Absolute Globalization: How Submarine Internet Cables Unite the Planet

Until the end of 2021, a large share of fiber-optic networks was under the control of countries and telecommunications firms. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the four global IT companies-Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon-are the main consumers of fiber-optic capacity. They own a share of 65%.

And this fact is of slight concern to industry experts. The reason is that the main "players" in the segment of Internet services can take over the infrastructure to ensure their supply.

The WSJ journalists draw a parallel - what could the situation lead to when Amazon owns all the roads it uses to deliver parcels? That is, traffic speeds will be significantly reduced for ordinary users, while the four companies get maximum priority with minimal delays.

And although the fear of specialists is quite fair, in fact, ordinary users turned out to be on the plus side. The emergence of major IT players has reduced the price of network access services. If you look at data usage, there has been a 41% increase in speed globally.

Resin, hemp, or a layer of gutta-percha - how scientists and businessmen tried to conquer the seabed

In 1839, scientists William Cook and Charles Wheatstone revealed their invention to the world: the telegraph. In the same year, the idea of a line of communication across the Atlantic was born. The main lobbyist for this idea at the time was Samuel Morse, the man known to many for inventing the Morse code. The American inventor realized the idea after only three years. In 1842 he succeeded in laying the wire in New York Harbor. Unfortunately, the triumph was short-lived – a short time later the cable was damaged by local "gentlemen of fortune". The prospectors mistook the cable for sea treasure, so they cut it open.

And while some of the first "pests" in telecommunications were humans, they were not the main obstacle to the development of underwater systems. The longevity and durability of cable were problems that had to be solved as quickly as possible. To insulate the wires, Morse used rubber and tarred hemp. However, this was not enough.

Fortunately, 1842 was the year Palaquium gutta resin was discovered. It was brought from India to Europe by surgeon William Montgomery. The material called gutta-percha was distinguished by its elasticity and high strength. Montgomery saw in the material a perspective – it was possible to create surgical instruments. But a scientist from Great Britain, Michael Faraday, had the idea of using resin as the basis for an insulator.

By 1850 there were more than 50 telegraph companies in the world, many of them interested in laying a link between the continents. Some succeeded without difficulty. For example, brothers Jacob and John Watkins Brett, owners of the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company, connected France and Great Britain. To do this, they stretched a wire across the English Channel. 

That same year, engineer Frederick Gisborne decided to realize an ambitious project. The Canadian owner of a telegraph company set out to create a communications link along the coast of America. The plan was to lay a link on the northeastern part of it. Thus it was possible to connect Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Unfortunately, the line was unprofitable, so in 1853 Gisborne's enterprise closed.

A year later Cyrus Field, a businessman who was involved in large financial transactions and paper sales, learned of Gisborne's project. The entrepreneur was interested in the idea of laying a line between Newfoundland and Ireland and consulted Morse, as well as the head of the National Observatory in Washington, Matthew Fontaine Maury.

The businessman founded the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph, and his business partners were Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, and Marshall Owen Robert. At the same time the entrepreneur organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company in London. Thanks to this Field received grants from the British and U.S. governments.

London allocated 14,000 pounds a year, to be reduced to 10,000, while Washington grudgingly allocated $70,000. The American government was concerned about the fact that both ends of the cable were in British-controlled territory.

Humanity has triumphed, but this is only the beginning

The cable project across the Atlantic was approved. The first attempt to lay a transatlantic line was made in 1957. The cable consisted of seven pieces of copper wire. Latex, gutta-percha was used as insulation. Additionally, the wire was protected by a coating of tarred hemp. The spiral-shaped outer sheath consisted of metal wire. The imposing wire did not work - it quickly wore out and eventually broke.

The second run in June 1958 failed. The cause was the same wear and tear and subsequent breakage. Between July and August 1958, the cable laying was completed. Two ships set out to meet each other. The "Agamemnon" and the "Niagara" crossed paths on July 29. They connected cables with a total length of 4,000 kilometers.

In mid-August a historic telegram was sent. Queen Victoria, who ruled Great Britain at the time, congratulated U.S. President James Buchanan on the launch of the line. She declared victory, noting "great international work". The 103-word transfer took 16 hours. The head of the United States noted that it "is a triumph more glorious because it is far more beneficial to humanity than has ever been won on the battlefield." It took 10 hours to transmit the full 143-word text.

It is interesting that it took so long to transmit a short message in Morse code by modern standards. Now the data transfer rate is more than 200 terabits per second. The record-breaking bandwidth is the MAREA wire, which was laid between the U.S. and Spain. The joint project of the telecommunications company Telxius and the two tech giants Meta and Microsoft, which connects Bilbao and Virginia Beach, shows a result of 224 Tbps.

What a modern underwater wire consists of

Underwater lines (of which there are more than 436 in the world), consist of several fiber optic strands. The threads are no thicker than a human hair. A typical wire has 4-12 such strands. If it is laid in a place where it does not need special protection, its thickness is comparable to a thumb. Such a cable is covered with Kevlar "armor", stainless steel, and a layer of plastic.

In shallow or deep water, where the cable must be more robust, the diameter of the wire is the size of your wrist. The most protected wire consists of a copper tube through which electricity flows. It is needed for the signal amplifiers to work. Since there are repeaters along the cable every 40-80 kilometers that amplify the signal, the cable structure uses copper to power them.

The copper is surrounded by plastic tubing, followed by an aluminum shock barrier and stranded steel wire. Additionally, the cable may be braided with another steel wire if additional protection is required, then nylon wire, then resin. The last element is a plastic coating for sealing. By the way, the total length of cables is up to 1.3 million kilometers.

How cables are laid

The cables must first be loaded onto a cable-laying vessel, which will take them out to sea. Some of these vessels can hold up to 2,000 kilometers of cable on board. It can take three to four weeks to load the cable alone, after which, with the proper equipment, it can be laid. The speed of this process is about 200 kilometers a day.

Once the wire is loaded on board the vessel, it is laid from the shore and gradually descends to the bottom. The ship laying the cable comes as close to land as possible without going aground and begins digging. Ships pull the plow behind them. It simultaneously digs a ditch and places the wire there.

Sometimes the wire has to be lifted, for example, if it bumps into another cable, or if it cannot be buried. The route the ship will take is carefully planned - underwater mountains, valleys, coral reefs, rocks, and fault lines are taken into account. Preferably, the cables should be laid in places where the risk of damage by anchors and fishing trawlers is minimized. To save time, vessels can start laying the line from two different points and then connect the two cables together.

What is the danger to the cable and how to fix it

In fact, submarine cables often fail, but for most users, this goes unnoticed. Since most companies distribute the signal over multiple lines, a single cable failure does not have serious consequences.

To find the break, it is enough to send a light signal and measure the length to the place where it is missing by simple mathematical calculations. After that, a vessel is sent to the site of the break and repairs the damaged section of cable. In most cases, the cable is simply hooked, lifted off the bottom, and repaired.

If the depth is too great and it is impossible to lift the damaged section, a remotely operated apparatus is used. On average, it takes about a week to restore the line, and the speed is affected by the distance to the accident site. The easier it is for the team to reach - the faster the wire will be restored.

What factors cause cable breakage

More than 65% of accidents are caused by ship anchors. They can accidentally snag a cable and tear it. Integrity is affected by natural disasters like earthquakes. In early 2022 there was a volcanic eruption near the island country of Toga. It caused the cable to break, making it impossible for residents to access a stable high-speed network. Since the nearest repair ship was 4,700 km from the island and the crew had to wait until the crash site was no longer a danger, it took four weeks to repair the failure.

A small number of breakages are caused by sharks, for some reason they find wires very attractive. More than once sharks have been caught chewing on cables, and no one can say for sure what the cause is. The sharks' unusual behavior is probably influenced by electromagnetic fields. Another version is that the sharks are curious. To avoid damage to the cables, Alphabet is shielding them with an additional "anti-shark" jacket.



What happens when a cable fails

Cables are thought to have a typical lifespan of about 25 years, but they never actually expire. Usually, before the 25 years are up, the wires become technically obsolete. As technology advances, old wires do not meet the new capacity requirements. Therefore, new cables are laid to increase it.

There are many options for cables that are no longer in use. For example, they can be laid along a new route, to places where a lot of bandwidth is not required. This greatly reduces costs, because it is much cheaper to reroute cables than to build a line from scratch. Some companies get the right to dig out cables and recycle them for raw materials. Alternatively, nothing can be done with the old wires. Even without passing signals, they serve as an excellent seismic network for scientists studying geological structures and earthquakes. Such cables are called dark fiber.

Why satellites can't replace fiber optics

In 2015, Elon Musk and his company SpaceX created the global Starlink satellite system. Starlink's main goal is to provide access to a high-speed network in regions where it is not possible to lay cable. The service can now be ordered in 36 countries, and 400,000 subscribers are active Starlink users. About two thousand satellites flying in low orbit are used to access the network.

The promise of satellite communications is overshadowed by their low popularity. According to Euroconsult, a space and satellite consulting firm, only 43 million subscribers are connected via satellite. That's 1 percent of all Internet users.

The speed of development is also affected by the scientific community and unfair competition. The International Astronomical Union criticized SpaceX. According to the organization, Starlink has become the main source of "light pollution". The fact is that for the study of space is necessary to observe the principle of "dark sky". Light trails of SpaceX satellites cover the sky and do not allow the study of the galaxy. According to scientists, such activity affects the study of space and makes it impossible to protect the night environment.

And Starlink's main competitor, satellite operator Viasat appealed to the US Federal Communications Commission. The company demanded to stop the launch of new Starlink satellites and went to court. Viasat wanted SpaceX to check on the harm from the rapidly growing number of Starlink satellites in space.

Given these claims, Elon Musk's company had to create a design that would reduce the brightness of the satellites. Since 2020, Starlink has been using the DarkSat satellite, which has an anti-glare coating, and the VisorSat sun shield satellite.

Satellite Internet problems that have not yet been solved

The main reason for the low demand for network access via satellite is the price. To use Starlink, you have to pay $500 for the terminal (antenna and router). Another $100 will have to be paid monthly for the network access service. The speed is 100 Mbit per second. Viasat services are even more expensive - for the same bandwidth, you have to pay $200.

Since the satellite and the antenna are several hundred kilometers apart, the ping with a stable connection reaches 50-100 ms. This is critical for users who spend time playing online games. The quality of the connection is affected by weather changes: snow, wind, and rain either reduce the speed or completely interrupt the connection. If you use Starlink in a metropolis, the speed will be at 25 Mbit because of interference.

You will need special skills to install the satellite terminal. The fact is that the Starlink subscription kit includes a 50x30 cm antenna weighing 4.2 kg, which must be placed outdoors. In addition, you need to determine the place where the antenna will best receive the signal. Fortunately, Starlink has released a mobile app to help you determine where to place the terminal.

The near future of satellite Internet

Analysts in the telecommunications equipment industry argue that satellite and cable do not compete with each other because they are for different purposes. While fiber optic provides worldwide connectivity, satellite Internet is currently used primarily for regions where it is not possible to lay cable for economic, geographic, or political reasons.

It is impossible not to mention Russia's war with Ukraine, during which the Starlink satellite system became the foundation for communication and reconnaissance throughout the country. That is, thanks to Starlink, strikes on critical infrastructure will not allow the Russian army to deprive the AFU of communications and intelligence data. Prospects for the use of satellite communications in the future are enormous, the technology will bring globalization to a fundamentally new level.

At the moment, satellite Internet is losing out in terms of availability, data transfer speed, and response time, but this technology is very young. Don't forget that the world's first cars were also losing to racehorses in terms of speed and handling. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the development of automobile technology leaped so far ahead that by the middle of the century the developed countries had completely abandoned the use of horses, despite centuries of tradition. A similar future awaits our familiar cables - at all levels, from chargers to underwater Internet cables.