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from the If-you-laid-all-the-cables-end-to-end dept.
dotdotdot writes:
"All of the fiber-optic cables buried in the sea bed are logged by Washington research firm Telegeography in an interactive Submarine Cable Map. The company's research director Alan Mauldin told CNN about the world's underwater networks."
From the interview:
for international communications, over 99% is delivered by undersea cables.
75% of faults are due to external aggression the majority through human activity such as fishing, and ship's anchors.
There are about 13 cables in service across the Atlantic, and less than 20% of potential capacity is what we call "lit" or in service right now.
cables are designed to last for a minimum 25 years.
Once you build a cable the cost of buying capacity incrementally over time is very affordable.
The last cable across the Pacific cost $300 million; one cable that entered service last year in Asia reaching many locations cost $400 million
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Sir Garlon on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:34PM
I was interested, though not really surprised, to see that islands with small populations, such as the Faroes [wikipedia.org], are connected by cable.
I was a little more surprised to see the cable across the Black Sea connecting Bulgaria to Georgia. I wonder why it was cost effective to do that rather than going around. Maybe the Georgians and Bulgarians want to talk to each other without the Russians listening in?
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TK on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:44PM
I'm surprised that Tasmania has three separate connections to mainland Australia, but New Zealand's South Island doesn't have any.
Also impressive is the length of the cable from Quebec to Alaska, and then on to Japan. I suppose that must have been cheaper than forging an internet pipeline across land, and all the little lakes in between.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday March 05 2014, @05:28PM
NZ's south island also only has one phone area code whereas the north has a heap. probably due to population dispersion. Plus we probably have our own cables between north and south which are nothing to do with the company in question. - only speculation here.
(Score: 1) by bob_super on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:22PM
Three words: Digging is expensive.
Someone did the math, and the occasional "anchor" disruption is a lot cheaper than a continuous right-of-way on land (including crossing rivers and mountains), where the pesky humans may cause cheaper but more frequent cuts anyway.