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It's interesting that there are so many cables running through the Suez Canal. I wonder if it's because of geopolitical reasons for avoiding going over land thr

by msmith 5y ago

It's interesting that there are so many cables running through the Suez Canal. I wonder if it's because of geopolitical reasons for avoiding going over land through the Middle East.

globular-toast 5y ago
Well, it's also easier to run a cable underwater. As far as I know, the cables are literally just laid down there. You can't just lay a cable on land. You've got to bury it or elevate it on poles. I wonder how they deal with dredging the canal, though.
degenerate 5y ago
Likewise, what's the "benefit" of spreading the cables out by a few kilometers when space allows? If you zoom in you can see all the cables scrunched through the canal, but on more than one occasion they are fanned out to spread evenly across the given space. Likely it is only a visual eyecandy in the way this map was created, and not a true indication of the cable formations... but I tried looking for some answers on https://www.iscpc.org https://www.iscpc.org and gave up. I would assume once a suitable cable path is found, most subsequent cables would be laid right alongside for higher chance of success avoiding coral/trenches/etc. edit: The more I look at the map, the more it becomes clear these lines do not indicate true cable locations. The lines are too perfect... even for fiber optics. The ocean floor is a treacherous beast!
- detaro 5y ago
  that also increases the chance of something hitting a cable taking out multiple cables at the same time.
- finnh 5y ago
  Just guessing, but the benefit could be not cutting a cable by accident as you lay yours?
finnh 5y ago
per another comment[0], it's cheaper to just stay in the water unless you specifically want to attach to a land network. I don't have the knowledge the other commenter seems to have, but that certainly seems believable to me. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28642764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28642764
up6w6 5y ago
Is there any map of land cables ? I know more about the few submarine cables between south and north america than how the internet actually arrives to inland cities of my state.
- eskathos 5y ago
  working at a tier one telco. we have very precise maps of our ground fibers. physical location is usually down to +-10cm. length of fiber even takes into account any coiled up parts. if a contractor wants to dig anywhere, then they have the responsibility to query a national database before digging. if they break our cable, then we have active monitoring (reflecting a laser in a spare fiber, off the break, calculating length to break) this interfaces with our map software, so we can tell within half a meter where the cable is broken. in most cases we end up suing the contractor for the cost of repair and any SLA payments. to my knowledge no public maps exist, that will give you a full picture.
Frost1x 5y ago
There's another one that appears to run through the Gulf of Mexico to the US as well (looks like AL or LA to TX), so I suspect it's surprisingly cheaper and/or easier to get policy approval. It's not entirely uncommon to route cables from and to your own country through the water, apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domestic_submarine_communications_cables https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domestic_submarine_c...
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Land almost everywhere comes with ownership issues which can be problematic for installing cables. The ocean is generally unambiguously nationally owned, and so it's much simpler to seek permission from a single source (government) than many sources (owners).
walrus01 5y ago
they don't go through the suez canal, they go across egypt by land.
cycomanic 5y ago
I'm not sure about the Suez, but is the reason why there are almost 0 cables running on the African continent and instead there being several cables laid around the coast.
zokier 5y ago
As far as I can tell, there aren't that many cable running through the actual canal, instead they cross over Egypt before the canal starts or terminate in Suez: https://ibb.co/NyVXtST https://ibb.co/NyVXtST

by msmith 5y ago

It's interesting that there are so many cables running through the Suez Canal. I wonder if it's because of geopolitical reasons for avoiding going over land through the Middle East.

globular-toast 5y ago

Well, it's also easier to run a cable underwater. As far as I know, the cables are literally just laid down there. You can't just lay a cable on land. You've got to bury it or elevate it on poles. I wonder how they deal with dredging the canal, though.

degenerate 5y ago

Likewise, what's the "benefit" of spreading the cables out by a few kilometers when space allows? If you zoom in you can see all the cables scrunched through the canal, but on more than one occasion they are fanned out to spread evenly across the given space. Likely it is only a visual eyecandy in the way this map was created, and not a true indication of the cable formations... but I tried looking for some answers on https://www.iscpc.org https://www.iscpc.org and gave up. I would assume once a suitable cable path is found, most subsequent cables would be laid right alongside for higher chance of success avoiding coral/trenches/etc. edit: The more I look at the map, the more it becomes clear these lines do not indicate true cable locations. The lines are too perfect... even for fiber optics. The ocean floor is a treacherous beast!

detaro 5y ago
that also increases the chance of something hitting a cable taking out multiple cables at the same time.
finnh 5y ago
Just guessing, but the benefit could be not cutting a cable by accident as you lay yours?

finnh 5y ago

per another comment[0], it's cheaper to just stay in the water unless you specifically want to attach to a land network. I don't have the knowledge the other commenter seems to have, but that certainly seems believable to me. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28642764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28642764

up6w6 5y ago

Is there any map of land cables ? I know more about the few submarine cables between south and north america than how the internet actually arrives to inland cities of my state.

eskathos 5y ago
working at a tier one telco. we have very precise maps of our ground fibers. physical location is usually down to +-10cm. length of fiber even takes into account any coiled up parts. if a contractor wants to dig anywhere, then they have the responsibility to query a national database before digging. if they break our cable, then we have active monitoring (reflecting a laser in a spare fiber, off the break, calculating length to break) this interfaces with our map software, so we can tell within half a meter where the cable is broken. in most cases we end up suing the contractor for the cost of repair and any SLA payments. to my knowledge no public maps exist, that will give you a full picture.

Frost1x 5y ago

There's another one that appears to run through the Gulf of Mexico to the US as well (looks like AL or LA to TX), so I suspect it's surprisingly cheaper and/or easier to get policy approval. It's not entirely uncommon to route cables from and to your own country through the water, apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domestic_submarine_communications_cables https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domestic_submarine_c...

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

Land almost everywhere comes with ownership issues which can be problematic for installing cables. The ocean is generally unambiguously nationally owned, and so it's much simpler to seek permission from a single source (government) than many sources (owners).

walrus01 5y ago

they don't go through the suez canal, they go across egypt by land.

cycomanic 5y ago

I'm not sure about the Suez, but is the reason why there are almost 0 cables running on the African continent and instead there being several cables laid around the coast.

zokier 5y ago

As far as I can tell, there aren't that many cable running through the actual canal, instead they cross over Egypt before the canal starts or terminate in Suez: https://ibb.co/NyVXtST https://ibb.co/NyVXtST