On September 25, 1956, the first transatlantic telephone cable went into operation. Here is a small FAQ on the topic of why the Internet to this day lives not in the sky, but under water.
Why don't telecommunications companies use satellites instead of cables?
Satellites are great for some purposes: they can be used in areas where there are no fiber optic cables, plus they can broadcast information from one point to several others.
However, for bit-by-bit data transmission there is nothing better than optical fiber. Such cables can transmit O Larger data volumes at lower costs.
It is difficult to know exactly the volume of international traffic passing through satellites, but we can say for sure that these volumes are extremely small. Statistics released by the US Federal Communications Commission indicate that satellites account for only 0.37% of all US international capacity.
Okay, what about my smartphone, does it use wireless data?
When you use a phone, you transmit data wirelessly only to the first communication tower, which transmits data overland or underwater.
How many submarine cables are there in total?
At the beginning of 2017, there were about 428 working submarine cables around the world. The number is constantly changing as new cables are connected and old ones are retired.
How do they work?
Modern submarine cables use, as we said above, fiber optic technology. The electrical signal is converted into light emitted by microlasers and transmitted at high speeds through a fiber to a receiver at the other end, which in turn converts the light back into an electrical signal.
Are they fat?
The cable itself, including the winding, is approximately the thickness of a sprinkler hose. And the thickness of the internal elements of the cables through which the signal is transmitted is comparable to a human hair.
The internal fibers of the cable are covered with several layers of insulation and protective material. Those sections of cables that lie in the coastal zone are covered with additional layers to increase strength.
Submarine cable in section: 1. polyethylene; 2. “mylar” tape; 3. twisted steel wire; 4. aluminum waterproofing partition; 5. polycarbonate; 6. copper or aluminum pipe; 7. hydrophobic filler; 8. optical fibers. Thanks Wikipedia
Are the cables really lying right at the bottom of the oceans?
Yes. Closer to the coastline, they are laid under the ground to avoid damage, which is why they are not visible on the beaches.
Of course, cables should be laid in the safest areas of the seabed, where there are no faults, fishing grounds, areas where ships drop anchors, and other dangers for the cable. Subsea cable companies are transparent about where cables are located to reduce the likelihood of inadvertent damage.
Do sharks eat them?
Cable damage by sharks is one of the media myths. This has become a popular topic for articles after the cable has been attacked by sharks a couple of times in the past. Today they are not the main threat to cables. However, cables are often damaged, on average more than 100 times per year. You rarely hear about damage because many companies in this industry take a "safety in numbers" approach: until the cable is repaired, the data flow it was supposed to serve will be distributed between other cables.
What is the total length of all cables?
As of 2017, the total length of all active cables is about 1.1 million kilometers.
Some cables are very short: CeltixConnect's cable between Ireland and the UK is only 131 kilometers long. Other cables can be incredibly long, such as the Asia America Gateway cable, which is 20,000 kilometers long.
Give me the map
Why are there many connections between some countries, while there are none at all between others?
Let's first look at a quote from Henry David Thoreau:
Our inventions are usually like attractive toys that distract our attention from what really matters. We are in a hurry to build a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas may not have any important data to transmit through this telegraph.
Europe, Asia and Latin America constantly exchange large amounts of data with North America. Due to the fact that Australia and Latin America do not exchange data in such quantities, there are no cables between them. But if the cables appear, we will know that something interesting is happening there :)
Who owns the cables?
Traditionally, cables were owned by telecommunications agencies, which formed a consortium of those interested in using the cables. At the end of the 1990s, an influx of new companies created a large number of private cables whose power was sold to their users.
Today, there are both privately owned and consortium-owned cables. The biggest change in cabling has come in the type of companies doing it.
Content providers such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are major investors in the cable business. The amount of power deployed by private operators such as content providers has exceeded last years the amount of power that was provided by Internet backbone operators.
Who uses these cables?
You, for example. Users of submarine cable capacity - different people and companies, governments, cellular operators, multinational corporations and content providers. Anyone who has access to the Internet is already using submarine cables, regardless of device.
How much information can they transmit?
The bandwidth of all cables is different. New cables can carry more data than those installed 15 years ago. The MAREA cable being prepared for operation will be able to transmit data at a speed of 160 terabits per second.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption The US believes that Russian submarines could cut underwater communications cables
Russian submarines and surface spy ships are patrolling the world's oceans dangerously close to communications cables running along the seabed, the New York Times reported yesterday.
Experts from the US Navy and intelligence agencies have expressed concerns that in the event of a conflict, Russia could strike the Internet cables that provide global communications.
So far, however, there are no signs that anyone is going to cut the optical fiber in the ocean, but senior military officials in the United States and its allies are expressing alarm over the intensification of Russian military forces in different parts of the world.
The United States keeps secret both data on Russian naval activity and information about its observations of maneuvers Russian submarines and surface ships, as well as contingency plans in case the cables are cut.
The BBC Russian service looks at the problem of ensuring the security of undersea fiber optic cables in questions and answers.
Are Russian submarines approaching American cables?
Western experts on Russia have long drawn attention to this potential danger, Keir Giles said in an interview with the BBC. Researcher Royal Institution Russian and Euro-Asian Program international relations in London (Chatham House).
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union tapped submarine cables for espionage purposes.However, according to him, an attempt to cut off the United States from the global network is unlikely to be feasible due to the huge number of connections within the country and abroad.
"I seriously doubt that anyone intends to cut off the United States," Giles said.
In a report on Russian tactics information war, which will soon be released by Chatham House, refers to an episode relating to events related to Russian military activity in Crimea in early 2014.
At that time, Ukrainian telecommunications companies reported problems with Internet connections and mobile communications.
"They (Russia) are capable of disrupting the Internet infrastructure to gain strategic control in a specific region," Giles says.
Cutting off a country like the United States from the Internet is a difficult task, if not impossible.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption During Crimean War The British telegraph cable connected Balaclava with Varna and LondonTo deprive New York alone of access to the Internet, you need to cut 10 cables, notes Wired magazine expert Andre Bloom. But at the same time, the ability to provide traffic via backup cables will remain.
During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union seized the opportunity to tap into undersea cables to gather intelligence.
According to Edward Snowden, this practice is still actively used by the American Agency national security and the British electronic intelligence service GCHQ.
Where are the “wires of the global Internet” laid?
“Where neither sound nor echo is heard, in the deserts of bottom darkness / Across plains of gray mud in casings we stretch,” wrote Rudyard Kipling about telegraph cables in mid-19th century.
Illustration copyright TeleGeography Image caption Submarine cables have crisscrossed the world's ocean floors, as shown in 2015 TeleGeography.Today, fiber optic cables, laid over land and under water, envelop the Earth like a spider's web, as seen in new map submarine cables from TeleGeography.
In 2013, according to Popular Mechanics, more than 200 cables stretched along the bottom of the world's oceans. In 2014 there were already 285 of them.
The longest cables are laid across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The length of the Southern Cross Pacific cable is almost 30 thousand km.
What are the threats to cables?
The cables, although laid at great depths, sometimes several kilometers, are vulnerable to natural Disasters And man-made disasters, ship anchors, fishing boat trawls and shark teeth.
The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in March 2011 was accompanied by a series of underwater landslides. Several cables were buried by kilometers of rock, making them inaccessible.
A fire near the seaport of Alexandria in Egypt in February 2013 damaged six submarine cables and disrupted Internet connections along the east coast of Africa and southern Europe.
In March 2013, a group of people were arrested in Alexandria and accused of cutting four submarine cables of a transcontinental communication system stretching more than 20 thousand kilometers between Singapore and France.
Most companies that lay submarine cables lay not one, but several “cores.” Internet users often do not notice connection breaks: the connection is transferred to backup and parallel lines.
How to protect the cable?
"Engineers are constantly working to improve cable protection and find optimal routes. I'm not sure it's possible to design something that is 100% reliable, but the cables are very reliable considering the harsh conditions they operate in," says TeleGeography analyst Alan Mauldin.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Repairing a submarine cable is no less labor-intensive and expensive than laying itSome cable-cutting equipment installed on a submarine could theoretically be used for sabotage purposes, Jeremy Hartley, owner of ETA, a company that advises the submarine cable business, told the BBC.
According to him, the closer such a cable comes to the shore, the thicker the protective shell and the deeper the location. On no great depths cables are more vulnerable to submarines and terrorist saboteurs.
At greater depths, they can also be cut, but it will be more expensive, Hartley said. He believes that the threat to cables from military or terrorists is a lower-level threat, less likely than damage from anchors.
According to Giles, the physical presence of military personnel and military equipment in the cable locations makes them especially vulnerable in the event of conflict.
"Internet infrastructure needs the same protection in times of crisis as any other strategic asset," Giles said.
Repairing a fiber optic cable is as labor-intensive and expensive as installing it, experts say.
Why can't we get by with satellites?
Fiber optic cables transmit data faster and cheaper than satellites. Both were developed in the 1960s. Disadvantages of satellite communications include relatively long latency and loss of quality.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Internet infrastructure needs the same protection as any other strategic assetsTransmitting and receiving a signal via satellite takes longer than via fiber optic cable. Cables have already been developed through which information is transmitted at a speed of 99.7% of the speed of light.
The only continent without a physical fiber-optic connection to the rest of the world and the Internet is Antarctica. Antarctic research stations produce more data than can be transmitted through space.
The cost of broadband data transmission via satellite is significantly higher than via fiber optics, satellite communications specialist Ben Hannent wrote on the question and answer site Quora.
One satellite has the same broadband capability as one misused optical link.
The service life of satellites and fiber-optic cables is comparable: satellite - 20 years, cables - 20-25 years.
The cable has good physical security. The satellite is practically devoid of it.
Regarding Google’s laying of its own fiber-optic communication cable along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, which will connect the company’s data centers in Oregon, USA, with Japan. It would seem that this is a huge project worth $300 million and 10,000 km long. However, if you dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that this project is outstanding only because it will be done by one media giant for personal use. The entire planet is already tightly entangled in communication cables, and there are many more of them underwater than it seems at first glance. Having become interested in this topic, I prepared general educational material for those curious.
Origins of intercontinental communication
The practice of laying cables across the ocean dates back to the 19th century. According to Wikipedia, the first attempts to connect the two continents by wire were made back in 1847. It was not until August 5, 1858, that the UK and the USA were successfully connected by a transatlantic telegraph cable, but the connection was lost already in September. It is assumed that the cause was a violation of the waterproofing of the cable and its subsequent corrosion and breakage. A stable connection between the Old and New Worlds was established only in 1866. In 1870, a cable was laid to India, which made it possible to connect London and Bombay directly. Some of the best minds and industrialists of the time were involved in these projects: William Thomson (the future great Lord Kelvin), Charles Wheatstone, the Siemens brothers. As you can see, almost 150 years ago people were actively creating communication lines stretching thousands of kilometers. And progress, of course, did not stop there. However, telephone communication with America was established only in 1956, and the work lasted almost 10 years. Details of the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph and telephone cable can be read in Arthur C. Clarke's book A Voice Across the Ocean.Cable device
Of undoubted interest is the direct construction of the cable, which will operate at a depth of 5-8 kilometers inclusive.It is worth understanding that a deep-sea cable must have the following number of basic characteristics:
- Durability
- Be waterproof (suddenly!)
- Withstand the enormous pressure of water masses above you
- Be strong enough for installation and use
- Cable materials must be selected so that mechanical changes (stretching the cable during operation/laying, for example) do not change its performance characteristics
The working part of the cable we are considering, by and large, does not differ in anything special from conventional optics. The whole point of deep-sea cables is to protect this very working part and maximize its service life, as can be seen from the schematic diagram on the right. Let's look at the purpose of all structural elements in order.
Polyethylene- outer traditional insulating layer of the cable. This material is an excellent choice for direct contact with water, as it has the following properties:
Resistant to water, does not react with alkalis of any concentration, with solutions of neutral, acidic and basic salts, organic and inorganic acids, even with concentrated sulfuric acid.
The world's oceans contain, in fact, all the elements of the periodic table, and water is a universal solvent. The use of such a common chemical industry of a material such as polyethylene is logical and justified, since, first of all, engineers needed to eliminate the reaction of the cable and water, thereby avoiding its destruction under the influence environment. Polyethylene was used as an insulating material during the construction of the first intercontinental telephone lines in the mid-20th century.
However, due to its porous structure, polyethylene cannot provide complete waterproofing of the cable, so we move on to the next layer.
Mylar film- synthetic material based on polyethylene terephthalate. Has the following properties:
It has no smell or taste. Transparent, chemically inactive, with high barrier properties (including to many aggressive environments), resistant to tearing (10 times stronger than polyethylene), wear, and impact. Mylar (or Lavsan in the USSR) is widely used in industry, packaging, textiles, and the space industry. They even make tents from it. However, the use of this material is limited to multilayer films due to shrinkage during heat sealing.
After the layer of mylar film you can find cable reinforcement of varying power, depending on the declared characteristics of the product and its intended purpose. Basically, a powerful steel braid is used to give the cable sufficient rigidity and strength, as well as to counteract aggressive mechanical influences from the outside. According to some information floating around the Internet, EMR emanating from cables can attract sharks that chew through the cables. Also, at great depths, the cable is simply laid on the bottom, without digging a trench, and fishing vessels can catch it with their gear. To protect against such influences, the cable is reinforced with steel braiding. The steel wire used in the reinforcement is pre-galvanized. Cable reinforcement can occur in several layers. The main concern of the manufacturer during this operation is uniformity of force during winding of the steel wire. With double reinforcement, winding occurs in different directions. If the balance is not maintained during this operation, the cable may spontaneously twist into a spiral, forming loops.
As a result of these measures, the mass of a linear kilometer can reach several tons. “Why not light and strong aluminum?” - many will ask. The whole problem is that aluminum has a persistent oxide film in air, but when in contact with sea water this metal can enter into an intense chemical reaction with the displacement of hydrogen ions, which have a detrimental effect on the part of the cable for which everything was started - the optical fiber. That's why they use steel.
Aluminum water barrier, or a layer of aluminum polyethylene is used as another layer of waterproofing and cable shielding. Aluminum polyethylene is a combination of aluminum foil and polyethylene film, connected to each other by an adhesive layer. The sizing can be either one-sided or double-sided. In terms of the entire structure, aluminum-polyethylene looks almost invisible. The thickness of the film may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but, for example, for one of the manufacturers in the Russian Federation, the thickness of the final product is 0.15-0.2 mm with one-sided sizing.
Polycarbonate layer again used to strengthen the structure. Lightweight, durable and resistant to pressure and impact, the material is widely used in everyday products such as bicycle and motorcycle helmets, it is also used as a material in the manufacture of lenses, compact discs and lighting products, and the sheet version is used in construction as a light transmitting material. Has a high coefficient of thermal expansion. It was also used in the production of cables.
Copper or aluminum tube is part of the cable core and serves for its shielding. Other copper tubes with optical fiber inside are laid directly into this structure. Depending on the design of the cable, there may be several tubes and they can be intertwined in different ways. Below are four examples of cable core organization:
Laying the optical fiber in copper tubes that are filled with a hydrophobic thixotropic gel, and metal structural elements are used to organize remote power supply to intermediate regenerators - devices that restore the shape of an optical pulse, which, propagating along the fiber, undergoes distortion.
In the context, you get something similar to this:
Cable production
A peculiarity of the production of optical deep-sea cables is that most often it is located near ports, as close as possible to the seashore. One of the main reasons for such placement is that a linear kilometer of cable can reach a mass of several tons, and in order to reduce the required number of splices during installation, the manufacturer strives to make the cable as long as possible. The usual length for such a cable today is considered to be 4 km, which can result in approximately 15 tons of mass. As can be understood from the above, transporting such a deep-water bay is not the easiest logistics task for land transport. The usual wooden drums for winding cables cannot withstand the previously described mass and to transport cables on land, for example, it is necessary to lay out the entire construction length in a “figure eight” pattern on paired railway platforms so as not to damage the optical fiber inside the structure.Cabling
It would seem that having such a powerful-looking product, you can load it onto ships and dump it into the depths of the sea. The reality is a little different. Cable routing is a long and labor-intensive process. The route must, of course, be economically profitable and safe, since the use of various methods of cable protection leads to an increase in the cost of the project and increases its payback period. If the cable is laid between different countries, it is necessary to obtain permission to use the coastal waters of a particular country, it is necessary to obtain all the necessary permits and licenses to carry out cable-laying work. Afterwards, geological exploration is carried out, an assessment of seismic activity in the region, volcanism, the likelihood of underwater landslides and other natural disasters in the region where the work will be carried out and, subsequently, the cable will be laid. Meteorologists' forecasts also play an important role so that work deadlines are not missed. During geological exploration of the route, a wide range of parameters are taken into account: depth, bottom topology, soil density, the presence of foreign objects, such as boulders, or sunken ships. The possible deviation from the original route is also assessed, i.e. possible cable extension and increased cost and duration of work. Only after all necessary preparatory work The cable can be loaded onto ships and installation can begin.
Actually, from the gif the installation process becomes extremely clear.
The laying of a fiber optic cable along the sea/ocean bottom runs continuously from point A to point B. The cable is laid in coils on ships and transported to the place of descent to the bottom. These bays look, for example, like this: 
If you think it is too small, then pay attention to this photo: 
After the ship goes to sea, only the technical side of the process remains. A team of layers, using special machines, unwinds the cable at a certain speed and, maintaining the necessary cable tension due to the movement of the ship, moves along a pre-designated route.
It looks like this from the outside:
In case of any problems, breaks, or damage, the cable is provided with special anchors that allow it to be lifted to the surface and the problem section of the line to be repaired.
And, in the end, thanks to all this, we can comfortably and at high speed watch photos and videos with cats from all over the world on the Internet.
In the comments to the article about the Google project, the user
This sounds like a nightmare scenario: a terrorist organization or aggressive state decides to destroy the global Internet by cutting the undersea fiber optic cables that connect the entire world into a single network. The lines that run along the ocean floor are responsible for all digital communications, allowing us to send a Facebook message to a friend in Dubai or receive email from a distant relative in Australia.
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U.S. Navy officials have repeatedly warned of catastrophic consequences from Russia, whose submarines and ships are often suspected of spying on maritime communications cables. According to the US military, the result will be “instant and critical.” NATO even plans to revive command post during the Cold War in order to at least partially control Russian activities in the North Atlantic.
Wired tried to figure out how big the real threat is.
The prospect of losing the global internet due to damaged cables is daunting, experts say. But if Russia or anyone else were able to cut them off, the consequences would likely be less severe than the picture the U.S. military paints. The Internet infrastructure is vulnerable, but Russia does not pose the greatest threat to it. There are many more complex problems that begin with understanding how the cabling system works.
The concern that someone will cut one or more cables is artificially inflated. If someone knew how these systems worked, and if they planned the attack correctly, they could destroy the entire system. But the likelihood of this happening is very low. Most fears are unfounded
— New York University Professor Nicole Starosielski
An expert who spent six years studying the structure of the Internet cable system explained that breaks do not occur very rarely. Every couple of days, one of the 428 submarine cables is damaged. Almost all mistakes are not intentional. They are caused by underwater earthquakes, seabed uplifts, and ship anchors. This does not mean that people are incapable of deliberately disrupting communications. Thus, off the coast of Vietnam in 2007, fishermen cut out 27 miles of fiber cables, disrupting communications for several months. But the country was not completely cut off from the world, since there was another cable that supported the Internet.
You usually don't even notice when the cable is faulty, especially if you live somewhere like the United States, because your Instagram message or Google Voice call is instantly forwarded. If you're on Skype with a friend in Romania, for example, and a fishing boat or anchor breaks the cable, your conversation simply moves to another line. Many regions such as Europe, USA and East Asia, have many cables running along a similar path. Their paths can be traced on the map.
This means that Russia cutting some cables in the Atlantic where its submarines were discovered would not greatly hinder the global Internet. In fact, even if every single cable in the Atlantic Ocean were severed, traffic could still be rerouted across the Pacific Ocean. 
This is technically impossible or would be a fantastic result, but most likely will not break the connection completely
Alan Mauldin, research director at telecommunications firm TeleGeography
Even in a hypothetical scenario in which Russia somehow cuts every cable that connects the United States to the rest of the world, the Internet will not go out like electricity. Americans will still be able to use terrestrial networks on the continent. But communication with other countries will stop.
You will still be able to send by e-mail letters within the US, even if all the submarine cables have disappeared. But people in Europe won't see your stupid cat video you posted on Facebook.
— Mauldin
Since break-ins occur quite frequently, repair ships patrol almost all of the world's oceans. Even if Russia does start cutting cables, there are ships designed to quickly repair them. Additionally, a hypothetical cable attack Russian submarines would harm its own citizens, as another Telegeography analyst noted. 
This could hurt the Russians, perhaps even more than the Americans. They are much more dependent on international networks than we are because most of our content is stored in the country
— Senior Analyst Jonathan Hembo
This does not mean that submarine cables are not at risk or that they do not need protection, especially in areas of the world with weak internet infrastructure, such as Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. When a break occurs, the consequences can be more serious, including complete disruption of the Network.
Cable damage can be a really serious problem and can harm connectivity in some parts of the world where there is limited access to cables
— Mauldin
For example, in 2011 elderly woman cut an underground cable by stealing copper wire and accidentally cut off Internet access for the whole of Armenia. The country spent five hours offline. The consequences were so severe that almost all of this country's Internet access had to be provided through Georgia.
This single cable can be seen as where the Internet infrastructure is most at risk. For example, in some areas, ocean cables pass through narrow areas that border several countries. These are places such as the Strait of Malacca and the Red Sea. These areas are at high risk from hazards such as ship anchors. They are also potentially subject to geopolitical disputes as more countries and companies become interested in lines passing through these waters.
Several other areas are also places large cluster wires and, therefore, high-risk objects. If Egypt's undersea cables were damaged, for example, at least a third of the global internet could go offline. The city of Fortaleza in northern Brazil is a submarine cable port connecting the North and South America. If communication were to be disrupted at this node, all data that flows from Brazil to the United States would be lost. 
Sometimes the global Internet is threatened not by anchors and other troubles, but by politicians. For example, in 2011, Indonesia required that only Indonesian-crewed ships repair rips in their waters. The problem was that such vessels did not exist, which caused delays with problems not only for the country, but also for other regions that received data through it.
The only thing we don't have to worry about is sharks. Despite numerous media reports, they and other fish do not pose a threat to undersea cables.
To date, there have not been any cases of cable damage associated with sharks and other fish.
— Mauldin
So far there have been no ruptures associated with Russian aggression. It looks like Putin has left the submarine cables alone, at least for now. this moment. At the same time, we can work to protect against more real threats to the Internet infrastructure, the publication notes.
Recently, the US and NATO military became seriously concerned about the maneuvers of the Russian hydrographic vessel Yantar off the coast of Argentina. The ship, in their opinion, represents.
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In describing the system of cables that keep the Internet running, Neal Stephenson once compared the Earth to motherboard computer.
Every day you see telephone poles on the streets connecting hundreds of kilometers of wires and signs warning of buried fiber optic lines, but in fact, this is only a small part of the physical appearance of the global network. Major communications are laid in the coldest depths of the ocean, and in today's article we will list 10 interesting facts about these undersea cables.
1. Cable installation is slow, tedious and expensive.
99% of international data is transmitted over wires on the ocean floor called undersea communications cables. In total, their length exceeds hundreds of thousands of miles, and such wires are laid even at a depth of 9 km.
Cable installation is carried out by special laying ships. They need to not only drop the wire with the weight attached to the bottom, but also make sure that it passes only on a flat surface, bypassing Coral reefs, wrecks and other common obstacles.
The diameter of a shallow-sea cable is approximately 6 cm, but deep-sea cables are much thinner - as thick as a marker. The difference in parameters is due to a common vulnerability factor - at a depth of more than 2 km, practically nothing happens, so the cable does not need to be covered with a galvanized protective layer. Wires located at shallow depths are buried at the bottom using directed jets of water under high pressure. Although the cost of laying one mile of submarine cable varies depending on its overall length and purpose, the process always costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
2. Sharks are trying to eat the Internet
No one knows why sharks like to chew on underwater cables. Perhaps it has something to do with electromagnetic fields. Or they are just curious. Or maybe this is their way of trying to destroy our communications infrastructure before a ground attack. In fact, sharks literally chew our Internet and sometimes damage the insulation of wires. In response, companies like Google are covering their communications with a layer of protective Kevlar.
3. The Internet is just as vulnerable underwater as it is underground.
Every year, bulldozers destroy underground communication cables, and although there is no such thing in the ocean construction equipment, there are many other dangers to wires underwater. In addition to sharks, Internet cables can be damaged by ship anchors, fishing nets and various natural disasters.
One company based in Toronto has proposed laying such wires across the Arctic, which connects Tokyo and London. This was previously considered impossible, but the climate has changed, and thanks to the melting ice cover, this project has become a feasible, but still incredibly expensive task.
4. Using undersea cables is not a new idea.
Underwater telegraph between America and Europe
In 1854, installation of the first transatlantic telegraph cable began, connecting Newfoundland and Ireland. Four years later, the first transmission was sent with the text: “Laws, Whitehouse has received a five-minute signal. The coil signals are too weak to transmit. Try sending slowly and steadily. I installed an intermediate pulley. Answer with coils.” Agree, not a very inspiring speech (“Whitehouse” here refers to Wildman Whitehouse, who at that time held the position of chief electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company).
For historical information: During these four years of cable construction, Charles Dickens continued to write novels, Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, a small settlement called Dallas was officially annexed into the state of Texas, and Abraham Abraham Lincoln, running for the US Senate, gave his famous "House Divided" speech.
5. Spies love undersea cables
During the height of the Cold War, the USSR frequently broadcast weakly coded messages between its two main naval bases. According to Russian officers, there was no need for more powerful data encryption, since the bases were directly connected by an underwater communications cable located in Soviet territorial waters, which were teeming with all kinds of sensors. They believed that the Americans would never risk starting a Third World War trying to access these wires.
The Soviet military did not take into account the Halibut, a specially equipped submarine capable of slipping past defense sensors. This American boat found an underwater cable and installed a giant listening device on it, after which it returned to the site every month to collect all recorded messages. Later this operation was under code name Ivy bells was compromised by former NSA analyst Ronald Pelton, who sold information about the mission to the Soviets. Nowadays, tapping underwater Internet cables is standard procedure for most spy agencies.
6. Governments use undersea cables to avoid spying
In the field of electronic espionage, the United States had one significant advantage over other states: its scientists, engineers and corporations took an active part in building the global telecommunications infrastructure. Major data flows cross the US border and territorial waters, allowing for the interception of many communications.
When documents stolen by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden were made public, many countries were outraged by the actions of American spy agencies, which carefully monitored the transfer of foreign data. As a result, some states have reconsidered the Internet infrastructure itself. Brazil, for example, decided to lay an undersea communications cable all the way to Portugal, completely bypassing US territory. Moreover, they do not allow American companies to participate in the development of the project.
7. Undersea Internet cables are faster and cheaper than satellites
There are currently about 1,000 satellites in our orbit, we are sending probes to comets, and we are even planning missions to land on Mars. It seems as if the need to create a virtual communications network is in space, although the current approach using undersea cables is no worse. But haven't satellites surpassed this outdated technology? As it turns out, no.
Even though fiber optic cables and satellites were invented around the same time, spacecraft have two significant drawbacks: latency and data corruption. Sending messages to space and back does take a long time.
Meanwhile, optical fibers can transmit information almost at the speed of light. If you want to see what the Internet would be like without undersea cables, visit Antarctica - the only continent without a physical connection to the Internet. Local research stations rely on high-bandwidth satellites, but even this power is not enough to transmit all the data.
8. Forget cyberwarfare—to do real damage to the Internet, all you need is scuba gear and a pair of wire cutters.
The good news is that cutting an underwater communications cable can be quite difficult, as the voltage in each conductor can reach several thousand volts. But as the incident that occurred in Egypt in 2013 showed, this is quite possible. Then, north of Alexandria, several men in wetsuits were detained for deliberately cutting a 12,500-mile undersea cable connecting three continents. Internet connection speeds in Egypt were reduced by 60% until the line was restored.
9. Undersea cables aren't easy to repair, but after 150 years we've learned a few tricks.
If you think that replacing the LAN cable behind your desk is a difficult and painful process, try fixing a hard garden hose at the bottom of the ocean. When underwater communications are damaged, special repair ships are sent to the site. If the wire is in shallow water, the robots fix it and drag it to the surface. If the cable is located at great depths (from 1900 meters), engineers lower a special gripper to the bottom, lift the wire and repair it directly above the water.
10. The service life of underwater Internet conductors is no more than 25 years
As of 2014, there were 285 communication wires laid on the ocean floor, 22 of which are still unused. The service life of a submarine cable does not exceed 25 years, because in the future it becomes economically unprofitable in terms of power.
However, over the past ten years, global data consumption has experienced an explosion. In 2013, there was 5 gigabytes of Internet traffic per person, and according to experts, by 2018 this figure will increase to 14 GB. It's possible that with such rapid growth we will run into power issues and be forced to upgrade communications systems much more frequently. However, in some places, new phase modulation techniques and improved automated subsea terminals have increased power by up to 8,000%. So, apparently, the undersea wires are more than ready for large traffic flows.