Southeast Asia Calls for Subsea Cable Protection as Development Surges
Singapore is leading the charge to update the 2019 ASEAN Guidelines for Strengthening Resilience and Repair of Submarine Cables under the ASEAN Working Group on Submarine Cables. The updated Guidelines are expected to be endorsed during the 6th ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting in January 2026 in Hanoi, offering an opportunity to strengthen regional coordination, alignment with best practices, and incident response mechanisms.
Over 99 percent of intercontinental data traffic is routed through subsea cables; however, geographic factors, maritime traffic, cabotage restrictions, and other maintenance challenges have led to significant cable failures throughout the region. For example, Vietnam’s five subsea cables experience approximately 15 faults per year, which has resulted in losses of international bandwidth as high as 60 percent for extended periods of time. To meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity, at least 10 major subsea cable projects are also expected to become operational in the region by the end of 2025.