Why Vulnerable Undersea Cables Still Power The Internet

When we think about the internet in 2022, our first thought might be to look up. You know, clouds, iCloud, but the reality is the internet is in the ocean. And the internet is a series of tubes.

No, really, it is. Almost 750,000 miles of undersea cables transmit 99% of the internet. That's right, global communication hinges on undersea cables that look like they could be chomped through by a shark. Natural disasters, fishing ships, international espionage, are all threats to the functionality of the internet. So why do we use such vulnerable technology at such a massive scale?

It's a lesson in human ingenuity, but also human limitations. How far we've come, but how far there is to go.

Undersea telecommunication cables aren't exactly new. It's a method that's been used since the Victorian era. The first telegraph between Europe and North America took 17 hours to send, so be grateful the next time a video only buffers for a second. Just kidding. In contrast, the Marea cable, laid in 2018, transmits up to 160 terabits per second.

Initially, submarine cables proposed by an English engineer were used for telegraphs. Later came the first submarine transatlantic telephone coaxial cable, the TAT-1, in 1956. The demand for faster, more extensive global communication only grew throughout the 20th century, all the way to the rise of the World Wide Web. At the same time, newly developed fiber optic technology replaced coaxial cables for data transmission.

Optical fibers are thin glass strands that use lasers to propel data. They are really thin, like human hair thin. They are cheaper, more flexible, faster, and can transmit more information. Thankfully, those optical fibers are well insulated, often in Kevlar-like material. Not today, sharks.

We use fiber optic cables to this day, and they are laid by specially modified ships. The world uses about 550 submarine cables to power the internet. But in 2022, a mysteriously cut cable resulted in an internet blackout extending to seven countries and taking millions offline. In another incident, Tonga's 514-mile undersea internet cable was severed by a volcanic eruption. Developing and isolated nations are more at risk of being cut off from the internet, where there are already limited connections.

There are more than 100 cut cables a year, usually due to shipping incidents or environmental factors. But there is growing concern globally about sabotage. Most of the internet is transmitted through these vulnerable cables. A little, however, is transmitted through satellites.

So why not make more use of satellites, which are fairly safe from sharks? Instead? Satellites do work best for remote places, like scientists in Antarctica, but they're not the end-all-be-all solution. Historically, those satellites have been geostationary, meaning they orbit the Earth above the equator from west to east, following the Earth's rotation. That way, they are stationed above a fixed point on Earth for antennas to point at.

The problem is that most of these satellites are really far away, orbiting at around 22,000 miles away from Earth. That means there is a significant delay in data transmission. But recently, there's been a big push for launching more low-orbit satellites in order to minimize latency. Like Elon Musk's Starlink network of low-orbit satellites, which already has roughly 2,000 in orbit with plans to expand to 42,000 in the next five years.

But here's the thing: satellites are really expensive. Musk said he'll need up to $30 billion dollars to make Starlink a viable investment. The submarine cable industry, however, spends about $2 billion dollars per year.

Anyway, submarine cables are cheaper, faster, and they can handle way more data than satellites. Which is really crucial considering how much data is being sent around the world at any given second.

And the internet is a resilient system. The expansive and growing network of cables means that if one cable fails, traffic can be eventually rerouted through others. Submarine cables are still the most efficient and cost-effective way to transmit data around the world, in spite of their vulnerabilities.

That being said, satellite and undersea cables don't have to be in competition. Working as complementary networks can help cover the threats of either system, whether that threat is sharks or aliens.