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How the Internet Spans the Globe

By Logan Kugler
Communications of the ACM, January 2020, Vol. 63 No. 1, Pages 14-16
10.1145/3371411
Comments (2)

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Undersea cables are responsible for moving data between countries and continents at high speeds, making everything from photo sharing to financial transactions possible. These cables use fiber optics to move data at high speeds to land, where the data is then conveyed via fiber optics to homes and businesses.

Yet, despite the billions of people relying on the data moved by undersea cables, there are only about 380 of them worldwide as of 2019, according to CNN estimates, though they span more than 745,000 miles—or more than three times the distance to the moon.

Comments

K.R. Chowdhary

January 03, 2020 04:24

A highly informative news. It is necessary that this resource be protected from any kind of threats.

Logan Kugler

January 05, 2020 04:12

Thanks, K.R. I agree.

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