Subsea Cables & Internet Infrastructure

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 ...

Digital Giants regularly boast about the impact of their network investments on humanity's welfare. Undoubtedly, good Internet infrastructure leads to new services and raises productivity. It is essential to a modern society. But quantifying how much subsea cables boost real GDP is  a hopeless statistical task  because economic models often struggle to explain growth and economic development. For example, more Internet services is both a cause and also an effect of economic growth. As incomes rise, demand for Internet services increase in terms of news consumption, entertainment, and the general quest for information. Give a poor African nation better cellular coverage and higher data throughput and TikTok consumption rises. But it would be a stretch to claim TikTok generates net economic growth. Furthermore, most Internet services cannibalize at least to some extent their non-Internet counterparts such as newspapers, book sales, phone calls, library visits, etc. Disentangling...