“Current repair arrangements are through a series of clubs, essentially geographic clubs, of private operators who band together and then hire a repair vessel to be on standby to repair cables. Now the prioritization of repairs is a matter for private operators, not for countries. So we don’t have a say,” Brewster said.

And those measures are only designed to deal with relatively shallow, periodic and accidental cable breaks, not breaks that occur in different places and are below 200 meters or more. India is considering building a ship to repair cable, but it will cost up to $150 million AUD ($95 million USD) to build, he said, and Australia lacks the human capabilities needed to sail and run such a ship, so that is not a likely solution here.