Introduction: Data cables are becoming economic and strategic assetsData may be stored in the cloud, but it flows under the sea
Foreign navies are conducting joint exercises, not to hone their combat skills, but to train to protect undersea gas and data pipelines from sabotage.
The joint military exercise followed the destruction of submarine cables in the region in OctoberSubmarine cables were once seen as communication conduits for the Internet
Internet data economy giants such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are advocating for more control over the flow of data.
Despite global tensions, the world's digital infrastructure,The result is to turn submarine cables into valuable economic and strategic assets
Submarine data pipelines carry nearly 99% of intercontinental Internet traffic, 550 are currently under construction or planned for construction, with a total length of more than 1.4 million kilometers.
Each cable typically consists of 12 to 16 fiber optic lines, as wide as a garden hose, laid on the seabed at an average depth of 3,600 meters.
Nearly half of this has been added in the last decade, with newer submarine data pipelines capable of transmitting 250 terabits of data per second.
Since 2019, the demand for international internet bandwidth has tripled to more than 3,800 terabits per second.
The boom in data-hungry AI is likely to reinforce this trendLarge cloud providers will nearly triple their data center capacity over the next six years.
To connect these data centers to the internet, the data cable industry will install 440,000 kilometers of new undersea lines between 2020 and 2025.
A major shift comes from large network technology companiesAs the demand for data surges, tech companies are investing in their own pipelines
Until the early 2000s, submarine cables were primarily used to transmit voice traffic around the world, with major telecom operators controlling most of the subsea data pipeline capacity.
By 2010, data growth had led internet and cloud computing giants Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft – to start leasing capacity on these lines.
In 2012, the Big Four companies used about one-tenth of international bandwidth, and today, almost three-quarters of it, with tech companies having deep pockets to ensure project completion.
Almost one-fifth of the $12 billion new system for undersea data pipelines planned for the next four years will be backed by big technologyOne.
Amazon and Microsoft own 1 and 4 networks respectively, and Meta owns one cable system outright and is an investor in another 14 cable systems.
Google is the most aggressive, owning 12 of its 26 cable channels directly, and this year it completed the Firmina project.
It's a cost of 3The US$600 million project stretches more than 14,000 kilometers from the east coast of North America through Brazil to Argentina.
Dedicated cables allow tech giants to avoid competing with other companies for third-party bandwidth and react quickly to changes in user needs and any issues.
As an owner-operator, by owning their own cables,These companies can plug these cables more directly into their own data centers, speeding up traffic
Tech giants are also able to design routes that meet their specific needs, with most telecom operators relying on public "landing stations" to connect offshore cables to customers' data centers on land.
Thanks to the use of ingenious new technologies,The bandwidth and speed of the submarine data pipeline has been further improved, and ownership has made deployment easier
In 2019, Google launched an innovative technology ("space division multiplexing") that increased the number of fiber optic wires in the cable from 16 to 24.
This year, Google went one step further and doubled the number of "cores" (fiber optic wire clusters) in the new product, reducing operating costs per bit.
All of these technological innovations are changing the business of data cables
Big tech companies, which were initially big buyers of bandwidth for telcos, are now leasing some of their cable capacity to telecom operators.
Traditional telcos are happy with this arrangement as they face constant pressure from consumers to increase capacity.
But unlike Big Tech, they are desperately short of capitalIt's a boom for ** equipment and cable laying specialist companiesYear.
Like other industries around the world, the data cable business is embroiled in global technology competitionThis is the second major shift
In the case of the Pacific Cable Network, a 13,000-kilometer data pipeline was announced in 2016 with the support of Google and Meta.
The aim is to connect the West Coast of the United States with Hong KongEventually, hundreds of kilometers of cables connecting Hong Kong to the network were left idle at the bottom of the sea
Laying submarine cables is a complex undertaking, and only a few contractors currently have the required qualifications and skills
Three companies, Alcatel Submarine Networks of France, NEC of Japan and Subcom of the United States, received more than 80% of the cable construction projects.
HMN Tech is a new challenger spun off from HuaweiClaims to account for 9% of the annual new construction expenditure for submarine cable laying
Despite increasing global competition, bandwidth between the two is growing by 20% annually from 2019 to 2023
U.S. and Chinese mobile operators, which also rely on cables, continue to increase network connectivity on each other's territoryHowever, the necessary permits are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain
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