Submarine networks became critical infrastructure long ago.
A subsea cable fault that interrupts 120 Gb/s traffic is a bad thing. But a fault that interrupts tens of terabits of traffic is quite another.
What does the Internet look like? Perhaps you’ve heard it described as a veritable network of networks.
While this is true, as TeleGeography’s Senior Analyst Paul Brodsky explains, no single network is big enough to connect every single person and every single computer. So the question remains: how are we really staying connected?
If you’re like us, you’ve saved the best stuff on the Internet for some lazy weekend reading. Our team has four suggestions for telecoms pieces that'll make your morning coffee and your reading queue a little more interesting.
Content network operators account for a growing portion of bandwidth on global routes.
Perhaps by now you’ve read what companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are doing about it: they’re taking primary ownership shares of transoceanic systems, joining consortia, and taking major stakes in carrier-owned cables.
Hybrid WANs that employ a combination of technologies - such as MPLS and Internet connectivity - have become increasingly popular as enterprise customers and service providers embrace the software-defined WAN.
What is really driving the move to the hybrid WAN?
And what advice do those who have adopted the technology have for those planning a similar transition?
How many times have we heard that new undersea cables will bring consumers Internet speeds faster than a speeding bullet? (Like this or this or this.)
It has been reported that new cables promise speeds up to 10 million times faster than traditional home cable modems.
But here’s the kicker: there is no increased speed to be found in these submarine cable systems.
Google has joined a handful of carriers to complete a brand new Trans-Pacific oceanic cable – but this is hardly their first venture under the sea.
In Part II of TeleGeography's Mythbusters presentation at SubOptic 2016, Alan Mauldin busted five myths that ranged from whether capacity demand is doubling every two years to a quote from the movie Gravity that the destruction of a single satelite would lead to half of North America "losing their Facebook." In the concluding part of this series, Tim Stronge returns to the stage to take on myths about energy costs pushing decisions about content providers' data center locations, multiple parties building on the same route and "adult" content driving most Internet traffic.
In the first part of TeleGeography’s Mythbusters presentation at SubOptic 2016, Tim Stronge busted myths about NSA Surveillance, decreases in connectivity to the United States and shark attacks on the internet. In Part II, Alan Mauldin investigates whether submarine cable capacity is doubling every two years, if content providers really need fiber pairs everywhere, if the global network is more resilient than ever before, whether Netflix has huge subsea capacity requirements and the possibility that the destruction of a single satelite would cause half of North America to "lose their Facebook".
Copyright © 2025 TeleGeography.
