Years ago, Bill Gates was a guest on the David Letterman show, and the term and the concept “Internet” became a topic of discussion. The ever-so-funny Letterman, still unaware of the concept of the Internet and the powers that it would gain soon enough, like the rest of the people, tried to mock the Internet before Bill Gates quickly rectified him. That was a moment in 1995, when the Internet was still in its nascent stages.
Today, in 2026, it has become the biggest thing in the world. Nothing functions without the Internet. But do you know what acts as the ‘bedrock’ behind this Internet? In this article, let’s find out what keeps the Internet alive and thriving, and how International Business and Diplomacy must survive daily.
Calais, a major port city in Northern France, is the world’s largest hub for subsea cables manufacturing. The city is home to a massive manufacturing and deployment plant by Alcatel Submarine Networks. The subsea or submarine cables are the life and soul of the modern-day Internet.
They are what keep everything from important government communications to financial transactions smoothly flowing every day. All highly important information travels through these cables, just as much as simple emails and videos.
There is an unending demand for data in today’s world. Google, Meta, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are the frontrunners in this race to accumulate as much data by building more and more data centers around the world.
The exponential rise of AI has only fueled and exacerbated this growth and demand. They are in a technological race to develop computational AI models, and for that reason, each of these companies wants to own more and more undersea cables. This has caused a huge rise in the number of undersea cables.
Since AI is here to stay and grow, undersea cables are a must. Without undersea cables, companies would have to build numerous warehouses to support the AI infrastructure, and these warehouses are very expensive.
The Federal Communications Commission grants anybody, be it a company or an organization, permission to plant undersea cables. Alcatel Submarine Networks is the world’s largest manufacturer and installer of subsea telecommunications cables. They have been in business since 1860, and have created around 850,000 kilometers of cables to date.
So, how do these undersea cables power the Internet, and why is it the backbone of our modern-day business?
The subsea cables transfer data, and optical fibers are at the crux of this cable technology. So, the first step is sourcing the Optical Fiber, before it gets encased in a metal tube to protect the delicate glass strands, before the tube is further strengthened.
The copper acts as a conductor to power the cable, and then they encase the copper in plastic (sometimes a thick layer of it) before finally becoming an undersea cable.
After the cables are armoured to specifications, they are then stored in large tanks where they are tested. The final step involves ‘Repeaters,’ which are manufactured in the Greenwhich facility, and are added to amplify the signal along the cable’s length.
The seacable case is thick enough to survive 8000 meters of undersea depth. Alcatel Submarine Networks has 7 ships under its control for this operation. 4 ships are for cable installation, 2 of them are for maintenance, and 1 is for doing both installation and maintenance.
In shallower water, a plow towed behind the cable ships digs a trench in the seabed and lays the cable inside. In deeper waters, the cable faces less risk of external damage, so it can be laid directly on the seabed without having to be buried.
Most cable disruptions are caused by human activities, says Paul Gabla, the Chief Sales Officer of Alcatel Submarine Networks. Fishing activity and Anchor dragging are the two big reasons for their disruption.
Fish trawlers can reach up to 1500 meters of sea depth. Hence, ASN provides armoured casing to their cables that reach up to 1500 meters. Anything below that, they drop the cables as it is, since the risk of danger is very low.
Completion of an entire undersea cable manufacturing and laying process can take anywhere between 2 and 4 years, depending on the size and complexity of the project. The timeline includes everything from selection, surveying, permitting, manufacturing, and installation.
The undersea cables also traverse many water bodies across multiple countries. To enter each water body, the parent company must take permissions from the respective country. Each permit takes around 6-24 months to get approved. The more countries the cables pass through, the more permits are required.
At one point in time, ASN maintained 2500 miles of undersea cables. As far as ownership is concerned, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft hold around 50% of the subsea cables market. Meta has 20 such cables, whereas Google owns 30 of them.
Investments in subsea cables were around $6.6 billion from 2020 to 2022. By 2025-2027, it is expected to reach $13 billion. In 2016-17, the market was worth $2 billion a year, before quickly moving to $4 billion and then $6 billion in a matter of a few years. Today, it is more than $10 billion. Alcatel Submarine Networks is working to meet this demand.
Subsea cables also provide an advantage that makes them irreplaceable. Without subsea cables, one will need to rely on satellite connectivity. While it could work, it has a lot of disadvantages. Satellite has higher latency, higher costs, and one can’t get enough capacity to put through what the Internet demands from customers.
Moreover, in the subsea cable system, the risk of customers’ data being intercepted is low. PRC-affiliated cable maintenance providers are supposed to be used. Cable technology companies are also developing better technologies to help their customers monitor their subsea cables.
ASN calls theirs “Distributed Acoustic Sensing.” DAS turns subsea cables into Sonar Rays. This makes them capable of tracking, detecting ships or submarines, or wildlife or other activity near the cable.
These subsea cables hold tremendous significance in our current world. Any damage to them would have major consequences in our society. Almost every single element of our daily lives and business elements depends on the success of undersea cables.
