Networks

Feb 23, 2024

Flashback Friday: Submarine Cable Repair in the 1980s

If you've read over our Submarine Cable Frequently Asked Questions, you know that cable faults are common. On average, there are over 100 each year.

Of course, as a society heavily dependent on these cables, we've gotten quite good at repairing them.

But what was the repair process like a few decades ago? How were we fixing cables back in the era of the Walkman?

Time for a trip down memory lane.

Feb 22, 2024

What Are Data Centers?

We're back at it with episode three of our five-part podcast special that explains the nuts and bolts of the internet.

You've come to the right place if you're looking to understand how all of those cat videos travel from the source to your phone. 

We explained in episode two how the internet is made of transport networks to carry data over (mostly) fiber optic wires distributed around the world. And in the episode before that, we discussed how the internet is a network of networks operated by thousands of mostly private companies.

But we haven’t yet covered exactly how and where those networks meet and exchange traffic with each other and access their destinations.

So today, it's data center time.

Feb 15, 2024

What is a Transport Network?

Welcome back to our five-part podcast special that literally explains how the internet you know and love works.

Last week we covered the most basic question: what is the internet?

Today, we tunnel deeper, exploring the physical transport networks behind this seemingly invisible, omnipresent information superhighway.

Feb 8, 2024

What is the Internet?

If you've caught TeleGeography's podcast, you'll know that we endeavor to explain the business behind human connection every week. We've chatted about Wi-Fi, WAN, and everything in between

We've audaciously called our show TeleGeography Explains the Internet, but we've never properly explained how the internet works and how bits get pushed around the globe. Until now.

That's right. We decided it was time to, quite literally, explain the internet.

Jan 23, 2024

Wi-Fi 6 Afraid of 7?

On TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we often focus on the long-haul, zeroing in on the network portion of telecoms. Today, with the help of Tiago Rodrigues, President and CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), we’re switching things up a bit.

Drawing upon his vast expertise in the Wi-Fi space, Tiago steps into the hot seat to outline the key issues in the wireless LAN.

Jan 17, 2024

The Red Sea: A Key Subsea Cable Crossroads Under Siege

The Red Sea is a global hot spot at the moment due to repeated attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels against commercial shipping vessels.

While this inlet is a strategic location for global shipping, it also plays a vital role in global communications networks.

Jan 10, 2024

How Is the Global Network Keeping Up With Demand?

By any measure, the global bandwidth market is thriving. International bandwidth demand has nearly doubled from 2020 to 2022, and has now reached 3.8 Pbps.

Meanwhile, the lit capacity on major submarine cable routes continues to soar, keeping pace with demand.

How? Is the network getting faster?

Not quite. Think bigger highway, not faster cars.

Dec 4, 2023

The Data Center Industry Faces New Obstacles

Recently, we’ve been closely monitoring the intensifying pressures of insatiable demand and supply constraints in key data center markets.

Supply constraints have come in the form of both short-term and long-term challenges.

In the short term, supply chain disruptions have hindered development timelines. On the long-term side, regulators and utility providers have begun taking a hard look at the data center sector and how to grow it sustainably going forward. In some cases, these entities have severely disrupted development during the interim period.

None of these challenges have been resolved. And as we move through 2023, another major disruptive component has been added to the mix—the accelerated growth of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Nov 30, 2023

Want To Retire in Your 20s? Become a Submarine Cable

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.

Nov 21, 2023

Head in the Cloud, Toes at the Edge

I'm back with a new episode of TeleGeography Explains the Internet.

In the hot seat this time: Nokia's Paul Unbehagen. Paul has a deep history in the networking world, so he approaches his role at Nokia—NE Americas CTO—from the perspective of a network engineer.

Although our main topics this week are enterprise cloud and right-sizing cloud utilization, we use those as a springboard into many topics circling the state of the network in 2023.