Why The UK Has Declined As An International Subsea Cable Hub - Part 2

In general, the American Digital Giants care a lot about protecting their customers from third party eavesdropping because it would undermine customer confidence in their services. Apple has refused on occasion to cooperate with the FBI when the latter has tried to get access to encrypted Iphone messaging or Icloud storage in criminal cases. Similarly, Google introduced Gmail encryption to protect its end users privacy from third party sniffing. 

I have heard repeatedly through the telecom grapevine that the OTTs were not happy with the British Snooper Law. This uncontrolled mass surveillance provided another strong reason to build subsea cables that bypass the UK in order to directly deliver Continental Europe destined traffic. As a result, we have Marea, Dunant, Amitié, and now Anjana connecting Virginia Beach, Boston, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to France & Spain. Let me quote from a UK human rights group: "The UK has the most intrusive mass surveillance regime of any democratic country, and the security services are able to spy on everyone whether or not we’re suspected of criminal activity. The Investigatory Powers Act – also known as the Snoopers’ Charter – must be torn up." The UK in the last 10 years has repeatedly hobbled itself via bad policy moves such as Brexit and the Investigatory Powers Act. And now due to the Ukrainian war the UK being forced to move closer to Europe once again. There's more than a little irony in the recent course of events.