# Undersea Cables Tie the World Together



## hkskyline

^ and much cheaper, too!


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## hkskyline

Tuesday April 8, 07:00 PM
*US-Australia cable to boost Net traffic*
AAP

A 9,000km cable to be laid between Sydney's Tamarama Beach and Hawaii will avert information bottlenecks and internet crashes, but won't result in cheaper, faster broadband in Australia, Telstra says.

The first length of Telstra's 9,120km fibre cable will be laid this Thursday, in a sight likely to grab the attention of swimmers and surfers at the trendy eastern suburbs beach.

The French vessel Ile De Sein will be moored off Tamarama, with engineers connecting the Australian mainland at an existing duct 800 metres off the beach.

That cable will then be linked with the Paddington International telephone exchange.

The 17-millimetre cable will run along the Pacific Ocean floor and eventually re-emerge at Hawaii's Keawaula Beach when it is completely laid by the end of the year.

"On Thursday morning, if you wanted to go down there you'll see the ship offshore," said David Piltz, Telstra's executive director of fundamental planning.

"The technique is to lay the cable off the stern of the ship, float it ashore, and interconnect the land and submarine cable sections together."

The telecommunications link is the largest of its kind built by an Australian company, Telstra says, and will significantly boost bandwidth between Australia and the US.

Currently, 65 per cent of Australia's online traffic comes out of the US, with the amount of information doubling every couple of years.

Without the new cable, internet links between Australia and the US could face bottlenecks, as old cables run out of capacity, Mr Piltz said.

The new cable would be able to carry 1.28 Terabits, or 1,280 Gigabits, of data every second.

"We don't want to see bottlenecks in bandwidths to and from Australia - that is going to impact not only our customers but the whole commerce and business of Australia," he said.

However, in disappointing news for consumers, Kate McKenzie from Telstra wholesale said the new Australia-US connection would not lead to increased broadband speeds, or to a fall in prices.

The cable project was aimed at increasing bandwidth not speed she said, adding it would be "unrealistic" to think that, after the expenditure required to lay the cable, broadband prices would be lower.

"We need the extra capacity because all the projects say that the amount of capacities being used is doubling every couple of years, and likely to continue doing that till about 2011," he said.

Ms McKenzie would not disclose how much the cable will cost Telstra, but said it was a multi-million dollar project.

The project is being fully funded by Telstra, and is being installed by French company Alcatel-Lucent.

Mr Piltz said the project would be completed in several sections at once, with the cable both left to rest on the sea floor and be buried under ground.

It would be made up of individual sections 75km in length.

Once completed, existing cables would then link the Telstra cable with the US mainland.

Mr Piltz said it had taken planners months to map the easiest way across the Pacific floor.

"The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is not flat, there are ridges and depths and the marine survey has been through many months to formulate the optimal route - avoiding undersea mountains (and) avoiding the deep trenches," he said.


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## Cristovão471

^^ Thing thing is Telstra is a monopolizing bitch and they shit like "Won't result in cheaper prices", also the Government wants to build an network over the coming years providing a minimum of 12 mbits per second to 98% of the population over a fibre network, right now companies are in the bidding process to win the rights to build the network.

Anyway the PIPE networks are proposing their own cable to free up the monopolization:
(from wiki): 
In January 2008, PIPE Networks announced[3] it would be constructing a A$200 million international link, known as PPC-1 (Pipe Pacific Cable), from Sydney to Guam. The link will also connect Madang in Papua New Guinea. The link will be operated by a newly formed PIPE subsidiary, PIPE International.[4]


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## Xusein

The Cebuano Exultor said:


> You should look at Africa. It seems like its "connections" don't even *appear* or *have-a-blip* on the radar screen. Internet connectivity there is so negligible.


Well, that is slowly changing.


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## hkskyline

*Asia-US cable gateway ready by August: Philippine firm *
17 June 2009
Agence France Presse

An underwater fibre-optic cable system connecting South East Asia to the US will be ready in August, the Philippine member of an international consortium of telecom firms said Wednesday.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. said all land cable installation works for the 20,000 kilometre (12,430 mile) system have been completed and the remaining undersea installation work is expected to be finished this month.

"Network testing is expected to begin immediately after the completion of the remaining submarine installation works," the company added in a statement.

The high-bandwidth cable project was launched in May 2007 at a cost of about 500 million dollars. It will link the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, and Hong Kong to the US mainland as well as Guam and Hawaii.


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## hkskyline

*Pacnet, Pacific Fibre to build Australia-US cable*

SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) - Pacnet, operator of an Asia-wide undersea cable network, and Australia's Pacific Fibre said on Wednesday they plan to construct a $400 million fibre optic cable connecting the United States and Australia.

The 13,600 km (8,451 mile) cable would connect Sydney and Auckland with the United States and was expected to be ready for service in 2013, the companies said in a joint statement.

The 50:50 partnership is designed to take advantage of rising broadband penetration and access speeds in Australia and New Zealand which are looking at deploying national broadband networks.

"This investment is also an integral part of our overall strategy to expand our subsea cable infrastructure into the Australasia region," Pacnet chief executive Bill Barney told reporters.

Barney said the company was still waiting for financial markets to recover before making an initial public offering, most likely on the Nasdaq.

"When markets recover we will go public," he said, adding this could take six to nine months.

He also told reporters his company had no plans to bid for AAPT, the Australian subsidiary of New Zealand's Telecom Corp , although it had looked at the target twice.

Telecom Corp is in negotiations to sell the business to TPG Telecom for about $400 million, a source has previously told Reuters.

Pacnet's current stakeholders are a group of private equity firms, led by Ashmore Investment and Spinnaker Capital. Pacnet is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a data centre in Asia in partnership with other major network users.

The push into data centres and away from its roots as the operator of an Asia-based undersea cable network build in the late 1990s comes amid rapidly rising demand for applications like video-on-demand.


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## Spookvlieger

*If found this very interesting:*

Here you go citizens of the USA, always claiming that nothing is filtered in your country...


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## Spookvlieger




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## Spookvlieger




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## hkskyline

What year are those charts from? Heard that China has the largest internet population in the world now. Hardly see that from the connectivity charts.


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## Spookvlieger

hkskyline said:


> What year are those charts from? Heard that China has the largest internet population in the world now. Hardly see that from the connectivity charts.


Yea I found that quite strange to... The map is from 2007 you can find it on this page: http://www.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/medium/worldBlack.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/&usg=__6Nwxt2EhEkV-K-2FT5ALaOLwUwk=&h=899&w=2000&sz=424&hl=nl&start=4&sig2=Cq5nxPbUy1RmLmOv3NSZgQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=dpyBpvM6OZU8lM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dinternet%2Bconnections%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=pcFdTOqMLJWG4QbdlpnUBw

But the map is about connections. Internet is filtered in China what results in less connections... Mayby a lot of users but for data that is not very well linked to other countries...just guessing...


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## hkskyline

But after filtering, the content has to come from somewhere. I doubt that many foreign websites are blocked within China. But 2007 was a long time ago from a China perspective ... things change so quickly there!


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## Spookvlieger

hkskyline said:


> But after filtering, the content has to come from somewhere. I doubt that many foreign websites are blocked within China. But 2007 was a long time ago from a China perspective ... things change so quickly there!


True... China is really booming and present everywhere.. As long as they don't fall into deep communism again they probebly are gonna stay that way...


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## Nouvellecosse

It looks like there are three undersea connections emanating from Halifax which is pretty cool. Nice to see we're staying connected.


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## hkskyline

*Strength in telecomms networking numbers*
11 August 2010
New Zealand Herald

WHEN it comes to getting the biggest bang for the broadband buck, it seems playing nicely with our mates across the ditch may be New Zealand's best strategy.

This country will maximise its return on investment in the Government's $1.5 billion ultra-fast broadband network if it keeps pace with a similar A$43 billion ($54 billion) project currently underway in Australia, says Vector chief executive Simon Mackenzie.

He says aligning the two projects through a ``closer digital co-operation'' between New Zealand and Australia would bring benefits to both countries.

``With Australia also building their network, potentially this opens up a market for retailers, whether they be from Australia or New Zealand, of around 30 million people,'' Mackenzie says. ``This is really important for allowing New Zealand businesses to sell their products, unfettered by how they access a network.''

Mackenzie told a recent telecomms conference he was not suggesting the two countries' fibre-optic networks needed to have identical technical specifications for Australasia to maximise its collective broadband investment, but ``if Australia powers ahead and builds a fast fibre network, we can't afford to be left behind''.

Another example of playing to the strength of a transtasman broadband union came to light last month when New Zealand undersea fibre cable aspirant Pacific Fibre announced it had partnered with Asian telco Pacnet.

The deal marks a significant advancement towards Pacific Fibre's plans to build a new 13,600km broadband cable linking Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles by 2013.

Pacific Fibre is the brainchild of some of New Zealand's brightest entrepreneurs and technology businessmen, including Sam Morgan, Sir Stephen Tindall and Rod Drury.

The US$400 million ($459 million) project aims to bust the monopoly position of the Southern Cross Cables Network, currently the sole provider of undersea fibre links between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

Pacific Fibre's founders - along with many other industry commentators - have long argued a broadband pricing and capacity bottleneck into and out of New Zealand can be overcome only when a second cable provider arrives in the market.

Reduced international broadband costs will open up new digital services and access to international markets desperately required by New Zealand businesses, they say.

Southern Cross Cables, partly owned by Telecom, argues it has dropped its prices significantly in recent years, and is kept in check competitively by the global fibre cable provider market. Observers expect that even the prospect of Pacific Fibre's new link will force Southern Cross to drop its prices further.

But rather than simply buying into a discounting war, the newcomer has at least one trick up its sleeve. Like Mackenzie's strategy, it involves leveraging an advantage off our Australian cousins.

Pacific Fibre's Sydney-Auckland-San Francisco cable is designed to offer a more direct route from Australia and New Zealand to the US than the path taken by the Southern Cross network.

The shorter route means the new cable has the all-important benefit of being attractive to Australian customers while New Zealand will benefit by acting as a stepping-stone to Sydney.

The local loser out of the Pacific Fibre deal is state owned transmission and broadband technology company Kordia, which has spent the past couple of years trying to broker its own deal to build a transtasman cable in an effort to bust the Southern Cross monopoly.

Kordia chief executive Geoff Hunt says the company has now scrapped its cable ambitions.

``The main thing for New Zealand is that there is competition,'' he told industry newsletter Communications Day. ``Just the threat of competition has brought [broadband] prices down.''


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## castermaild55

*Laying Transpacific Undersea Cable*


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## World 2 World

*Telekom Malaysia to invest US$140m in undersea cable system*

Read more: TM to invest US$140m in undersea cable system http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/ptm2/Article/#ixzz1DDVONSN5

TELEKOM Malaysia Bhd (TM) (4863) will spend US$140 million (RM429 million) to own two fibre pairs in an international submarine cable system, adding weight to its international carrying capacity and improving the resilience of its global network. 

Known as Cahaya Malaysia, the two fibre pairs will directly link Malaysia to Hong Kong and Japan, and will improve latency, an element which boosts network speed by about 25 per cent.

Phase 1 of the cable system linking Malaysia to Japan will be completed by the middle of 2012, while Phase 2 linking Malaysia to Hong Kong will be completed by the end of 2012.

"We have to have routes for restoration ... in case one cable system is down, we have an alternative routing ensuring that our customers are not disrupted when they use the Internet, or any other kind of connectivity especially for businesses," TM group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said after an agreement signing ceremony with Japan's NTT Communications Corp, part-owner and developer of the project.
The submarine cable system will have six fibre pairs. 

Zamzamzairani said the new routing will avoid areas prone to seismic activities, improving its resilience to earthquakes.

In 2006, a major earthquake near the coast of Taiwan caused up to seven international cable systems downtime.

TM will fund the US$140 million investment internally. 

The group is already a member of nine cable consortium projects. Currently it has a 453 gigabit per second (Gbps) capacity going out of Malaysia.

The two extra fibre pairs, which will have an initial capacity of 500 Gbps, has a design capacity of 15 terabit per second (Tbps).

Spanning a distance of about 7,000 kilometres, the new cable will use Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology and requires a total investment of US$412 million (RM1.3 billion).

NTT Communications will own the remaining four pairs of fibres, which it plans to develop in collaboration with other regional carriers to provide landing points in the Philippines and Singapore.
source: www.btimes.com.my/articles/ptm2/Article


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## hkskyline

*Greens propose trans-Pacific cable funding*
Newstalk ZB 
December 17, 2012, 6:00 pm

The dream of a second trans-Pacific undersea cable linking New Zealand to America to make broadband faster and cheaper is not over.

The Greens launched an ambitious plan today, the cornerstone of which is a promise to provide $100 million to the Pacific Fibre group so the cable can be developed.

Co-founder of Pacific Fibre Lance Wiggs, says the plan would go ahead if that sort of investment was made.

He says any government willing to do that will also reap the financial benefits.
"The government is a much better creditor than Kim Dotcom, and in order for this to go forward you need someone to get out there and put a lot of money on the table to say 'you know what, this just works.'"


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## NordikNerd

There is a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea from Germany to St Petersburg, Russia.


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## :jax:

Shado said:


> Actually the biggest advantage of cables is that the signal doesn't have to do a 72,000km round trip.











Indeed, the latency (delay) of a geostationary satellite may be ok for downloads (requiring bandwidth rather than low latency) but not for more interactive services. Geostationary orbit, like above, has many benefits such as easy switching and that the signals are available for nearly half the planet, but to the extent satellites will be used for regular internet traffic in the future lower, I will assume they will pick lower orbits. Airplanes use satellites for their Internet traffic, but most stationary users would likely have (sub)surface connection. It is cheaper, and usually better, per bit. Satellites can cross oceans though without cable.


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## hkskyline

*Report: Cuba using undersea fiber-optic cable*
Mon, Jan 21, 2013

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba apparently has finally switched on the first undersea fiber-optic cable linking it to the outside world nearly two years after its arrival, according to analysis by a company that monitors global Internet use.

In a report posted Sunday on the website of Renesys, author Doug Madory wrote that Cuba began using the ALBA-1 cable on Jan. 14.

Until now the island's Internet service has been through satellite links that are slower than hard-wired fiber-optic connections. Starting a week ago, Madory said, routing data showed significantly faster traffic to the country and the emergence of Spanish telecom Telefonica as a provider of routing service to Cuban state-run communications company ETECSA.

Routing speed is measured by how long it takes to send a data packet somewhere and receive confirmation back at the original server, akin to how submarines "ping" each other with radar to determine location.

Madory wrote that the sudden improvement in latency measurements between Cuba and four cities in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil indicates the cable is in use. But speeds have not reached levels suggesting that the cable is handling all traffic, leading him to conclude that outgoing data is still traveling via satellite.

"We believe it is likely that Telefonica's service to ETECSA is, either by design or misconfiguration, using its new cable asymmetrically (i.e., for traffic in only one direction)," Madory wrote.

Cuban government officials and Telefonica did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Cuba has said in the past that it would prioritize the cable for usage deemed in the public interest and for social good.

Dial-up Internet access, essentially the only option for most Cubans who are able to go online, has continued to be slow and creaky in recent days.

Cuba is the last country in the western hemisphere to get a fiber-optic hookup and, according to Akamai Technologies Inc., has the second-lowest Internet connectivity rates in the world.

Havana says about 16 percent of Cubans are online in some capacity, mostly through work or school, but often that's limited to email and access to an island Intranet. Just 2.9 percent report having full Internet access, though analysts say it's probably more like 5 or 10 percent due to underreporting of black-market resale of minutes.

"While the activation of the ALBA-1 cable may be a good first step to providing ETECSA a better link to the Internet, the lack of widespread public access to Internet service throughout the island will likely continue," Madory wrote.

The $70 million cable strung from Venezuela came onshore in eastern Cuba in February 2011 and was supposed to be online as early as that summer.

But officials suddenly stopped talking about the cable amid rumors of arrests at ETECSA and the Ministry of Communications, and whispers of purported mismanagement or embezzlement involving the project.

Last May, Venezuela's minister of science and technology said the cable was operational and it was up to Cuba to decide how it wanted to use it.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi


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## hkskyline

*First mainland-Taiwan submarine cable to start commercial operations *

TAIPEI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's communication administrative authority has approved the first submarine communication cable directly linking both sides of the Taiwan Strait, enabling the cable to come into commercial service.

Communication operators in Taiwan told Xinhua on Monday that once put into use, the cable will be capable of carrying cross-Strait communications with a bandwidth of 6.4Tb/s. Operators in Taiwan previously had to use international cables in Japan or the Republic of Korea to connect with the mainland, and the new direct link will improve the quality and speed of cross-Strait communications.

The cable will also facilitate the cross-Strait market for e-business, mobile communications and cloud services.

Yen-Sung Lee, chairman of Taiwan communication operator Chunghwa Telecom, said the cable is expected to enhance the communications market as well as exchanges between people on the two sides.

Taiwan Mobile said in a statement that data collected by the company revealed that the cross-Strait broadband communications market has been growing at an annual rate of 20 to 30 percent in recent years.

The statement said the company is planning to cooperate with mainland partners to explore cloud computing business on the mainland.

A senior executive with Far Eastone, another Taiwan communications company, believes the market demand for telecommunication integration solutions may double next year.

Construction of the cable finished in January with investment from communication operators on both sides. With a length of 270 km, the cable connects the city of Fuzhou in Fujian Province on the mainland and Tamsui in Taiwan.


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## joeyorav

The cable's role is making the world a smaller place...


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## hkskyline

*Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying*

BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.

At a summit in Brussels, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to "guarantee the neutrality" of the Internet, signalling her desire to shield Brazil's Internet traffic from U.S. surveillance.

"We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don't want businesses to be spied upon," Rousseff told a joint news conference with the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

"The Internet is one of the best things man has ever invented. So we agreed for the need to guarantee ... the neutrality of the network, a democratic area where we can protect freedom of expression," Rousseff said.

Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington last year in protest at the U.S. National Security Agency spying on her email and phone and is now seeking alternative routes to U.S. cables.

Brazil relies on U.S. undersea cables to carry almost all of its communications to Europe. The existing cable between Europe and Brazil is outdated and only used for voice transmission.

EU leaders are sympathetic to Brazil's call following the revelations of fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that showed the agency also eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone and some EU institutions.

U.S. President Barack Obama has since banned spying on the leaders of close allies, but trust has been damaged.

Brussels is threatening the suspension of EU-U.S. agreements for data transfers unless Washington increases guarantees for the protection of EU citizens' data.

MERCOSUR'S MISSED DEADLINES

At the one-day summit, there was no public criticism of the United States, which remains the European Union's closest ally.

But Rousseff clearly took heart from Merkel's calls this month for a European Internet that is protected from U.S. surveillance, even if there are questions about the practicalities of setting up alternative networks in Europe.

Rousseff said Brazil and the European Union have "similar concerns" about U.S. dominance of fibre-optic cables and hoped to have a cable running from the Portuguese capital Lisbon to the northeastern Brazilian of Fortaleza from next year.

Under current plans, a joint venture between Brazilian telecoms provider Telebras and Spain's IslaLink Submarine Cables would lay the communications link. Telebras would have a 35 percent stake, IslaLink would have a 45 percent interest and European and Brazilian pension funds could put up the remainder.

One official said that because Brazil had more to gain from the project than the European Union, its overall stake in the project would have to be larger than 50 percent and so Brazilian funds would put up more.

The cable agreement marks rare progress for Rousseff in her ties with the European Union, the top foreign investor in Brazil, because negotiations to agree a long-promised free-trade deal have been delayed again, officials said at the summit.

With talks between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur dependent on Argentina's willingness to come to the negotiating table, Rousseff initially cancelled her trip to Brussels because she expected to have little to discuss.

Fifteen years after talks between the EU and Mercosur were first launched, both sides have missed self-imposed deadlines to swap offers for opening markets in a pact that would encompass 750 million people and $130 billion in annual trade.

The latest date will be decided after a technical meeting of negotiators on March 21, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, who said offers could then be swapped at some time "in the foreseeable future".

Brazil, one of the world's largest and most influential emerging economies, is ready to do a deal. It is backed by Uruguay and Paraguay but the question is whether Argentina, one of the most protectionist members of the Group of 20 countries, will join in opening its economy to greater EU imports.


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## hkskyline

*A giant undersea data cable now connects Virginia Beach and Spain*
USA TODAY _Excerpt_
Sept. 26, 2017

Our transatlantic Internet connections will soon become a lot more reliable.

Microsoft, Facebook and infrastructure company Telxius announced they have finished work on a 4,000-mile-long undersea cable that can transmit 160 terabits of data per second, making it the highest capacity data cable crossing the Atlantic.

To put that in perspective, when you break it down into the gigabytes we're familiar with, 160 terabits equals 20,000 GB of data. So, let's say you're downloading movies that are 2 GB in size, you could download 10,000 movies in one second. Pretty fast.

The cable — codenamed Marea — connects Virginia Beach, Va., and Bilbio, Spain. 

Microsoft president Brad Smith said Marea, which will be available for use by 2018, should feed growing demand.

"Submarine cables in the Atlantic already carry 55% more data than trans-Pacific routes and 40% more data than between the U.S. and Latin America. There is no question that the demand for data flows across the Atlantic will continue to increase," Smith said.

The cable will feature an open design, so it adapts better to changes in technology.

Frank Rey, the director of global network strategy for Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure and Operations division, said the decision to choose Virginia Beach for the U.S. connection was influenced by the aftermath for Hurricane Sandy, a "major disruption" to transatlantic connections since many data cables land in New York or New Jersey.


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## hkskyline

*Cloud and fibre: India’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative*
India’s Global Cloud Xchange will build a submarine fibre-optic cable system spanning 16,650km from Hong Kong to Italy
November 8, 2017
South China Morning Post _Excerpt_

Telecommunications services provider Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) on Wednesday unveiled plans to build a US$500 million submarine fibre-optic cable system, stretching 16,650 kilometres from Hong Kong to Italy, which the company expects to become a key infrastructure for India’s version of Belt and Road Initiative.

GCX, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Communications, owns the world’s largest private undersea cable network that spans more than 67,000km.

The Eagle cable system represents the centrepiece of the ambitious “cloud and fibre initiative” of GCX, which has already completed negotiations for more than 50 per cent of the project with other investors such as telecommunications operators and technology companies, Reliance Communications chief executive officer Bill Barney told the South China Morning Post.

While the Eagle system is a private-sector enterprise, it would help advance India’s own agenda of connectivity and cooperation within Asia and beyond. India remains sensitive about the manner in which China’s Belt and Road Initiative is being pursued in its neighbourhood, which includes Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

More : http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprise...indias-answer-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative


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## hkskyline

*Nigeria's Globacom and Huawei to lay undersea fibre cable in Delta oil region*
_Excerpt_

LAGOS, April 26 (Reuters) - Nigerian telecoms company Globacom and China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd are laying an undersea cable that will provide high-speed internet to oil platforms in the country’s Niger Delta region.

The 850 kilometre-long (528 miles) cable, connecting southwestern commercial capital Lagos with the southern Delta region, is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2020, the companies told Reuters in an interview on Thursday at Globacom’s Lagos headquarters.

The Niger Delta, the OPEC member’s oil production heartland, was rocked by attacks by militants on energy facilities that contributed to Nigeria falling into a recession in 2016 since oil sales make up two-thirds of government revenue.

The telecoms firm said it signed the deal on Tuesday.

Globacom, which in 2010 built an international undersea cable connecting Nigeria with Europe, said the new cable would serve companies with offshore oil and gas reserves which experience difficulties transmitting data.


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## hkskyline

Dec 15, 2017
*Britain says West must defend undersea cables from Russian navy*
_Excerpt_

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and its NATO allies must defend deep sea cables against a potentially catastrophic attack by the Russia navy that could disrupt trillions of dollars in financial transactions, the head of Britain’s armed forces warned. 

The cables which crisscross the world’s oceans and seas carry 95 percent of communications and over $10 trillion in daily transactions.

“There is a new risk to our way of life, which is the vulnerability of the cables that criss-cross the seabeds,” the BBC quoted Stuart Peach, chief of the defense staff, as saying.

Peach said the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s modernization of the once mighty Soviet navy now posed a serious threat to Western communications.

“Russia in addition to new ships and submarines continues to perfect both unconventional capabilities and information warfare,” Peach said.


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## hkskyline

*Australia's plans to build foreign ties with undersea cables hits snags at home*
July 31, 2018
_Excerpt_

SYDNEY (Reuters) - When Australia bankrolled undersea internet cables for its Pacific neighbors, it shut out a competing offer from Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL].

But the strategic move to spend A$91 million ($67 million) connecting Sydney with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands via cables in the Coral Sea has perplexed many Australians, who must deal with home internet speeds that are among the slowest in the developed world.

On Norfolk Island, a verdant Australian speck in the South Pacific, where a connection to a cable 90 kilometers (56 miles) away would cost just A$15 million, Canberra’s decision to skip the project is galling.

“The amount of money that we’re talking about for the Solomons and PNG cables is about ten-fold what it would have cost to connect Norfolk,” Brett Sanderson, president of Norfolk Island People for Democracy, an activist group, told Reuters.

The undersea cables are part of a vigorous new campaign by the United States and its allies to reassert their influence in the Pacific amid fears that the region is increasingly susceptible to diplomatic pressure from Beijing.

Australia, along with the U.S. and Britain, has also raised concerns that Huawei exposes telecom networks to security risks, a claim the company denies.

Funding for the Coral Sea links comes from Australia’s A$1.3 billion Pacific aid budget, separate from what is set aside for domestic infrastructure projects like broadband internet.

Yet with the promise of connections quicker than those in Australian cities, and as discontent with domestic telecoms near an all-time high, the project risks becoming a political liability.

“If it’s good enough for these other countries, why is it not good enough for territories that Australia claims as its own?” Sanderson said.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1H90RO


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## hkskyline

*Telkom Kenya gets $40 mln loan from European Investment Bank*
_Excerpt_

NAIROBI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Telkom Kenya, the country’s third biggest operator, has secured a loan worth $40 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the company said on Friday, as it tries to gain market share by expanding its mobile and data services.

Telkom will use the funds from the EIB, the European Union’s not-for-profit long term investment arm, to improve and expand its network, the company and the bank said.

The operator, which is the smallest in Kenya behind Safaricom and Bharti Airtel’s Kenyan unit, has been focusing on data to try to win customers.

It said last month it was in talks with two unidentified parties over partnerships to allow it to sell high speed internet capacity from two undersea data cables that are about to connect to the East African nation.

The company’s chief executive Mugo Kibati, who was appointed on Nov. 9, said the funds supported Telkom’s goal of being Kenya’s preferred data network.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/ken...n-from-european-investment-bank-idUSL8N1XY0BS


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## hkskyline

*Severed cable sends Tonga 'back to beginning of the internet'*
Jan 24, 2019
_Excerpt_

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The South Pacific nation of Tonga has been all but cut off from the internet this week after an undersea cable connecting the archipelago to the wider world was severed twice on Sunday, throwing communications across the tiny and isolated country into chaos.

The outage, which the cable’s owner said may have been caused by a ship’s anchor, also knocked out overseas phone calls and is hampering money transfers, airline bookings, university enrolments as well as Facebook connections to family and friends.

In the capital, Nuku’alofa, a satellite dish was hastily mounted on Monday to provide limited and slow backup connectivity, prompting hundreds of people to queue outside a government telecom office where the signal is most reliable.

“It’s like going back to the beginning of the internet,” Tonga police spokeswoman Sia Adams said on the phone.

“You just wait for your turn to have your 20 minutes to access...it’s currently hot here in Tonga at the moment but they’ve put up a tent outside, with chairs, so people can wait.”

Hours have been extended to midnight to handle crowds of officials, business people and ordinary folk logging on to access cash remittances, buy plane tickets and “just chat” said Filimone Iloa, an employee at Tonga Communications Corporation.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1PI0A8


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## hkskyline

Apr 10, 2019
*U.S. firm's plan for Australia-China internet cable leaves Huawei trailing*
_Excerpt_

SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. submarine cable company SubCom said on Thursday it would lay an internet link from Australia to Hong Kong through Papua New Guinea, deepening its involvement in a region where China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has sought to expand.

The route is the most direct internet link yet between Australia and China.

It also includes a connection to Madang in PNG and possible branches to Port Moresby and to Honiara in the Solomon Islands - connections Huawei had agreed to make before Australia blocked its project there last year on security grounds.

The SubCom cable would likely stifle any commercial case for future Huawei cables in the region, according to Jonathan Pryke, director of Pacific Islands research at Sydney-based think-tank the Lowy Institute.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...et-cable-leaves-huawei-trailing-idUSKCN1RM0JL


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## hkskyline

*China’s Next Naval Target Is the Internet’s Underwater Cables*
Worried about Huawei’s 5G? Wait till it gets into the game for 95 percent of all data and voice traffic.
Bloomberg _Excerpt_
April 9, 2019

As the West considers the threat posed by China’s naval ambitions, there is a natural tendency to place overarching attention on the South China Sea. This is understandable: Consolidating it would provide Beijing with a huge windfall of oil and natural gas, and a potential chokehold over up to 40 percent of the world’s shipping.

But this is only the most obvious manifestation of Chinese maritime strategy. Another key element, one that’s far harder to discern, is Beijing’s increasing influence in constructing and repairing the undersea cables that move virtually all the information on the internet. To understand the totality of China’s “Great Game” at sea, you have to look down to the ocean floor.

While people tend think of satellites and cell towers as the heart of the internet, the most vital component is the 380 submerged cables that carry more than 95 percent of all data and voice traffic between the continents. They were built largely by the U.S. and its allies, ensuring that (from a Western perspective, at least) they were “cleanly” installed without built-in espionage capability available to our opponents. U.S. internet giants including Google, Facebook and Amazon are leasing or buying vast stretches of cables from the mostly private consortia of telecom operators that constructed them.

But now the Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies, the leading firm working to deliver 5G telephony networks globally, has gone to sea. Under its Huawei Marine Networks component, it is constructing or improving nearly 100 submarine cables around the world. Last year it completed a cable stretching nearly 4,000 miles from Brazil to Cameroon. (The cable is partly owned by China Unicom, a state-controlled telecom operator.) Rivals claim that Chinese firms are able to lowball the bidding because they receive subsidies from Beijing.

Just as the experts are justifiably concerned about the inclusion of espionage “back doors” in Huawei’s 5G technology, Western intelligence professionals oppose the company’s engagement in the undersea version, which provides a much bigger bang for the buck because so much data rides on so few cables.

More : https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...ing-the-internet-s-underwater-cables-are-next


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## hkskyline

*Plumbing the depths in the hidden battle for the internet*
12 May 2019
The Sunday Telegraph © 2019
_Excerpt_

Companies are spending billions to control the physical infrastructure of communication, says Hasan Chowdhury

Tourists to the scenic port city of Valparaiso, on the Pacific coast of Chile, have plenty to admire. Traditionally, visitors have swarmed across the city's hillside to look at its vibrantly hued clifftop homes, street murals and sea views that inspired Pablo Neruda, the Nobel laureate. "If we walk up and down all the stairs of Valparaiso, we'll have walked all around the world," the poet once wrote.

More recently, the city has been hosting a new visitor: Google, which is building a connection with the world of an entirely different kind. Last month, the US technology giant laid the final section of a giant undersea cable, named Curie after the Polish scientist, that stretches 6,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles.

Undersea cables are the vital unseen plumbing of the internet, carrying near 99pc of the world's data and web traffic at close to the speed of light across the sea floor. By being hooked up to them, places such as Valparaiso and cities across Latin America and beyond can enjoy the economic fruits delivered by high-speed broadband connectivity.

The subsea fibre cable which arrives here is not unique. Around the world - from the remote island of Tonga to the shores of Cameroon - some of America and China's biggest technology companies, including Facebook, Microsoft and Huawei, are forking out billions of dollars on similar underwater projects in a bid to gain an edge in a battle for control of the physical infrastructure of the internet.

There is a lot at stake. Mark Sedwill, Britain's former national security adviser, warned parliament in 2017 that by severing undersea internet cables an attacker could "achieve the same affect as [was] achieved in World War Two by bombing the London docks".

Much of the debate around who controls access to the data on which our modern lives depend has revolved around the roll-out of 5G telecom networks. But a similar debate over who owns and controls access to these subsea networks is emerging, amid growing concerns about security and espionage.

More : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/05/12/plumbing-depths-seas-hidden-battle-internet/


----------



## :jax:

5G worries are way overblown. The greatest weakness has been that so much information has been concentrated in so few channels and centres, making surveillance easy, whether sanctioned or through hacking. Or for that matter sabotage. 

That particular problem was significantly greater before. This list does not include outages in the previous century, some of which were more severe, relatively speaking.


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## hkskyline

The trade war has reached under the sea : https://www.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1T40BS


----------



## hkskyline

*Google announces new subsea cable 'Equiano', connecting Africa and Europe *
June 28, 2019
_Excerpt_

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google on Friday announced a new subsea cable dubbed “Equiano” that will connect Africa with Europe, as it boosts its cloud computing infrastructure.

Equiano, fully funded by Google, is the company’s third private international cable.

The search engine giant, which has invested $47 billion in improving its global technology infrastructure over the last three years, said Equiano is the company’s 14th subsea cable investment globally.

“Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching,” Google said in a blog post.

Google said a contract to build the cable with Alcatel Submarine Networks was signed in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal, is expected to be completed in 2021.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...no-connecting-africa-and-europe-idUSKCN1TT1O0


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## :jax:

Here with a map:


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## cis logos

Indonesia Palapa Ring Project (undersea fiber-optic cable map)
Source: Communication and Information Ministry
https://kominfo.go.id/content/detail/15953/siaran-pers-no-14hmkominfo012019-tentang-menkominfo-dan-menkeu-akan-uji-coba-jaringan-palapa-ring-tengah-untuk-layanan-pajak-dan-kesehatan/0/siaran_pers



The eastern portion will be finished in the third quarter of 2019.


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## hkskyline

Aug 28, 2019
*National-security concerns threaten undersea cable to China: WSJ*
_Excerpt_

(Reuters) - U.S. officials are seeking to block an undersea cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, backed by Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) and a Chinese partner, over national-security concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The Justice Department has signaled staunch opposition to the project because of concerns over its Chinese investor, Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group Co, and the direct link that the cable would provide to Hong Kong, the WSJ reported, citing people involved in the discussion.

“DOJ does not comment on its ongoing assessment of applications that the FCC has referred for national security and law enforcement concerns arising out of foreign investment or control,” said Marc Raimondi, a national security spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ten-undersea-cable-to-china-wsj-idUSKCN1VI1I9


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## Rauth98

_BPS_ said:


> Is this (union) possible with satellites?


We are about to find out.


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## hkskyline

*Underwater data super cable off Sydney*
28 November 2019
Daily Telegraph​ _Excerpt_

A hulking 140 metre French ship has been bobbing in the swell on the northern beaches while on a special mission set to improve digital telecommunications across the nation.

The 9800-tonne Ile De Brehat, anchored just off Narrabeen Beach for nearly two weeks, has become a local attraction as it works to lay the last length of an underwater cable stretching from Guam to Sydney.

It’s part of a 9400km submarine fibre optic network between Australia and Japan designed to “provide Australia with superior voice, data and internet connectivity to Asia and other parts of the world” at the speed of light.

It will deliver more than 36 terabits of information per second. A terabit is a unit for measuring computer memory .

The cable could send the equivalent of the text from 380,000 newspapers every second.

Divers, and a team of workers onshore, have been winching the cable from the ship, through a narrow tunnel to connect the cable to a landing station close to the Narrabeen St car park.

Once the work is complete the only visible part of the chamber will be locked manhole covers.

The construction of the Japan-Guam-Australia Cable System (JGA) is backed by a consortium including Google, Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet), a not-for-profit network owned by Australian universities and the CSIRO as well as the Singapore-based RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd, an independent undersea cable owner.

From Guam, the JGA network connects to Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

About 95 per cent of the world’s internet traffic and communications passes through submarine cables, which measure between just 17 and 35mm in diameter, running along the seabed.

More : https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/n...h/news-story/e3a6cba7d61d4602522735cc40d8449c


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## hkskyline

* US-China tech war’s new battleground: undersea internet cables *
South China Morning Post _Excerpt_
Dec 14, 2019

In the contest between the US and China for dominance over the world’s technology infrastructure, the latest battle is taking place under the Pacific Ocean.

While the US has been upping the pressure on its allies not to include equipment made by Chinese telecom giants like Huawei and ZTE in their 5G systems, Chinese companies have gained a foothold in some of the world’s most essential communications infrastructure – undersea internet cables.

Almost all global data communications flow through cables under the ocean – just one per cent travels by satellite – and Chinese companies have quietly been eroding US, European and Japanese dominance over the backbone of the internet, the undersea cable market. Now, they have trained their sights on connecting one of the most virtually remote parts of the globe, the Pacific Island countries.

Of the 378 cables currently operating worldwide, 23 are under the Pacific. But many of these cables run right by Pacific Island nations on their paths between hubs in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Singapore.

Despite the volume of data flowing under the Pacific Ocean, just half a million of the 11 million people living in Pacific Island countries and Papua New Guinea – less than five per cent – have access to a wired internet connection and only 1.5 million to a mobile connection, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (UNESCAP), compared with 53 per cent of people in Thailand and 60 per cent in the Philippines.

More : https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/poli...ars-new-battleground-undersea-internet-cables


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## hkskyline

* Facebook cable plan hits resistance in Oregon coastal town *
Associated Press _Excerpt_
Jan 9, 2020

TIERRA DEL MAR, Ore. (AP) — A battle playing out in Oregon is pitting residents of a tiny coastal town with no stoplights or cellphone service against one of the world's biggest tech companies.

Locals in Tierra del Mar are trying to stop Facebook from using property in their quiet community to build a landing spot for an undersea cable connecting America with Asia.

Representatives of the social media giant say Tierra del Mar is one of the few places on the U.S. West Coast suitable for the ultra-high-speed cable. It will link multiple U.S. locations, including Facebook's huge data center in the central Oregon town of Prineville, with Japan and the Philippines, and will help meet an increasing demand for internet services worldwide, the company says.

But locals say vibrations from drilling to bring the submarine cable ashore in this village of some 200 houses might damage home foundations and septic systems. They also point out that Tierra del Mar, arrayed along a pristine beach, is zoned residential. If the project is allowed, they say, more commercial ventures will come calling.

“This is a huge precedent. Once you open the shores to these companies coming anywhere they want to, Oregon's coast is pretty much wide open season,” resident Patricia Rogers told county officials in written remarks.

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of the project after hearing testimony Thursday.

“Once it is done, it is my hope that the community is not going to even know it is there,” Commissioner David Yamamoto said. He noted the project is similar to other uses, like electrical facilities, that have been permitted.

Residents plan to appeal to a state board.

Tierra del Mar, 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Portland, is home to a mix of professionals and retirees who share a love of the unspoiled beach that is fringed with coastal pines and the deer, bald eagles and rare seabirds that inhabit the area. It has two businesses, a rock shop and antiques store, and no cell service, apparently because providers don't consider it profitable enough.

More : https://apnews.com/9d518d714ecea97d67638c7365886e90


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## hkskyline

*Tech giants seek Hong Kong alternative after U.S. blocks undersea cable: WSJ*
Feb 8, 2020

(Reuters) - U.S. tech giants including Alphabet Inc’s Google are considering alternatives to Hong Kong as a global data hub after U.S. officials upended plans for a trans-pacific internet link to the territory, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.

“We have been working through established channels in order to obtain cable landing licenses for various undersea cables, and we will continue to abide by the decisions made by designated agencies in the locations where we operate,” a Google spokesperson said.

The U.S. Department of Justice had signaled staunch opposition to the project because of concerns over its Chinese investor, Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group Co, and the direct link that the cable would provide to Hong Kong, the Wall Street Journal had reported in August.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...r-u-s-blocks-undersea-cable-wsj-idUSKBN2012HG


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## hkskyline

* CTM Deploys Contingency Measures While Submarine Cable Awaits Repair *
Macau Daily Times _Excerpt_
Feb 27, 2020

Local telecom operator CTM has deployed a series of contingency measures including 24-hour network monitoring after it detected that a section of an optical submarine telecommunications cable located near Hong Kong had a fault, the operator has announced.

According to a statement, the repair vessel will be arriving at the site of the damaged cable section and carrying out restoration work at 12 p.m. on March 3 until 12 p.m. on March 6.

After it was detected that the SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3) submarine cable was defective, CTM coordinated with the administrator of the cable to implement power reconfiguration and relocate the network resources to ensure stability of internet connection.

In the meantime, CTM has imposed measures, including the timely allocation of bandwidth resources, to re-route the data transmission via another telecommunication network to offload and divert the data traffic.

The measure was implemented to ensure the overall operation of Internet services.

More : https://macaudailytimes.com.mo/ctm-...ures-while-submarine-cable-awaits-repair.html


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## hkskyline

* U.S. approves Google request to use segment of U.S.-Asia undersea cable *
Apr 8, 2020
_Excerpt_

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday approved Alphabet Inc unit Google’s (GOOGL.O) request to use part of an U.S.-Asia undersea telecommunications cable after the company warned it would face significantly higher prices to carry traffic by other means.

Google agreed to operate a portion of the 8,000-mile Pacific Light Cable Network System between the United States and Taiwan, but not Hong Kong. Google and Facebook Inc (FB.O) helped pay for construction of the now completed telecommunications link but U.S. regulators have blocked its use.

The Justice Department earlier told the FCC in a petition it supported Google’s revised request. The agency said U.S. agencies believe “there is a significant risk that the grant of a direct cable connection between the United States and Hong Kong would seriously jeopardize the national security and law enforcement interests of the United States.”

More : U.S. approves Google request to use segment of U.S.-Asia undersea cable


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## hkskyline

* US says underwater data cable should skip Hong Kong * 
RTHK _Excerpt_
June 18, 2020

US Justice Department officials on Wednesday recommended that a high-capacity undersea data cable system proposed by Google and Facebook bypass Hong Kong, citing potential national security concerns following Beijing's moves to exert greater control in the territory.

The Pacific Light Cable Network, pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission, should connect the US, Taiwan, and the Philippines as planned but not go through Hong Kong, a Justice Department committee recommended.

The high-capacity, low-latency fibre optic cable backed by Google and Facebook would "encourage" US communications crossing the Pacific Ocean to land in Hong Kong before continuing on to other parts of Asia, the DoJ reasoned.

The recommendation to the FCC contended that the cable network's "proposed Hong Kong landing station would expose US communications traffic to collection" by Beijing.

The concerns have been heightened by the central government's "recent actions to remove Hong Kong's autonomy and allow for the possibility that (Beijing's) intelligence and security services will operate openly in Hong Kong," the DoJ said in a release.

More : https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1532681-20200618.htm


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## hkskyline

* How Spies Could Steal Our Data From an 8,000-Mile Undersea Cable *
Popular Mechanics _Excerpt_
June 25, 2020

Critics in the U.S. government say a new 8,000-mile cable beneath the Pacific Ocean is bait for foreign spies. But advocates counter that these fears are overblown, and the first direct fiber link from the U.S. to Hong Kong is worth it.

The Department of Justice's statement lays out the specifics of its objections. The planned cabling connects the U.S. to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Much of the cabling will be owned by Google and Facebook, but one partner, the Hong Kong-based Pacific Light Data Co. Ltd., is among the largest telecoms in China.

The DoJ approves of everything but the length of cable that will connect to and terminate in Hong Kong, which China contentiously controls. Officials have said they worry that China’s unsubtle espionage will descend on the cable as a point that can be exploited.

Because of the high speed of the very long cable system, data trying to shortcut around the world could pass through Chinese territory in a way it may not have before. In simple terms, the U.S. government claims it worries that data will be “wiretapped.”

Sorting out the politics is difficult. Basically, the fact that China is overly involved in a project that claims to only land in progressive Hong Kong is being viewed as a diplomacy bait-and-switch. And the claim seems to be based on access to the line through traditional means, not by any physical hacking. But how could a hacker target an undersea fiber optic cable?

This international situation is complex and messy, but there are two key ideas at the very heart of it.

First, all international telecommunications infrastructure involves huge undersea cables—that part isn't new or novel for this project. Second, despite planned redundancies among these cable systems, it's hypothetically possible for someone to hack an undersea cable through data or even the old fashioned way: by literally hacking into it with a tap or other penetrative tech.

More : How Spies Could Steal Our Data From an 8,000-Mile Undersea Cable


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## hkskyline

* Our Underwater World Is Full Of Cables… That Are Sometimes Attacked By Sharks *
Forbes _Excerpt_
July 20, 2020 

In the search for new subsea oil fields, geologists use large vessels to tow several heavy-duty cables (called streamer cables) to collect seismic data. Equipped with hydrophones that receive the returned signals initiated from a seismic source, these streamer cables are deployed at about 16 – 65 feet (5–20 meters) deep, and each streamer is typically 26,247 ft (8 km) long. As one can imagine, this activity probably attracts numerous animals to check out what the ruckus is all about. One of these animals are sharks, who are attracted to the magnetic streamer fields and tend to bite through the cables! In some areas of the world, equipment loss due to shark attacks on streamer cables is a serious problem in terms of time delays and economic loss for the operator.

This isn’t the first time sharks have caused a headache for undersea cable systems- this problem goes back to 1980’s! According to Network World, even Google has had to wrap their internet cables in Kevlar-like material to prevent damaging shark bites. So why are sharks attracted to undersea data cables? It’s not exactly known. Some believe that because sharks can sense electromagnetic fields through jelly-filled pores on their snouts called ampullae of Lorenzini, perhaps they are attracted by this electrical current and confusing it for food. Alternatively, shark expert Dr. Chris Lowe from California State University suggested they may just be curious about them. “If you had just a piece of plastic out there shaped like a cable, there’s a good chance they’d bite that too,” said Dr. Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab, in the interview to Wired. 

More : Our Underwater World Is Full Of Cables… That Are Sometimes Attacked By Sharks


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## hkskyline

* China's Huawei loses out to Japan's NEC on Chile-Asia trans-Pacific cable project *
South China Morning Post _Excerpt_
July 30, 2020

Chile has picked Japanese firm NEC ahead of rival bidder Huawei to build the first fibre-optic undersea cable between South America and Asia, according to Japanese media, as the Chinese tech giant continues to face opposition around the world.

Under the NEC proposal, a 13,000km (8,077 mile) cable will run under the Pacific Ocean from Chile to New Zealand and on to Australia, where it will end in Sydney, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Wednesday.

Huawei’s bid had Shanghai as the landing point in Asia.

More : Huawei loses out to NEC on Chile-Asia trans-Pacific cable project


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## hkskyline

* Google is building a huge undersea fiber-optic cable to connect the U.S. to Britain and Spain *
CNBC _Excerpt_
July 28, 2020

Google announced Tuesday it intends to set up a new undersea fiber-optic cable between the U.S., the U.K., and Spain as part of an effort to improve its services. 

The cable — named Grace Hopper after the American computer programming pioneer — will provide “better resilience for the network that underpins Google’s consumer and enterprise products,” Google said.

“Once commissioned, the Grace Hopper cable will be one of the first new cables to connect the U.S. and U.K. since 2003, increasing capacity on this busy global crossroads and powering Google services like Meet, Gmail and Google Cloud,” said Bikash Koley, vice president of Google Global Network, in a blog post. 

“It also marks our first investment in a private subsea cable route to the U.K., and our first-ever route to Spain,” Koley said. “The Spanish landing point will more tightly integrate the upcoming Google Cloud region in Madrid into our global infrastructure.”

The Mountain View-headquartered company added that the cable will incorporate “novel optical fiber switching” that will allow it to move traffic around internet outages more competently than before. It will also have 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers), which is a “significant upgrade” to the internet infrastructure that connects the U.S. with Europe, Koley said. 

The cable will run along the ocean floor from New York to the Cornish seaside resort town of Bude in the U.K. and Bilbao in Spain. It will run 6,250 km from the U.S. to the U.K. and 6,300 km from the U.S. to Spain. 

More : Google is building a huge undersea fiber-optic cable to connect the U.S. to Britain and Spain


----------



## hkskyline

*Lakshadweep to be connected with undersea optical fibre cable in 1,000 days: PM Modi *
The Indian Express _Excerpt_
August 15, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Union Territory (UT) “Lakshadweep will be connected to submarine optical fibre cable” in the next 1,000 days. PM Modi highlighted that technology will play a crucial role in the development of the country and it will help connect every citizen digitally.

“We have around 1,300 islands. Keep in mind their geographical location and their significance in the development of the nation, work to begin in new projects in some of these islands is underway. We have chosen some islands for rapid development. Recently, we connected Andaman & Nicobar Islands with an undersea cable for a better internet. Next, we will connect Lakshadweep,” he said while delivering his Independence speech from the Red Fort.

Not just Lakshadweep, the 69-year-old also said that in the upcoming 1000 days all six lakh Indian villages will be connected with optical fibre.

More : Lakshadweep to be connected with undersea optical fibre cable in 1,000 days: PM Modi


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## hkskyline

* Undersea internet cables offer more resilient connection *
Japan Times _Excerpt_
Nov 24, 2020

From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, laying undersea cables to establish a telegraph communication network for the British Empire was a major geopolitical policy.

Vast submarine telegraph cables were put in place, including one running westward from the U.K. under the Atlantic Ocean, one between the U.K. and France, and one stretching southward around Africa and eventually reaching Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

In the 21st century, the undersea cables were replaced with fiber optic wires, and the network’s main role changed to distribution of digital data via the internet.

The operating principle of the internet is that if a path for traffic in a network is not available, another path is automatically selected. This means that the predominance of a model in which a country possesses and protects undersea cables connecting two points is lost.

Therefore, the issue has shifted completely to the geoeconomic question of governments and the private sector cooperating to consider how the cables should be laid on ocean floors for the benefits of people and society.

More : Undersea internet cables offer more resilient connection


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## hkskyline

* Trinidad & Tobago: Another internet disruption unlikely *
Curacao Chronicle _Excerpt_
Dec 11, 2020

CEO of the Telecommunications Authority of TT (TATT) Cynthia Reddock-Downes said the likelihood of another nationwide internet disruption like what occurred on Monday is “low.”

Internet connectivity to several service providers was affected by the disruption of an international cable link via Curacao on Monday morning.

The issue was resolved within a few hours and connectivity restored by Monday afternoon.

Responding to Newsday via Whatsapp, Reddock-Downes said while the primary location of internet traffic was being repaired, the other became overwhelmed.

But, she said, “The primary location has been repaired and so there are now two further available channels for international internet traffic.”

Reddock-Downes said the authority, together with service providers, will “seek to ensure” that additional undersea cable systems are made available. “TATT will work with service providers to add further resilience measures using the existing infrastructure.”

Acting CEO of TSTT Lisa Agard said there are four subsea fibre-optic cable systems that transport the internet to TT. 

More : Trinidad & Tobago: Another internet disruption unlikely


----------



## hkskyline

* Exclusive: U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project - sources *
_Excerpt_ 
Dec 17, 2020

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region.

Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said.

The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati.

More : Exclusive: U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project - sources


----------



## hkskyline

* Second submarine internet cable to land in Namibia *
The Namibian _Excerpt_ 
Feb 18, 2021

NAMIBIA will receive its second submarine fibre-optic internet cable this year, which promises to enhance the reliability of increased internet bandwidth for the country, and for the rest of southern Africa.

Like the West Africa Cable System (WACS) that landed at Swakopmund a decade ago, the new 'Equiano' cable is about 14 000km long, and will span from Portugal to South Africa with nine branching units, of which one branch is Namibia, through Swakopmund.

The entire project will be completed by 2022 at a cost of about N$6 billion. Namibia's investment into the project is about N$260 million, which includes a N$28 million cable station under construction at Swakopmund.

More : Second submarine internet cable to land in Namibia - The Namibian


----------



## :jax:

Equiano:





__





Submarine Cable Map


TeleGeography's comprehensive and regularly updated interactive map of the world's major submarine cable systems and landing stations.




www.submarinecablemap.com


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## WillBuild

There's a link to St Helena? That seems a bit decadent.

Not on this map, fwiw.




  








> Equiano cable system is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable invested by Google.
> 
> Equiano connects Portugal and South Africa, running along the West Coast of Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries. The first branch is expected to land in Nigeria.
> 
> Named for Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, the Equiano cable is state-of-the-art infrastructure based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, with approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region. The SDM technology was first deployed in Google's second private subsea cable, Dunant.
> 
> Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching.
> 
> A contract to build the Equiano cable with Alcatel Submarine Networks was signed in Q4 2018, and the first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal, is expected to be completed in 2021.


From submarinenetworks.com


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## hkskyline

*China’s 7,500-Mile Undersea Cable to Europe Fuels Internet Feud*
Bloomberg _Excerpt_ 
Mar 5, 2021

An undersea cable will emerge later this year near a popular sunbathing spot in the French port of Marseille. The cable, known as Peace, will travel over land from China to Pakistan, where it heads underwater and snakes along for about 7,500 miles of ocean floor via the Horn of Africa before terminating in France.

The Peace cable, which is being built by Chinese companies, will be able to transport enough data in one second for 90,000 hours of Netflix, and will largely serve to make service faster for Chinese companies doing business in Europe and Africa. “This is a plan to project power beyond China toward Europe and Africa,” says Jean-Luc Vuillemin, the head of international networks at Orange SA, the French phone company that will operate the cable’s landing station in Marseille.

The project also represents a new flashpoint in the geopolitics of the internet. Huawei Technologies Co., the company at the center of a long-simmering struggle between China and the U.S., is the third-largest shareholder in Hengtong Optic-Electric Co.—the company building the cable. Huawei is also making the equipment for the Peace cable landing stations and its underwater transmission gear. 

More : Bloomberg - Are you a robot?


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## hkskyline

* This 1373km long undersea cable will bring 'green energy' from Egypt to Europe's electricity grid *
euronews _Excerpt_
Sept 17, 2022

Greece is in embarking on one of Europe’s most ambitious energy projects by linking up its electricity grid with Egypt's.

An underwater cable will carry 3,000 MW of electricity - enough to power up to 450,000 households - and will run from northern Egypt directly to Attica in Greece. 

The project is being undertaken by the Copelouzos Group, whose management met last week with the Egyptian leaders to speed up the process. 

As oil and gas prices surge, Europe is facing a looming energy crisis. Russia was the largest supplier of oil and gas to the bloc in 2021 providing around 40 per cent of its total energy needs. 

But, after the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, energy prices have surged leaving some nations unsure of their supplies this winter. 

More : 1373km long undersea cable will bring Egypt's 'green energy' to Europe


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## hkskyline

* Deal signed to fund Marinus Link power cable between Tasmania and Victoria *
ABC News _Excerpt_
Oct 19, 2022

The Tasmanian, Victorian and Commonwealth governments have reached a long-awaited funding deal to build the second Bass Strait underwater electricity interconnector, known as Marinus Link.

A loan scheme will make up the majority of the financing for the estimated $3.8 billion power cable, with the three governments jointly chipping in 20 per cent equity. 

The Tasmanian and Commonwealth governments have long supported Marinus Link and funded feasibility studies, but the Victorian government's position was uncertain.

More : Big loans, but who benefits? Funding agreement finally reached for $3.8b Marinus Link power cable


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## hkskyline

*Mystery of severed Shetland undersea cables as Russian ‘research’ ship sails close to Brit islands after comms blackout*
The Sun _Excerpt_
Oct 22, 2022

THE mystery over severed undersea power cables off Shetland has deepened after it emerged a Russian "research ship" was clocked in the area.

Engineers battled to restore internet and phone communications after islanders were completely cut off from the mainland on Thursday.

New data now shows the research ship Akademik Boris Petrov travelled through the Shetland-Orkney Gap hours later.

The Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp later moved to a position North East of the Isle of Lewis to intercept and escort it away from UK waters.

Akademik Boris Petrov has now carried on its journey to Brazil.

More : Mystery of cut Shetland cables as Russian 'research' ship sails near islands


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## hkskyline

* Taiwan Tensions Raise Alarms Over Risks to World’s Subsea Cables *
Bloomberg _Excerpt_
Oct 27, 2022

Surging tensions with China have prompted Taiwan to boost its military defenses. Now it’s heeding the lessons of the war in Ukraine to address one of its bigger weakness: the fragile undersea infrastructure that connects the island to the internet.

Taiwan has 14 subsea cables -- many little wider than a garden hose -- stretching thousands of miles and directly linking Asian nations including China to the US and other parts of the world. That’s a vulnerability the island’s government, seeing any interruption as potentially destabilizing, wants to minimize. A disruption in a conflict with China could result in Taiwan getting cut off from the world, similar to what happened to the Pacific Island nation of Tonga earlier this year when a volcanic eruption left it without internet access for more than a month.

More : Taiwan Tensions Raise Alarms Over Risks to World’s Subsea Cables


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## hkskyline

* Undersea cables need robust protection from sabotage *
The Washington Times _Excerpt_ 
Nov 2, 2022

Something fishy is going on under the sea. Suspicion has grown that bad actors are involved in a different kind of wetwork — one that is terminating underwater fiber-optic cables rather than enemies marked for death. As international conflicts intensify, the United States must raise its vigilance in safeguarding the essential communications network crisscrossing the world’s oceans.

In recent weeks, an undersea cable linking the Faroe Islands to mainland Scotland by way of the Shetland and Orkney islands was cut in two separate incidents, crippling the North Atlantic archipelago’s internet access. Earlier this year, sea-based cables connecting the city of Marseille to Lyon, Milan and Barcelona were purposely cut, the cable’s operator reported. Breaks have also occurred in a cable linking a satellite ground station on outlying Norwegian isles to the mainland and to one linking underwater sensors that monitor submarine activity in the same vicinity.

There are nearly 500 submarine cables stretching three-quarters of a million miles beneath the planet’s oceans. Together, they form a network carrying 95% of the world’s voice and data communications.

More : Undersea cables need robust protection from sabotage


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## hkskyline

* Cuba slams U.S. rejection of undersea telecoms connection to island *
_Excerpt_
Dec 1, 2022 

HAVANA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cuba´s Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio on Thursday accused long-time rival the United States of doublespeak after the Biden administration proposed to scrap a plan to install a new undersea telecommunications cable to Cuba.

The administration of U.S. president Joe Biden said after widespread protests on the island in July of 2021 that it was working to make the internet more accessible to the people of Cuba.

But on Wednesday a Justice Department-led panel said a proposal before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a new undersea cable landing station to handle internet, voice and data traffic posed "unacceptable risks" to national security concerns and should not go forward.

More : Cuba slams U.S. rejection of undersea telecoms connection to island


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## hkskyline

* MTN lands subsea cable in South Africa to boost Africa's connectivity *
_Excerpt_

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 13 (Reuters) - MTN South Africa MTNJ.J and MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with a consortium, have landed a 45,000 kilometre subsea cable in South Africa, part of plans to build a subsea network to connect African countries to Europe and the Middle East.

Africa's big economies have a fast growing population of internet users, with growth fuelled by rapidly expanding mobile broadband networks and affordable smartphones.

But the continent still lags behind the rest of the world in internet connectivity.

More : MTN lands subsea cable in South Africa to boost Africa's connectivity


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