How Submarine Fiber Optic Cables Affect the World Economy?

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Today's society is inseparable from Internet communication. All the countries of the world are linked by networks. Submarine fiber optic cables are the important routes that guarantee the interconnection of the main regional networks of the world.

So, How important is the submarine fiber optic cable?, and the world economy will be greatly affected if it is cut?

The world's first transoceanic fiber optic cable was not built until 1988, connecting Europe with the United States in a total length of 6.700 km.

Till the date, more than 90% from transnational data transmission of the world depends on submarine fiber optic cables. According to statistics, the total length of submarine optical fibers worldwide has reached 900.000 kilometres. This means that they can give 22 round the globe. If a submarine cable is damaged, global communications will be severely affected.

The special geographical situation of the United States means that submarine fiber optic cables have a significant impact on the information security of the country.. Although the United States enjoys the great geographical advantages afforded by the ocean, it also faces the disadvantage of being far from the big continents.

The United States cannot maintain open communications with the world without undersea fiber-optic cables.. The only primary root server of the world for IPV4 DNS is in the United States. So if you cut America's fiber optics, everyone's DNS will be affected.

Although several secondary root servers have been created outside of the United States, can only grant access to a part of the users. Nevertheless, the main DNS providers should have already prepared a plan to deal with the disconnection of underwater fiber optics. So the impact on individual users will not be too great..

But for many multinational companies, like the values, banks and other international organizations, the inability to interact with the data on the US servers. can lead to immediate business downtime and even significant losses as a result.

to avoid it, The United States is also looking for alternatives to submarine fiber optic cables.. For example, the program is being tested “Starlink”, as well as various space-based Internet solutions. Nevertheless, broadband satellite communications being developed at this stage are not yet mature enough and vulnerable to interference. Therefore, cannot fully meet the demands of transcontinental communication.

Although satellite communications can solve network problems for a short period of time, are much lower than fiber optic method at the bottom of the sea in terms of bandwidth, latency and resistance to interference.

For these reasons, we can see the importance of cables buried in the depths of the sea. A cut in the fiber optics responsible for transoceanic communications would have a huge impact on the US and world economy..