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Journalism of Courage
Red Sea cable cut news: Some undersea cables in the Red Sea were reportedly cut recently, sparking internet disruptions in India, Pakistan and other parts of Asia on Sunday (September 5), with Microsoft terming it a cause for “increased latency” in the Middle East. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that a ship was responsible for the damage.
The term “undersea cables” may seem somewhat paradoxical at first glance, given the incompatibility between electrical equipment and water, but they have a history dating back to the 1800s. These cables span tens of thousands of kilometres across the world’s oceans today, and are often termed the “backbone” of the internet and modern communications.
What exactly are cables doing in the ocean, and are instances of damage or cuts to undersea cables unusual? We explain.
Also called submarine cables, these are essentially wires laid on the ocean floor for communications, much like on land. It is through wires that data — images, voice, text — is transferred among devices.
It all begins with binary code, a numerical system that uses only two digits: 1 and 0. Every photo, text, or other piece of information on a digital device is translated into a unique string of 1s and 0s for a computer to understand it. Binary is compatible because computers or other electronic devices can differentiate between on and off states easily, and the binary system can represent these as 1 and 0, respectively.
Data is physically stored in large data centres around the world, with the centres typically having hundreds or thousands of machines constantly running, including powerful computers known as servers. When you search for information or a website online, your device sends a request to the server to send a copy of that specific web page (say Google.com) to your device.
Mobile towers play a crucial role, as intermediaries. The phone or the computer sends a tower signals through radio waves (a form of electromagnetic waves). The towers, in turn, forward the signals to the devices at the data centre through cables as pulses of light. The server will then send the requested information in the form of packets (smaller bits of data in binary code), again through cables, and they will reach your device at home as waves via towers. The complex process happens in a matter of seconds.
Why underwater cables, though?
Underwater cables were the next logical step after wires were laid on land in countries like the United Kingdom to transmit electrical telegraphic messages. To share information across continents, cables had to be connected via oceans, and this was initially done for relatively short distances.
A few enterprising individuals, including the American businessman Cyrus West Field, took on the challenge of connecting countries across the Atlantic Ocean. By 1856, Field set up the Atlantic Telegraph Company, with investors from the United States and British governments, according to the UK’s Science Museum.
Several early attempts failed due to wires breaking, the signal tapering off, and other logistical challenges. A major issue was waterproofing the wires. Science author Michal Meyers wrote that substances such as India rubber failed, but “Hope arrived in the form of the milk-colored sap of a Malaysian Palaquium gutta tree.” It was malleable when heated and could adjust to the shape of the wires, could absorb stress at sea temperatures, and worked as an electrical insulator.
A British surgeon in Asia sent samples to England, and the substance eventually made its way into the first submarine cable between England and France in 1850, used to coat the copper wire.
In 1858, the Atlantic Telegraph Company had two ships sail to the middle of the Atlantic with half the set of cables each. They joined them and each of the ships then travelled to Ireland and Canada, laying out the cables in the process. Once both ships reached, “Everyone held their breath as engineers made the first test, but the cable worked as expected and they successfully sent and received signals both ways,” the Science Museum noted.
US President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged a formal congratulatory message, and a newspaper described the event by saying: “The Old and New Worlds are brought into instantaneous communication.”
But that was a rather fragile connection which could not be sustained. For the next attempt, a massive ship was needed to carry the heavy spools of cables. The Great Eastern, then the largest ship afloat, was enlisted, and by mid-1865, around 2,600 miles (more than 4,100 km) of new cable were ready. After another failed attempt, a strong connection was finally established.
With time, fibre optic cables came to be preferred, as they can transfer data much faster and efficiently. These are extremely thin wires (less than the thickness of a strand of human hair) made of glass or plastic. Several layers of material cover the wires for protection and to ensure that light travels rapidly. These include polythene, copper, steel, and petroleum jelly.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), submarine cables can be buried or not buried, depending on the depth. At more than 2,000 metres below sea level, they are simply laid, as there is a limited chance of harm due to human activities like fishing nets or big trawlers.
At lower depths, plough-like machines dig a line through the ocean floor and simultaneously lay down cables in the gap.
There are many threats to these cables, from earthquakes to strong ocean currents to anchors dropped from ships. A video once captured visuals of a shark trying to bite through a cable. Repairing is a difficult and expensive task, where divers are sent to the source or the cables are brought above ground and then fixed.
According to a 2019 CNN report, around 200 incidents of damage are reported annually, with a majority being the result of human factors. Cables have also raised security concerns for nations, with Australia notably blocking a plan for the Chinese tech giant Huawei to install lines linking Sydney with the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
Another point of interest is that large tech companies, such as Meta and Google, are increasingly investing in owning such projects, rather than the earlier pattern of tech and telecom companies forming a consortium. For instance, Meta announced Project Waterworth (to span over 50,000 km) earlier this year. Vili Lehdonvirta, Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research, and DPhil candidate Anniki Mikelsaar, both of the Oxford Internet Institute, wrote that “The longest cable in the world will thus be owned by a single Silicon Valley firm.”
“This shift may be significant to policymakers concerned with concentration in digital markets and infrastructure: not only do Big Tech firms dominate digital platforms and services, but increasingly also the physical underpinnings of the digital world,” they added.
