The Future of Undersea Internet Cables
Are Big Tech Companies Forming a Cartel?
In 2018 we created about 2.5 million Terabytes of data every day. This roughly equals 425 million HD movies a day. Any comparison is in itself massive, so it is understandable if these numbers are difficult to grasp. What’s more, data creation is growing at an exponential rate every year.
All this data exists in different storage centres across the world. But I am able to access the statistics shown here, probably stored in servers in the US, while sitting in India, because of the internet — the greatest invention of the 20th and 21st centuries. But when we think of the internet, many wrongly assume that satellites in space keep us connected with different parts of the world. In reality, 99 percent of the data travels between countries and continents through undersea cables.
As of today, there are close to 400 active undersea cables, which are each no wider than a soda can in diameter. Laying these cables across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, some parts of which are as deep as Mount Everest, is a mammoth task. It takes years of route exploration, billions of dollars and large ships capable of holding cables that can be several thousand kilometres long. The main component of the cable, the optical fiber, is as thin as a hair. Each cable has a few optical…
