Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

Pundits have wrecklessly proclaimed that Google believes in orbital data centers. A more accurate description is that the hyperscaler is exploring the idea's potential and obstacles by conducting orbital experiments like the SunCatcher satellite. But Google has no delusions that orbital data centers are a real alternative to terrestrial facilities for the next 10 to 20 years. Google runs lots of experiments because it has lots of cash.  At a recent conference Google's head of data center energy expressed skepticism that orbital data centers make sense any time soon. The costs could be as much as 100x their terrestrial counterpartsin the case where maintaining and upgrading hardware is included. To be clear, 100x was not the best estimate, but reflects the fact that greenfield developments involving new and untested technologies generally result in massive overruns. Moreover, costs depend on whether it is a throw away orbital data center where no components are replaced or repai...

Starlink is introducing congestion pricing in rural America in places like Kansas and Missouri despite a 10,000 satellite constellation. There is only one credible explanation: capacity shortages. Moreover, adding satellites will not fix the problem. Physics and mathematics set non-negotiable limits on per subscriber bandwidth. Enormous Satellite Constellations Yield Only A Trickle of Throughput Per Square Kilometer Starlink's V3 satellite can transmit a terabit per second to Earth. Assume generously that Musk has 42,000 of them four or five years in the future. That's 42 petabits of download capacity. The average person or even the business community will be fooled into thinking this is enormous capacity. Assume it is evenly distributed over the earth's surface of 520 million square kilometers for sake of simplicity. That equals only 82 megabits per square kilometer. Not a flood, just a trickle.  Now you can place more satellites in certain orbits to target more densely po...

Cable: 2Africa. A point: JB1, South Africa. Z point: IColo 1, IColo 2, Telehouse or Seacom CLS. Initial Bandwidth: 10G. Granular Layer 1 FlexE service can be upgraded in 1G increments up to 100G. FlexE Protocol 1. Granular Layer 1 with Ethernet wrapping. 2. No jitter. 3. Layer 1 latency. 4. No Ethernet switching. 5. FlexE: https://www.oiforum.com/technical-work/hot-topics/flex-ethernet-flexe-2/.

Google has been the undisputed leader in hyperscaler projects. I believe this reflects its web search and advertising businesses. These involve relatively high traffic flows due to transactions, transfers of personal and web site data, and updating edge servers. Many of the projects listed below are joint projects with network operators and other hyperscalers. Google's solo projects include Dhivaru, Proa, Topaz, SOL, TPU, Boson, Grace Hopper, Junior, Monet, Dunant, Curie, Firmina, Equiano, Nuvem, Umoja, three Indian cables, Bulikula, Tabua, Honomoana, Halailia, Taihai, SOL, TalayLink, Alisios, Canoa, Olaluz, and others.  Facebook's solo projects include Anjana, Waterworth, Petal, Aurora, and Orca. Facebook is more likely to do joint projects rather than take 100% ownership and control. I think this reflects less international traffic because its social media traffic stays within certain regions like North America, Japan, Europe, Africa, etc.

The famous Léon Thévenin cable ship holds the Atlantic record for repairs with 30 over a 29 year period. I believe a repair in this context includes fixing multiple cables during a single outing. The record refers to repairs within the Atlantic Ocean Agreement service area. It is not a cable laying vessel. Léon Charles Thévenin was a French telegraph engineer famous for his Thévenin's theorem, an extension of Ohm's law to complex electrical circuits.

Microsoft has declined to renew a compute agreement with Oracle, partly on the grounds that the Nvidia chips are too old. This supports Michael Burry's contention that GPUs depreciate faster than the five or six years life span that the AI industry uses in accounting treatments. This in turn suggests that AI data center profits are exaggerated. "Microsoft Corp. is winding down an arrangement to rent AI computing from Oracle Corp., part of a larger reassessment of billions of dollars in cloud partnerships. In recent months, Microsoft has been turning off rented computing capacity from Oracle after declining to renew the contract, according to people familiar with the matter. Over time, the computing Microsoft was renting became less useful because it no longer fit the company’s specifications, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter. The Oracle hardware used older-generation Nvidia Corp. chips, the people said." Click for more details: https://...