A severe worldwide shortage of specialized subsea cable-laying vessels has left three major telecommunications conduits unserviced following geological shifts in the southern Red Sea.

Telecommunications carriers have rerouted European-Asian internet traffic around the Cape of Good Hope and across trans-Eurasian terrestrial fiber networks, adding 28 milliseconds of latency.

With only a handful of qualified vessels operating worldwide, insurance premiums and daily charter rates for deep-sea repair ships have doubled over the past six months.

Industry trade groups are lobbying coastal states to streamline naval security escorts for commercial repair vessels working in contested waters.