As if three cable faults in the Red Sea weren’t enough of a headache, a series of West African cables were damaged on March 14.
The precise location and cause of all of these faults are not known at this time, but let’s look at what we do know.
As if three cable faults in the Red Sea weren’t enough of a headache, a series of West African cables were damaged on March 14.
The precise location and cause of all of these faults are not known at this time, but let’s look at what we do know.
Wouldn't it be great to be fully retired before your 30th birthday?
Because they are engineered with a minimum design life of 25 years, it's common for the submarine cables that keep our world connected to experience this luxury.
Let’s talk about why, and what happens to cables after they reach retirement age.
The age of generative AI is certainly exciting. The ability to quickly access answers to complex questions is poised to revolutionize the world. However, with great power comes great responsibility.
When using these tools, it’s important to be mindful of some of the risks. Deep fakes are a growing concern for society at large and may have found their way to market research.
As we mentioned earlier this year, when it comes to submarine cable facts, AI may get some stuff right, but not everything.
In fact, you may be wondering, “does this mean there’s no need to subscribe to TeleGeography research anymore?” After all, can’t you just ask your favorite AI tool—whether it’s ChatGPT, Bard, etc.—to provide you with TeleGeography data?
I thought I’d ask Bard to show me some TeleGeography data. Are the results real or deep fakes?
At SubOptic 2023, my colleague Tim Stronge and I brought back the Telecom Mythbusters to test a new series of myths.
I already covered my first two myths from our presentation: the cable lifespan myth and the 99% myth.
My third and final myth—the exponential growth myth—is based upon a quote that I found.
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” –Albert Allen Bartlett
“Submarine cables account for over 99% of intercontinental data traffic” is regularly quoted in the press with no source given.
It’s time for some fact-checking.
Twenty years ago, the United States was very much at the center of the global internet.
In 2003, 98% of all interregional internet capacity and 42% of all international internet bandwidth was connected to the U.S. despite emerging intraregional capacity in Europe and Asia.
Submarine cables helped to enforce this centrality, and the highest capacity cables were connected to the U.S. Around this time, the U.S. was also among the cheapest places to connect to the internet.
So what’s happened to the U.S.’s role? Is the U.S. becoming less centric to the global network?
With the recent damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline, there's been lots of talk about the potential risk to submarine telecommunications cables in Europe.
This incident has led to speculation about whether it would be possible to somehow “cut off” Europe from the rest of the world. While I don't want to speculate on the risk of sabotage, I did think it would be worthwhile to explain exactly how the continent connects to the rest of the world.
Some pretty ominous headlines have been circulating around the world lately regarding the risk of a global recession and the ongoing threat of inflation.
At TeleGeography, we've received several questions about how these economic indicators could impact the submarine cable industry.
In particular, people are curious to know if slowing economic growth impair international bandwidth demand growth on subsea cables. And will inflation lead to rising international bandwidth prices?
