FEATURE SUBMARINE CABLE DIVERSITY, RESILIENCE AND CONNECTIVITY: WHERE IS IT NOW? BY DEREK CASSIDY
O
ver the last few days, the internet has exploded with people downloading the certain scenes that were originally streamed live across national and international news channels and then downloaded or streamed through ISP connections. People across the globe and even national neighbours are worried about what is next as the world seems to have been turned on its head. Old world allies and enemies seem to have revered positions and original alliances now seem to be falling apart. The internet alive with constant updates on what has changed, who said what and how does it affect the different societies, economies and nations across the globe. One man’s desire to change the running order and worry friendships has caused an increased demand in internet usage. The world is looking and listening to everything that
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is happening, and this could only be possible due to submarine cable connectivity delivering national news across the globe, these last few weeks have never seen so much news consumption and with the aid of the subsea cable system this has been made possible. However, the networks that are all common across the globe need communication connectivity to keep societies connected, see figure 1 below. These new digital enhanced networks are either upgraded to 100Gb+ backbone connectivity or in the process of being upgraded. Broadband connections across society are seen as a basic human right and many countries have either rolled out a broadband for all policy or are actively doing so, like Ireland, which the national government have given this task to a communications setup called National Broadband Ireland [NBI]