private consortia.

Cufré cautioned that blended finance is becoming scarcer just as demand for connectivity is surging due to AI-driven data growth. In response, he said the World Bank is exploring new tools such as a Digital Access Fund to absorb first losses and a model that allows mature cable assets to be sold to institutional investors, freeing capital for new deployments.

International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit 2026

Syed Mohammad Shaharyar Jawaid from the Islamic Development Bank announced a dedicated $250 million commitment for digital infrastructure in member states in 2026–2027, noting that many cable developers are unaware that multilateral lenders are actively seeking such projects and that digital infrastructure must be planned alongside reliable energy systems.

Lauren Bieniek of the ITU added a global perspective, citing a $1.6 trillion investment gap in digital infrastructure identified through the Digital Infrastructure Investment Catalyzer initiative. She explained that the partnership among ITU, UNCTAD, and multilateral development banks aims to move beyond diagnostics to accelerate real financing, particularly in regions where market forces alone cannot deliver resilient connectivity.

On the policy front, Rudra Narayan Palai from India’s Department of Telecommunications described reforms introduced following the adoption of the International Cable Protection Committee’s recommendations. These include faster permitting, open ownership rules, and legal recognition of cable landing stations as critical infrastructure. Palai linked these reforms to India’s rapid expansion of data centre capacity and raised questions about whether repair capabilities should rely solely on market mechanisms or require state-backed sovereign capacity, citing prolonged disruptions from Red Sea incidents.

Regional challenges were highlighted by Rodney Taylor of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, who warned that ageing cables and heavy reliance on routes terminating in Florida expose small island states to systemic risk. He argued that resilience must be addressed regionally rather than nationally and described efforts to build local expertise through a regional school of digital transformation and South–South cooperation with West Africa.

Closing the discussion, Professor Manuel Cabugueira of Portugal’s regulator, ANACOM, presented Portugal’s vision for ‘smart cables’ that combine connectivity with climate monitoring and disaster warning, urging participants to view submarine cables as integrated systems of technology, institutions, and people essential to long-term digital resilience.

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Experts call for better protection of submarine internet cables

A high-level panel at the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit 2026 in Porto focused on a growing paradox in global connectivity. While submarine cable damage incidents have remained relatively stable for over a decade, the time needed to repair them has increased sharply.

Moderated by Nadia Krivetz, member of the International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience, the discussion brought together government officials and industry experts who warned that longer repair times are creating new vulnerabilities for the global internet, even as undersea cable networks continue to expand rapidly.

Andy Palmer-Felgate of the International Cable Protection Committee highlighted that more than 80% of cable damage is caused by fishing and anchoring, mostly on continental shelves where maritime activity is densest. She noted that a small number of high-risk ‘problem cables’ consume around half of the world’s annual repair capacity, suggesting that targeted prevention in specific locations could significantly reduce global disruption.

Palmer-Felgate also pointed to a shift in fault patterns away from Europe and the Atlantic toward Asia, exposing weaknesses in a repair model that depends on shared, slow-to-move vessels.

New monitoring technologies were presented as part of the solution, though not without limitations. Sigurd Zhang described how distributed acoustic sensing can detect vessel activity in real time, even when ships switch off tracking systems, citing cases in which fishing fleets were invisible to conventional monitoring systems.

International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit 2026

Eduardo Mateo added that newer optical monitoring tools can identify long-term stress and seabed instability affecting cables. Still, both speakers stressed that the cost, data complexity, and reliability requirements remain major barriers, especially for shorter cable systems.

Beyond monitoring, the panel explored improvements in cable design and installation, including stronger armouring, deeper burial, and more resilient network topologies. Mateo cautioned that technology alone cannot eliminate risk, as submarine cables must coexist with other seabed users.

Zhang noted that fully integrated ‘smart cables’ combining telecoms and scientific monitoring may still be a decade away, given the strict reliability standards operators demand.

Government coordination emerged as a decisive factor in reducing damage and speeding up repairs. South Africa’s Nonkqubela Thathakahle Jordan-Dyani described how fragmented regulations across African countries slow emergency responses and raise costs.

Speakers pointed to examples of more effective governance, including Australia’s notification-based repair system and successful legal cases described by Peter Jamieson, which have increased accountability among vessel operators and begun changing behaviour at sea.

Industry practices and skills were also under scrutiny. Jamieson argued that careful route planning and proper burial can prevent most cable faults. Still, Simon Hibbert warned that these standards depend on experienced workers whose skills are hard to replace. With an ageing maritime workforce and fewer recruits entering sea-based professions, the panel cautioned that declining expertise could undermine future cable resilience if training and knowledge transfer are not prioritised.

The discussion concluded by situating cable protection within broader economic and geopolitical pressures. Mateo pointed to supply chain risks for key materials driven by AI-related demand, while Jamieson cited regions like the Red Sea, where geopolitical instability forces cables into crowded corridors.

Despite these challenges, speakers agreed that prevention, cooperation, and shared responsibility offer a realistic path forward, stressing that submarine cable resilience can only be strengthened through sustained collaboration between governments, industry, and international organisations.

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Greece nears plan to restrict social media for under-15s

Preparing to restrict social media access for children under 15s, Greece plans to use the Kids Wallet app as its enforcement tool amid rising European concern over youth safety.

A senior official indicated that an announcement is close, reflecting growing political concern about digital safety and youth protection.

The Ministry of Digital Governance intends to rely on the Kids Wallet application, introduced last year, as a mechanism for enforcing the measure instead of developing a new control framework.

Government planning is advanced, yet the precise timing of the announcement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has not been finalised.

In addition to the legislative initiative in Greece, the European debate on children’s online safety is intensifying.

Spain recently revealed plans to prohibit social media access for those under sixteen and to create legislation that would hold platform executives personally accountable for hate speech.

Such moves illustrate how governments are seeking to shape the digital environment for younger users rather than leaving regulation solely in private hands.

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India pushes Meta to justify WhatsApp’s data-sharing

The Supreme Court of India has delivered a forceful warning to Meta after judges said the company could not play with the right to privacy.

The court questioned how WhatsApp monetises personal data in a country where the app has become the de facto communications tool for hundreds of millions of people. Judges added that meaningful consent is difficult when users have little practical choice.

Meta was told not to share any user information while the appeal over WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy continues. Judges pressed the company to explain the value of behavioural data instead of relying solely on claims about encrypted messages.

Government lawyers argued that personal data was collected and commercially exploited in ways most users would struggle to understand.

The case stems from a major update to WhatsApp’s data-sharing rules that India’s competition regulator said abused the platform’s dominant position.

A significant penalty was issued before Meta and WhatsApp challenged the ruling at the Supreme Court. The court has now widened the proceedings by adding the IT ministry and has asked Meta to provide detailed answers before the next hearing on 9 February.

WhatsApp is also under heightened scrutiny worldwide as regulators examine how encrypted platforms analyse metadata and other signals.

In India, broader regulatory changes, such as new SIM-binding rules, could restrict how small businesses use the service rather than broadening its commercial reach.

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EU moves closer to decision on ChatGPT oversight

The European Commission plans to decide by early 2026 whether OpenAI’s ChatGPT should be classified as a vast online platform under the Digital Services Act.

OpenAI’s tool reported 120.4 million average monthly users in the EU back in October, a figure far above the 45-million threshold that triggers more onerous obligations instead of lighter oversight.

Officials said the designation procedure depends on both quantitative and qualitative assessments of how a service operates, together with input from national authorities.

The Commission is examining whether a standalone AI chatbot can fall within the scope of rules usually applied to platforms such as social networks, online marketplaces and significant search engines.

ChatGPT’s user data largely stems from its integrated online search feature, which prompts users to allow the chatbot to search the web. The Commission noted that OpenAI could voluntarily meet the DSA’s risk-reduction obligations while the formal assessment continues.

The EU’s latest wave of designations included Meta’s WhatsApp, though the rules applied only to public channels, not private messaging.

A decision on ChatGPT that will clarify how far the bloc intends to extend its most stringent online governance framework to emerging AI systems.

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Porto summit highlights growing risks to undersea internet cables

The Second International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit opened this week in Porto, Portugal, bringing together senior officials from governments, international organisations, and industry to address the growing risks facing the underwater cables that carry most of the world’s internet traffic. The event highlighted how submarine cables have become critical infrastructure for the global digital economy, especially as societies grow more dependent on cloud services, AI, and cross-border data flows.

Opening the summit, Ambassador João Mira Gomes, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations Office at Geneva, explained that Portugal’s infrastructure minister was absent due to ongoing storm recovery efforts, underlining the real-world pressures facing critical infrastructure today. He recalled Portugal’s long history in global connectivity, noting that one of the earliest submarine cables linking Portugal and the United Kingdom was built to support the port wine trade, a reminder that communication networks and economic exchange have long evolved together.

Professor Sandra Maximiano, co-chair of the International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience, placed the discussions in a broader historical context. She pointed to the creation of the International Telecommunication Union in 1865 as the first global organisation dedicated to managing international communications, stressing that cooperation on submarine cables has always been a ‘positive-sum game’ in which all countries benefit from shared rules and coordination.

Maximiano also highlighted Portugal’s strategic role as a cable hub, citing its extensive coastline, large exclusive economic zone, and favourable landing conditions connecting Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. She outlined key projects such as the Atlantic CAM system linking mainland Portugal with Madeira and the Azores using a resilient ring design and smart cable technology that combines telecommunications with seismic and oceanographic monitoring. Existing and planned systems, she said, are not just data pipelines but foundations for innovation, scientific cooperation, and strategic autonomy.

A major outcome of the summit was the adoption of the Porto Declaration on Submarine Cable Resilience, developed with input from more than 150 experts worldwide. The declaration sets out practical guidance to improve permitting and repair processes, strengthen legal frameworks, promote route diversity and risk mitigation, and enhance capacity-building, with special attention to the needs of small island states and developing countries.

ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin framed these efforts within a rapidly changing digital landscape, announcing that 2026 will be designated the ‘year of resilience.’ She warned that the scale of global digital dependence has transformed the impact of cable disruptions, as even minor outages can ripple across AI systems, cloud platforms, and autonomous services. Resilience, she argued, now depends as much on international coordination and preparedness as on cable design itself.

From the European Union perspective, European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen outlined upcoming EU measures, including a submarine cable security toolbox and targeted funding through the Connecting Europe Facility. She stressed the importance of regional coordination and praised Portugal’s active role in aligning EU initiatives with global efforts led by the ITU.

Closing the opening session, Ambassador Gomes linked cable resilience to broader goals of development and peace, warning that digital divides fuel inequality and instability, and reaffirming Portugal’s commitment to international cooperation and capacity-building as the summit moves the global conversation from policy to action.

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ChatGPT restored after global outage disrupts users worldwide

OpenAI faced a wave of global complaints after many users struggled to access ChatGPT.

Reports began circulating in the US during the afternoon, with outage cases climbing to more than 12.000 in less than half an hour. Social media quickly filled with questions from people trying to determine whether the disruption was widespread or a local glitch.

Also, users in the UK reported complete failure to generate responses, yet access returned when they switched to a US-based VPN.

Other regions saw mixed results, as VPNs in Ireland, Canada, India and Poland allowed ChatGPT to function, although replies were noticeably slower instead of consistent.

OpenAI later confirmed that several services were experiencing elevated errors. Engineers identified the source of the disruption, introduced mitigations and continued monitoring the recovery.

The company stressed that users in many regions might still experience intermittent problems while the system stabilises rather than operating at full capacity.

In the following update, OpenAI announced that its systems were fully operational again.

The status page indicated that the affected services had recovered, and engineers were no longer aware of active issues. The company added that the underlying fault was addressed, with further safeguards being developed to prevent similar incidents.

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Australia steps up platform scrutiny after mass Snapchat removals

Snapchat has blocked more than 415,000 Australian accounts after the national ban on under-16s began, marking a rapid escalation in the country’s effort to restrict children’s access to major platforms.

The company relied on a mix of self-reported ages and age-detection technologies to identify users who appeared to be under 16.

The platform warned that age verification still faces serious shortcomings, leaving room for teenagers to bypass safeguards rather than supporting reliable compliance.

Facial estimation tools remain accurate only within a narrow range, meaning some young people may slip through while older users risk losing access. Snapchat also noted the likelihood that teenagers will shift towards less regulated messaging apps.

The eSafety commissioner has focused regulatory pressure on the 10 largest platforms, although all services with Australian users are expected to assess whether they fall under the new requirements.

Officials have acknowledged that the technology needs improvement and that reliability issues, such as the absence of a liveness check, contributed to false results.

More than 4.7 million accounts have been deactivated across the major platforms since the ban began, although the figure includes inactive and duplicate accounts.

Authorities in Australia expect further enforcement, with notices set to be issued to companies that fail to meet the new standards.

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EU plans a secure military data space by 2030

Institutions in the EU have begun designing a new framework to help European armies share defence information securely, rather than relying on US technology.

A plan centred on creating a military-grade data platform, the European Defence Artificial Intelligence Data Space, is intended to support sensitive exchanges among defence authorities.

Ultimately, the approach aims to replace the current patchwork of foreign infrastructure that many member states rely on to store and transfer national security data.

The European Defence Agency is leading the effort and expects the platform to be fully operational by 2030. The concept includes two complementary elements: a sovereign military cloud for data storage and a federated system that allows countries to exchange information on a trusted basis.

Officials argue that this will improve interoperability, speed up joint decision-making, and enhance operational readiness across the bloc.

A project that aligns with broader concerns about strategic autonomy, as EU leaders increasingly question long-standing dependencies on American providers.

Several European companies have been contracted to develop the early technical foundations. The next step is persuading governments to coordinate future purchases so their systems remain compatible with the emerging framework.

Planning documents suggest that by 2029, member states should begin integrating the data space into routine military operations, including training missions and coordinated exercises. EU authorities maintain that stronger control of defence data will be essential as military AI expands across European forces.

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