en.Wedoany.com Reported - Finnish telecom operator Elisa, in collaboration with the Finnish Navy and Border Guard, has completed a test of submarine cable monitoring technology. The system is being developed as an automated service capable of automatically sending alerts to relevant authorities and key infrastructure owners when abnormal events, such as a ship dragging its anchor nearby, occur.
The test utilized Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology, which detects the environment by analyzing changes in light reflection caused by vibrations within the optical fiber. The cable itself is thus transformed into a sensor capable of capturing nearby acoustic signals. Elisa's submarine cables in the Baltic Sea region have been damaged multiple times previously due to suspicious incidents. The most recent occurred in December 2025, when a ship dragging its anchor damaged one of the company's submarine cables, although Elisa stated at the time that the incident did not cause any substantial business disruption. A vessel from Russia was suspected of involvement, and multiple incidents have been viewed as part of a hybrid war targeting Europe. Similar incidents also occurred in 2024, including the severing of a power cable.
To mitigate the impact of cable cuts, submarine cable operators commonly adopt strategies such as increasing redundancy and enabling traffic rerouting in the event of a fault. This is why Elisa did not experience substantial disruption in the recent incident. However, in a 2024 incident, the cost of repairing a cable was reportedly at least 60 million euros (approximately 70 million USD).
Elisa is not the only telecom company exploring DAS technology. The network of UK's Openreach has been used by water company Affinity Water and tech firm Lightsonic for leak detection. France's Orange is also testing the same application using Lightsonic technology. As Europe increasingly focuses on strengthening defense, telecom companies are pioneering several new security-related fields for their technologies.
During a recent earnings call for Deutsche Telekom, CEO Tim Höttges stated that the company will "continue to invest in the arms industry and defense, because, as seen from the experience in Ukraine, digitalization is crucial in new defense systems." Deutsche Telekom has partnered with German defense company Rheinmetall to build an air shield for Berlin and other cities. Additionally, Orange established a dedicated unit for defense and security actors last summer and launched a drone detection service in March this year. This is also an application focused on Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) in a project between Vodafone and Tiami.
In May this year, BT Group signed a five-year secure connectivity contract with BAE Systems. BT is also reportedly one of 26 companies awarded contracts to develop artificial intelligence targeting systems for the UK military.
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