the cloud, allegedly

The internet does not live in the sky

It lives in the mud, at the bottom of the sea.
1858

They tried this in top hats

The first cable across the Atlantic worked for about three weeks, then died.
today

Now there are hundreds of them

Over 500 cable systems. Well over a million kilometres of them.
Polyethylene
Mylar tape
Steel wires
Aluminium
Copper tube
Petroleum jelly
THAT IS IT?!
strip it back

Most of it is garden hose

Swipe to peel a deep sea cable apart. Everything else is packaging.
0thickness
›››
drag to strip the cable
👈
THAT IS THE LOT!
1866, the second attempt

Somebody had to lay it

Slowly. By hand. Across three thousand miles of nothing.
0miles paid out
›››
drag to pay out the cable
👈
MY TEETH!
genuine problem

Sharks kept biting them

It happened enough in the eighties that they started armouring cables.
0your signal
›››
drag to let him have a go
👈
the real culprit

It is usually an anchor

Ships and fishing gear cause most faults. A repair ship hauls the cable up to fix it.
what about satellites

Space is the slow lane

Satellites carry a sliver of it. Nearly everything goes through the wet stuff.
IT IS A HOSE, MATE
so

The cloud is soaking wet

Swipe to introduce it to the sea.
0of your traffic goes by sea
›››
drag to dunk the cloud
👈
the whole thing

Six things you now know

  • 1858They first tried it in top hats. It worked for about three weeks.
  • 1866The second go stuck. Messages went from ten days by ship to minutes.
  • 500+Cable systems now, well over a million kilometres of them.
  • 21mmA deep water cable is about a garden hose. The rest is packaging.
  • 0.25mmThe bit doing the work is a glass hair thinner than spaghetti.
  • 99%That is how much of your traffic goes by sea, not by satellite.
The cloud is a hose in the dark, past the fish, and back up again.
a prune · regent