No damage to undersea cable, according to Bharti

Fiber Optics Weekly Update, Dec 31, 2004

Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., India's largest GSM mobile services provider, said its joint-venture undersea cable link to Singapore had not been damaged by the tsunami that battered Indian Ocean coastlines.

The 3,100km fiber-optic cable, which is equally owned by Bharti and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., connects Chennai with Singapore.

In light of this tragedy, an undersea fiber sensor network for detection of such events seems more than necessary. By laying fiber sensors in the seabed, the sensors would have been able to detect the earthquake.

If this sensor network had been in place, many lives would have been saved by alerting the residents in the afflicted lands of the upcoming danger.

This could provide an opportunity for undersea cable manufacturers to develop a network not only for the Indian Ocean, but throughout the world.