Border security

Fiber-Optics – Best Border Security Solution?

Contrary to popular belief, satellites carry less than 1% of human communications. Fiber-optic cables, stretching across the sea floor, buried under cities, and connected to people’s homes, carry the rest. While they’re mostly used to transmit telecommunications, they can also detect motion.

While the US federal government continues to pursue its strategy of building a physical barrier, a border wall, for enhancing its border security, various technological solutions may be more promising.

A fiber-optic technology that could pinpoint with precision where border intrusions occur, determine what exactly is coming across, and relay the information to Border Patrol agents in realtime, was recently mentioned by Will Hurd, a Texas Republican congressman. He teamed up with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in July 2017 to introduce the Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology (SMART) Act, which would have tasked the Department of Homeland Security with deploying high-tech systems like radar, LIDAR, fiber optics, drones, and cameras along the border. However, the bill stalled in committee and never moved forward.

Experts and industry leaders told businessinsider.com that fiber-optic technology is already advanced enough to work across most of the US-Mexico border, nearly 10 times less expensive than a wall, and is ready to be deployed immediately.