Extra Credit Blog

The article that I chose is called “A giant undersea cable makes the internet a split second faster.” It was written by David Goldman from CNN Tech on March 30, 2012. The article talks about how a ship goes around the world dropping cables underwater with buoys attached to them (to let others know they are there) that allow people from continent to continent communicate with each other VIA the internet. The most recent internet cable drop has allowed us to communicate a split second faster. In the article it also talks about the world’s largest underwater cable. The cable is an Indian telecom giant Tata. This cable manages 130,500 miles of fiber all while just sitting at the bottom of the ocean floor. The article also talks about how three companies are currently trying to come up with a way to build cable networks through the polar ice cap to make communication between London and Tokyo far easier and faster anything seen before. What the three companies are trying to achieve is a speed of up to 10 gigabit-per-second speeds. If the three companies are successful it would have a drastic effect on the internet’s latency currently. The internet’s latency would be reduced by 60 milliseconds. The reason why underwater cables are being used more is because it doesn’t take away from the look of the area while trying to fasten the internet speed. The second reason is because it is pretty much safe from all destruction, be it a tornado, high winds, hurricane, etc. This makes it much more money efficient, which makes the use of them want to be increased because they aren’t being torn down as easily as they would if they were up in the air being held up. The even more attractiveness to producers is the fact that at the pressure of the water, the cables could be untouched forever. These reasons alone are a great reason to start using underwater cables, but you also have to look at what inhabits the water, the animals, and the sea life. How is it affecting them, that should be a concern of ours as well.