Get best of the week

Underwater Internet Cables: Who Routes Them

By 2023, the number of Internet users will exceed 5 billion. To meet the demands of the audience, IT companies and telecoms are developing underwater infrastructure by laying fiber optic cables along the bottom of the seas and oceans. Let's talk about new projects in this area and their role.


/ Unsplash / Julian Dufort

Fresh cables


Now the world is "encircling" more than three hundred cable systems. They are managed by large corporations and telecommunications companies. For example, in 2018, Microsoft, Facebook, and Telxius commissioned the MAREA cable . Its throughput is 160 Tbps - this is one of the most high-performance channels in the Atlantic. Since then, these and other organizations have continued to develop submarine infrastructure to meet the growing needs of users.

In February this year, Google and Facebook began work with the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN). Its length is 12.8 thousand kilometers, and the throughput is 144 Tbps. It connects the USA, the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, due to the tense geopolitical situation, the cable section going to China will remain inactive for now.

What we write about in a blog on Habré:


Another new channel - DARE1 - with a length of 5 thousand kilometers connected Kenya and Djibouti. Work on it was completed in early March. Its throughput is 36 Tbps. The Kenyan government invested $ 59 million in the project to expand the capabilities of the local mobile operator Telkom.

Upcoming projects


In the third quarter of this year, Google plans to complete the installation of the Dunant cable. It runs along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and connects the east coast of the United States with France. The design length of the high-speed line exceeds 6 thousand kilometers. Engineers used technology SDM (space-division multiplexing) - spatial signal compression. In this case, lasers and other optical components of intermediate amplifiers work not with one pair of fibers, but with several at once. As a result, the line throughput is increased by 20 times, compared with conventional underwater links. Dunant is expected to deliver a speed of 250 Tbps.

Another company, SubCom, is planningFinish laying the Oman Australia Cable project (OAC) in December 2021. This will be the first high-speed line to directly connect Australia and the EMEA region (includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

Why are there so many wires


There are several reasons why companies allocate funds for the development of underwater IT infrastructure.

Performance increase . Cable routes affect data transmission latency. By expanding the number of trunks, telecoms reduce latency. Google is implementing the same Dunant project in order to increase the availability of company services in Europe. 55% more data is transmitted on transatlantic lines than on Pacific lines . And this loaded channel requires additional power.

Expansion of geography . The infrastructure of IT companies and cloud providers is dividedto the regions. Each region has zones tied to the nearest data centers. Additional channels connect data centers with new locations, expanding the user base.


/ Unsplash / Nias Nyalada

Reserve . 26 submarine cables were brought to the shores of Japan , and 54 to the shores of Great Britain. They not only increase the speed of access to services, but also serve as a reserve in case of physical damage to one (or several) of them. And this happens much more often than it might seem at first glance. For example, SEAMEWE 3, which connects the countries of Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe, failed twice in 2017 .

In 65–75% of cases, tears occurthrough the fault of fishing vessels anchoring in the wrong places. So, four years ago, one ship tore three cables at once between the island of Jersey and London. Only an excessive number of links saved the UK from a complete disconnection. All traffic was sent through the channel through France.

But in the world there are still regions to which there is a single high-speed line, for example, the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. In 2015, the typhoon damaged the cable , leaving 50 thousand people without the Internet. Therefore, telecommunications companies continue to expand the "submarine network." To exclude situations when thousands of people are left without communication.

Further reading from the VAS Experts corporate blog:

More articles:


All Articles