How the Internet Crosses Oceans Without You Noticing
The vast majority of international internet traffic, approximately 99 percent, travels through a network of over 500 undersea fiber-optic cables. These cables, each about the thickness of a garden hose, transmit data using lasers sending light pulses through hair-thin glass strands at incredible speeds. The installation process is lengthy, involving months at sea to carefully lay the cables, and repairs can be complicated by the need for permits across various jurisdictions, though redundant lines often mitigate outages. AI
IMPACT Undersea cables are the backbone of global data transmission, essential for AI model training, inference, and widespread AI service deployment.