Microsoft and Facebook have unveiled a new undersea cable that is producing speeds that people didn’t think were possible.
In a recent experiment, there was transfer speeds of 26.2 Terabits per second according to The Verge. The cable is 4,000 miles long. The average speed currently is 9.5 Tbps.
According to The Verge, the cable is 20 percent faster than what the companies originally thought was possible.
The cable is owned by Telxius and runs between Virginia Beach, Virginia and Bilbao, Spain,
The company is predicting that the new approach that is used when laying this cable could allow for other undersea cables to be upgraded without spendings millions of dollars on laying new cables.
The world is continuously becoming more interconnected and these undersea cables are the next step in allowing high speed data transfers from across the world and non surprising Facebook and Microsoft are at the forefront of this technology.
Source:
Porter, Jon. “Microsoft and Facebook’s record-setting undersea cable sets another record.” The Verge. 28 Feb. 2019. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244357/microsoft-facebook-marea-cable-16qam-20-percent-speed-boost.
As someone who is interest in the environmental affects of technology, transatlantic cables are something I’d like to further investigate. I would think that the cable might cause issues with the environment especially older cables or cables long forgotten about. According to this article this might not be the case when it comes to cable laying. It would seem that the cable has a very minimal impact on sea life which makes sense in the grand scheme of things. In fact it suggest that the cable can act as an artificial reef for some species. Countries have enacted some protective areas around the cables for their protection being as they’re so vital to our society now so this has a dual positive affect on the oceans. Its relieving to know that this isn’t causing issues as the oceans have bigger human made problems we need to address.
“Potential Environmental Impact of New Undersea Fiber Optic Cable.” Schofield Scientific Communications, http://www.michaelmschofield.com/potential-environmental-impact-of-new-undersea-fiber-optic-cable/.