RECAP 2025 – ULTIMO GIRO DI VALZER
In the abyssal depths of the ocean, a data cable is a scrawny, unprotected thing, like a snail divested of its shell. Its core consists of fibres of glass, each roughly as thick as a human hair, through which light transmits information at roughly 125,000 miles per second. Around the fibres, there is first a casing of steel for protection, then another of copper to carry electricity to keep the light moving, and then a final sheath of nylon soaked in tar. All this swaddling may sound like plenty of protection, but the layers are all thin, and the final product is – to use the image I heard most often from people in the subsea cable industry – no fatter than a garden hose.
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There are roughly 550 such submarine cables around the planet, and more are being built every day. A Finnish company once planned to spend a billion or so dollars to lay cable under the Arctic Ocean – a task made easier by how rapidly its ice cover is melting. Upon completion, the cable was designed to shave 20-60 milliseconds off the speed of trades made by banks in Tokyo and London. For now, Antarctica is the only major uncabled landmass on Earth, but it won’t be for long. The US has plans.”
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