Contributed Article

by Pete Harvey, Senior Product Manager Subsea, Starboard Maritime Intelligence

When Starboard published Cable Risk Intelligence 2026 (Issue 1) in April, the Persian Gulf scored 4.6 out of 5.0 on our risk index, the highest of the 25 cable landing zones we assessed globally. At the time, that rating was grounded in a combination of geopolitical tension, high traffic density, constrained repair access, and documented vessel behaviour around cable routes in the region.

Since then, the situation has deteriorated further. Iran has explicitly threatened to sever submarine cables in the Strait of Hormuz as part of the 2026 conflict, with state media circulating maps of Gulf undersea cable routes. At least 17 cable systems transit the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, carrying the majority of data traffic between Asia and Europe. Cable construction work across the Gulf has come to a standstill because repair ships can’t operate in active conflict zones.

The Persian Gulf rating was a forecast of the conditions that have now materialised.

The window of opportunity

Most operators find out a cable is at risk through a service degradation report from a customer, an optical monitoring alarm, or a repair dispatch. By the time any of those signals fire, the cable is already cut, and the repair window begins. Under normal conditions, that window averages 40 days for a deepwater fault. In a conflict zone there’s no definitive end.

The solution is to collate and analyse the risk data within the prevention window, giving operators a chance to intervene before a cable is struck.

Whether accidental or deliberate, every cable incident is preceded by vessel behaviour that is detectable before damage occurs. An anchor drag begins as a vessel drifting over a known route. A trawler working a protected zone slows to trawling speed before it makes contact. A vessel executing a deliberate act loiters, changes course without apparent purpose, or goes dark in a sensitive area. If you’re looking for them in the right way with the right tools, these patterns can be seen in the data before the fault event.

Early detection in practice

Starboard fuses AIS, satellite data, fibre sensing (DAS and SoP), and bathymetry into a single operational view, then applies behavioural models to flag when vessel activity near a cable route deviates from established patterns. The output is a prioritised alert with enough vessel data for a Marine Operations Centre or an operator to act.

In a New Zealand cable protection trial conducted with the New Zealand Government, commercial cable owners, and a marine operations centre, this approach generated 86 alerts, prompted 17 VHF vessel calls, and resulted in three vessels changing course, none of which required waiting for a fault signal.

When Starboard’s vessel risk alerts are integrated directly into a carrier’s NOC software, response time drops from 25 minutes to 3. The compressed timeline from signal to action is where damage is prevented.

Hormuz

The events of 2026 have clarified that ambiguity is itself a threat vector. When a vessel drags anchor over a cable, attribution is uncertain. When a sanctioned vessel transits a cable corridor slowly and without AIS, intent is unclear. When a cable is cut in or near a conflict zone, the line between accident and deliberate act is difficult to establish, and difficult to act on legally or operationally.

Starboard’s behavioural models are designed to provide information, clarity, and explanation that shed light on the challenges. They flag deviations from established traffic patterns even when AIS data is absent or inconsistent, and correlate vessel activity with known risk indicators to deliver an assessed picture rather than a raw data feed.

This is the operating environment the Submarine Networks EMEA and Subsea Security Summit communities are navigating in 2026. The technology to detect threatening behaviour before it causes damage exists today. The question is whether it’s integrated into the operational workflows of the teams who need it.

Read the full risk index

Cable Risk Intelligence 2026 (Issue 1) covers 25 cable landing zones across the Baltic, Red Sea, Taiwan Strait, North Sea, Persian Gulf, and trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific corridors. The interactive map and full methodology are available at starboardintelligence.com/learn/where-submarine-cables-are-most-at-risk-in-2026.

Starboard Maritime Intelligence provides maritime domain awareness that helps governments, defence agencies, and critical infrastructure operators detect risks, prevent threats, and build resilience in real time. Partners include Ciena, Tampnet, Alcatel Submarine Networks, Kordia, and Searisk.

Submarine Networks EMEA takes place in London tomorrow! Get your ticket and join the discussion today.

Find Starboard Maritime Intelligence at Stand 10 of the co-located Subsea Security Summit & Expo.

PLDT’s wireless arm Smart Communications announced on Tuesday it will bundle AI-powered glasses with native access to Google Gemini with two postpaid plans starting this Friday.

The offer is the result of an exclusive partnership between Smart and Chinese tech firm Rokid, which Smart said marks its expansion into next-generation devices, particularly AI wearables.

Rokid’s AI glasses are powered by native Google Gemini integration, enabling users to access Google’s AI assistant directly. Gemini supports natural voice conversations, real-time language translation, intelligent search, content generation, task management, and contextual assistance, all accessible through the Rokid glasses.

Smart noted that the international version of Rokid’s AI glasses was recently updated to support other large language models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Alibaba’s Qwen. Smart said this will give users more flexibility in accessing a range of AI-powered assistance and services through a single device.

Smart will offer the Rokid glasses via its Smart Postpaid and Infinity plans. Smart Postpaid customers will have to pay an extra PHP28,800 (US$467.30) for the glasses (which is somewhat cheaper compared to retail prices in local electronics stores), but will also get 40GB open-access data, unlimited 5G data for 12 months, and unlimited SMS and voice calls (mobile and landline). Smart Infinity members on Plan 8000 can get the glasses free of charge.

“By making Rokid AI Glasses available on Smart Postpaid and Infinity Plans, we are enabling more Filipinos to experience the future of connectivity today,” said Marjorie Garrovillo, first VP and Co-OIC at Smart.

Global cable manufacturer Prysmian announced on Thursday it  has partnered with Ufinet Brasil to deploy a 30 km underground network to boost interconnectivity for hyperscale data centres in Sao Paulo Province’s Alphaville.

According to Prysmian, the goal of the project was to increase network capacity and expand data transmission in São Paulo using existing pipeline infrastructure to reduce the social impact of infrastructure works.

To that end, Ufinet and Duraline deployed Prysmian’s SiroccoHD solution, which sports a cable density of 8.6 F/mm², enabling the installation of 432 optical fibres in a single 12x10mm microduct.

Prysmian said this allows the reuse of legacy 40mm duct networks with up to 3 microducts, which can expand the capacity of existing infrastructure up to 1,296 optical fibres.

Ufinet and Duraline deployed the 432-fibre version of the SiroccoHD solution, which Prysmian said is a 3x improvement over conventional microcables in Brazil, which typically accommodate up to 144 fibres in microducts.

“SiroccoHD addresses a real problem for our customers in large urban centres: how to increase fibre capacity using the infrastructure I already have installed?” said Lucas Nogueira, manager of R&D, innovation and sustainability at Prysmian in a statement. “This is the kind of solution that enables strategic hyperscale data centre projects, positioning Brazil at a new level in the race for digital transformation and demonstrating the strength of our industry.”

The Latin American smartphone market recorded 34.8 million smartphone shipments in Q1 2026, representing 3% year-on-year growth, defying broader global declines driven by rising memory component costs.

According to analyst house Omdia, the growth was largely supported by retailers building up inventory ahead of expected price increases tied to more expensive DRAM and NAND memory chips. Smartphone vendors also leaned toward lower-storage models, such as 128GB variants, to keep devices affordable and soften the impact of rising costs on consumers.

While demand for premium smartphones remained resilient, buyers in the entry-level segment faced increasing affordability pressures.

Samsung remained the region’s largest smartphone vendor by shipments, recording 12.9 million units in Q1 2026. The company posted 9% year-on-year growth, increasing its market share to 37% – its highest quarterly level since Q1 2023.

Xiaomi ranked second with 6 million shipments, growing 3% year-on-year and marking its sixth consecutive quarter of growth in Latin America. The vendor captured a 17% market share.

Motorola secured third place despite a 5% decline in shipments to 4.9 million units, giving it a 14% market share. Omdia attributed the drop primarily to a 37% fall in shipments of devices priced between US$100 and US$200.

Honor consolidated its position in fourth place after posting 30% year-on-year growth to 3.4 million units and securing a 10% market share. Growth was driven largely by the success of its entry-level Play 10 device, which sold around half a million units during the quarter.

Apple rounded out the top five vendors with 31% year-on-year shipment growth, supported by strong demand in Mexico for its iPhone 17 range.

Looking ahead, Omdia expects the Latin American smartphone market to face increasing pressure as retailers gradually pass rising component costs onto consumers, particularly in the sub-US$300 segment.

It is being widely reported in the African technology press that pan-African operator MTN plans to turn its African towers into an AI inference grid.

To convert its African tower estate into a distributed AI compute fabric, MTN Group will install open GPU infrastructure at base station sites. This, it seems, means the same hardware can run both the cellular network and edge AI inference workloads.

This plan does, however, still appear to be at an early stage. According to the South African news service TechCentral, the plan was set out by MTN Group chief technology and information officer Charles Molapisi at an event hosted by law firm Bowmans in Johannesburg on Wednesday. 

Every cellular tower has a baseband unit at its base to drive the radio access network. Molapisi apparently suggested that MTN will replace these with open GPU configurations capable of running the radio plus AI inference, or what the company has described as a “distributed AI grid”.

The ambition is for MTN to become the biggest distributor of edge and inference in the African continent, where it has a presence in 17 sub-Saharan African countries.

Latency would, apparently, improve. At the moment AI workloads have to go via a central data centre. With the new system they could be processed at or near the tower. With edge compute installed, the workload could be served locally rather than backhauled to a distant data centre and returned, freeing capacity and cutting round-trip time.

Press Release

In the coming years, the competitiveness of EU economies will directly depend on their ability to access massive computing power that is available, affordable and sovereign. The challenge is industrial, financial and strategic: enabling European companies to train, deploy and operate their AI models under controlled conditions in terms of performance, cost and sovereignty.

This is precisely the aim of the project put forward by the AION consortium.

Mobilizing French excellence to build world-leading AI infrastructure

In response to the rapid adoption of AI and the explosion in demand for computing power, AION brings together all of the critical skills required for creating new-generation European infrastructure.

The consortium leverages the complementary strengths of a wide spectrum of benchmark players covering the entire value chain: supercomputers, microprocessors, quantum computing solutions and critical infrastructure, expertise in energy, cloud platforms, sovereign AI and the development and operation of datacenter infrastructure, as well as AI deployment capabilities, investment capacity and industrial know-how.

AION will also be able to draw on a broad ecosystem made up of technological, academic and industrial partners, as well as user companies such as Le Crédit Agricole, Equans, Future4Care, GENCI, Hugging Face, INRIA, Kyutai, LightOn, Multiverse Computing, Nokia, Opcore, Quandela, PariSanté Campus, Schneider Electric, SiPearl, Sopra Steria, Verne, VSORA and ZML.

France – a strategic choice for hosting a European AI Gigafactory

France has unique strengths for hosting infrastructure of this magnitude. It has abundant, affordable, sovereign and low-carbon electricity thanks to its energy mix that is mainly made up of nuclear and hydraulic power, as well as robust digital infrastructure and recognized expertise across the whole value chain, particularly in data centers, cloud services and high-performance computing.

France has also established itself as one of the most dynamic AI ecosystems in Europe thanks to the quality of its research, the emergence of world-class tech players, and a dense pool of scientific and industrial talent. From research labs to start-ups, through to major end-user companies, it brings together the full range of skills needed to build a competitive AI industry on a European scale.

Hosting an AI Gigafactory would enable France to offer all the conditions for strengthening European tech sovereignty, accelerating AI adoption by private companies and public-sector players, and driving competitiveness and innovation.

An ambition built on four pillars

The AION consortium is based on four fundamental pillars:

• Performance: deploying world-class AI infrastructure to serve the European economy.
• Trust: reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy via complete control over the AI value chain – from hardware to open source software – thanks to the support of sovereign players.
• Openness: promoting the use of open source technologies, as well as partnerships to strengthen the European ecosystem.
• Responsibility: developing AI for the benefit of European research, businesses and citizens with a particular focus on containing its environmental footprint.

An open consortium to bring together the European ecosystem

The alliance announced today marks the starting point of a project aimed at bringing together all French and European players who are ready and willing to contribute to this shared industrial ambition.

“As an independent European player in data and AI, Artefact is uniquely positioned to observe the rapid growth in demand for computing power, as well as the lack of sufficient sovereign solutions. We’re technology-agnostic and our priority is to provide our customers with truly resilient solutions based on three dimensions of sovereignty: technology, operations and data. There’s no time for companies to wait – the infrastructure of the future needs to be built today. By joining the AION consortium, Artefact will be able to deploy the most ambitious AI use cases for its customers, within a fully sovereign framework, ensuring freedom, security and resilience.” Vincent Luciani, Executive President of Artefact

“It’s time to build a European AI ecosystem together, based on world-class European infrastructure and underpinned by France’s outstanding low-carbon energy capabilities. United by this ambition, we’re delighted to be teaming up with our friends at the iliad Group and the Orange group to join and steer the AION consortium, which will also be supported by other major industrial and tech players. Alongside our partners, we’re proud to be putting our industrial and financial expertise to the service of developing sustainable and resilient AI computing capacity on a large scale.” Benoît Gaillochet, Head of Infrastructure Europe at Ardian

“This initiative is particularly important for Bull in its capacity as the only player capable of guaranteeing a mostly European supply chain for AI, cloud and supercomputer infrastructure. We see AION as a natural extension of our strategic pathway, bringing additional computing capabilities dedicated to simulation and AI, developing new AI-optimized hardware technologies, and deploying our software platform and data science services to enable the production of industrial AI use cases. Through AION, we’re reaffirming our commitment to strengthening Europe’s ability to develop and operate next-generation AI and cloud infrastructure, while laying the foundations for a more resilient, competitive and independent technology ecosystem.” Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO of Bull

“Europe has everything it takes to write one of the most inspiring chapters of the AI revolution: excellence in research, industrial champions, low-carbon energy and values based on the trust and sovereignty of the European system. What was missing was the ability to bring together these strengths based on a shared project that can rise to the challenges at stake. With AION, this goal is achievable. It’s a French venture, led collectively, for the benefit of the whole of Europe. By joining this consortium, Capgemini is committing to put all of its experience and its global network to the service of a cause that is bigger than us all individually: building sovereign and sustainable AI infrastructure that is open to the entire European ecosystem. As a global leader in data and AI-powered business transformation, Capgemini has a specific responsibility in this project. Creating European AI gigafactories means offering our clients the possibility of using sovereign solutions by integrating the latest technological advances with no trade-off between performance and control. Technological sovereignty cannot be decreed – it has to be constructed, brick by brick, with the right partners. We are proud to be a part of this adventure.” Etienne Grass, Chief AI Officer at Capgemini Invent

“France has major strengths to lead the way in the development of AI infrastructure, including competitively-priced, sovereign and low-carbon electricity. With this consortium, we’re embracing a shared ambition to build a world-class European AI gigafactory based in France, and EDF intends to fully contribute to this strategic momentum for Europe.” Beatrice Bigois, Group Senior Executive Vice-President, Customers & Energy Services, at EDF

“In a world where computing capacity is becoming a lever of power, Europe cannot allow itself to depend on infrastructure designed, financed and operated elsewhere. With AION, our aim is to unite a range of leading players to build world-class European AI infrastructure based in France. AION has unprecedented technological clout, bringing together the very best of French and European digital, industrial and energy expertise, and the iliad Group intends to contribute fully to the project.” Thomas Reynaud, Chief Executive Officer of the iliad Group

“France has unique assets to shape the next chapter of European AI – front-ranking digital infrastructure, low-carbon energy, and one of the most dynamic research and innovation ecosystems in Europe. For Orange, joining the AION consortium reflects our strong conviction that Europe needs collective action to create a powerful, open and inclusive European AI to drive the continent’s competitiveness. With its sovereign cloud and trusted AI capabilities, Orange brings to this project what lies at the core of its identity: a trusted player that connects, secures and delivers sovereign digital services for companies, small businesses and individuals.” Christel Heydemann, CEO of the Orange Group

“I’m delighted that the AION initiative launched last year is continuing to gain traction and attract broad support. Within this richly diverse industrial alliance, Scaleway will focus on its core expertise of providing an open and interoperable sovereign cloud and AI platform serving businesses, researchers and public-sector players. I’m convinced that this project, which includes leaders across the entire value chain, will help consolidate the foundations of a European AI sector built on openness, control and trust.” Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Jennifer Curry Hendrickson, Senior Vice President of Managed Services, DataBank

Enterprise IT leaders have spent the better part of a decade being told that cloud is the answer. For many use cases, it is. Yet, a pattern has emerged across the industry that deserves more direct examination than it usually gets: Organizations are moving workloads back out of public cloud at a rate that suggests the original decisions weren’t as sound as they appeared. … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of Priority Postpaid, a new service that leverages 5G slicing technology to deliver superior and more consistent experience to customers on postpaid. This service is specially built for busy customers who depend on uninterrupted connectivity for work, entertainment, or online collaboration.

For this service, Airtel has upgraded its 5G network with advanced capabilities of slicing technology. This makes the network more efficient, creates more capacity, and provides the capability to use this capacity in a targeted manner for delivery of a superior experience for Priority customers. By intelligently and dynamically segmenting network capacity, Airtel is offering a stable and dependable experience for postpaid customers, even when traffic demand is high.

Over the past year, slicing based 5G services have been launched in many countries like USA, Singapore, United Kingdom and Malaysia. Airtel’s launch is the first such launch in India, reflecting Airtel’s continued investment in building a smarter, more resilient, and future-ready digital network and reinforces its commitment to combining advanced technology with customer-centric innovation.

Commenting on the launch, Shashwat Sharma, MD & CEO – Airtel India, said, “Our focus at Airtel is on delivering meaningful innovations that enhance our customers’ experience. Priority Postpaid is our latest innovation powered by the 5G slicing technology. It provides a superior, more reliable, and dependable experience to our customers — whether they are attending a client call in traffic, or streaming at a packed concert, or booking a cab in a crowded market.”

Airtel Priority service is available for customers on all our postpaid plans. Existing customers will start enjoying the benefit automatically. Prepaid customers or customers wanting to switch to Airtel Priority postpaid can do so easily through the Airtel App or by visiting any Airtel Store.

Priority Postpaid Plans

Customers can enjoy our Priority service on any 5G SA‑enabled smartphone, with their latest software upgrades. Customers for whom an upgrade is pending, will see a pending action showing in the ‘Settings’ section of their phones. Customers can also check their phone readiness for Airtel Priority services by logging on to the Airtel App.

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TELUS and L-SPARK give Canadian startups access to AI supercomputer
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Four bits of fiber news from around the US: … [visit site to read more]