Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

Satellite competes with terrestrial broadband because they are both access technologies. But all satellite networks generate traffic for the terrestrial backbones including the subsea cables. After all, there is little content stored in space! 😃 Hence satellite Internet providers must access data centers just like every other technology in the telecom world. Inter-satellite free space laser communication will bypass the terrestrial backbones to an extent, but this is really just a drop in the bucket. It works mostly for low bandwidth applications like email and instant messaging.  The graph shows the number of objects launched into low earth orbit from 1960 onward. This includes manned space craft, satellites, and unmanned spacecraft. Note that the dominant factor is SpaceX putting Starlink LEO satellites into orbit. As of January 2025, Starlink has 6,932 in space. In addition, Amazon Kuiper is deploying 3,236 LEO birds with the bulk of the fleet flying into orbit in 2025 and 2026...

This Newsweek article insinuates that China developed cable cutting technology detailed in a patent application in order to sabotage subsea cables. It is not stated explicitly. But that is clearly the conclusion the author wants the reader to reach. Yet the underlying logic has more holes than my mother's mole infested lawn. And that's a lot of holes. 😃  1. In order to lift a damaged fibre optic cable onto a ship for repair, it must be severed in most cases because there is usually not enough slack to hoist intact aboard a ship. Secondly, an intact cable weighs a lot and is more difficult to handle than pulling up one end of a severed cable. Hence cutting intact, but damaged cables prior to repair is protocol. So cable cutting technology is not per se evidence of intent to sabotage. 2. According to the patent application mainland China faced a problem with illegal cable laying in its territorial waters This is not as strange as it sounds. For example, the Thai police discove...

Satellite competes with terrestrial broadband because they are both access technologies. But all satellite networks generate traffic for the terrestrial backbones including the subsea cables. After all, there is a little content stored in space! 😃 Hence satellite Internet providers must use data centers just like every other technology in the telecom world. Inter-satellite free space laser communication will bypass in some cases to a limited extent the terrestrial backbones, but this is really just a drop in the bucket. It works mostly for low bandwidth applications like email and instant messaging. The graph shows the number of objects launched into low earth orbit from 1960 onward. This includes manned space craft, satellites, and unmanned spacecraft. Note that the dominant factor is SpaceX putting Starlink LEO satellites into orbit. In addition, Amazon Kuiper is deploying slightly over 3,000 LEO birds with the bulk of the fleet flying into orbit in 2025 and 2026. Chin...

Long haul fibre optic bandwidth ranges from a few terabits per second into the low thirties with the equipment and operating expense sharply rising as transmission rates go up. Repeatered subsea cables generally lie in the 12 to 25 Tbps window with most spatial division multiplexing deployments pushing 12 to 20 Tbps whereas the traditional 6 to 8 pair coherent optics deployments transmit at least 20 Tbps or higher per strand.  The key factor determining the optical transmission rate is attenuation, which refers to the fact that a photon or wavelength's intensity or energy diminishes as it travels through fibre optic glass or any other medium. Light is scattered, reflected backwards or absorbed. Other variables that affect transmission rates include the number of distinct wavelength bands (dense wave division multiplexing) that can serve as distinct optical channels in a given spectrum range (usually the C band). The more channels, the higher the transmission rate. Chromatic dispers...

Might close my first 100G into India today. 🙂 I recommend focusing for the next six months on the India/Singapore roiute as Red Sea construction of IEX, 2Africa, and SWM6 is on hold due to the possibility of missile strikes. In contrast, IAX and Mist do not face these issues. I understand that both Marseille and Singapore are essential peering points, but Marseille/Mumbai is likely to be hell for the foreseeable future. Put your incremental effort where it earns the greatest incremental return. Today is it is Mumbai or Chennai to Singapore. I am always available to provide your advice and guidance on your hunt for a Great Deal. 😃 

The chart tells us that Ireland despite its low tax rates is quite costly with the highest power rates in the EU. It is often joked that a data centre is a power reseller and there's a lot of truth in that statement. For example, Equinix reports that power and cooling are 80% of its infrastructure operating expense. In general, a data centre's overall operating expense can be as much as 50% electricity. From what I can tell Irish data centre demand for electricity has grown much faster than the country's power capacity. Data centres consume 21% of Ireland's electricity versus 18% for households. This is an astonishing figure.  High German rates reflect the failed Energiewende. The system costs of wind and solar are extremely high in Germany and both sources are heavily subsidized via guaranteed tariffs because the load factors (annual capacity utilization rates) are very low. For example, a German solar farm only operates at 10% of capacity on an annual basis whereas Am...