How $1+ Million Cables Carry The Internet Across Oceans

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Why it worked

The video succeeds by combining high-quality, rare behind-the-scenes footage of a complex industrial process with a clear, educational narrative that explains a fundamental part of modern infrastructure, satisfying viewer curiosity about how the internet actually works.

Summary

This video provides a documentary-style overview of how subsea internet cables are manufactured and installed by the company SubCom. It details the engineering process, the materials used for protection, and the historical evolution of transatlantic communication cables.

Structure

1Introduction to subsea internet cables
2Inside the SubCom manufacturing factory
3Technical explanation of data transmission via fiber optics
4Manufacturing process and quality control measures
5Historical context of transatlantic cable development
6The evolution from copper to fiber optic technology

Product placement

SubCom: (a) ACTS — it is the company that makes and installs the subsea cables shown, and its factory and employees are featured throughout the video. Removing it would change the video as it is the subject of the documentary. Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft: (a) ACTS — they are identified as the primary customers who pay to connect their data centers using these cables. AT&T, France Telecom, British Telecom: (a) ACTS — they are identified as historical customers who shared the cost of early cable systems. Simplex Wire and Cable Company: (a) ACTS — it is identified as the original owner of the factory in 1953.

Original caption

How $1+ Million Cables Carry The Internet Across Oceans#internetcable #cablelaying #engineering #millionviews #viral

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On-screen text

How $1+ Million Cables Carry The Internet Across Oceans NEARLY EVERY PHOTO, TEXT OR VIDEO CALL SENT BETWEEN CONTINENTS TRAVELS THROUGH CABLES STRETCHED ACROSS THE OCEAN FLOOR AND ONLY ONE COMPANY IN THE U.S. CAN BOTH MAKE AND INSTALL THEM. WE DO THINGS THAT NOT MANY PEOPLE EVEN KNOW EXIST WE GOT RARE ACCESS TO ITS FACTORY AND BOARDED ONE OF ITS SHIPS LOADED WITH ENOUGH CABLE TO STRETCH ACROSS THE ATLANTIC THEY HELP CONNECT GOOGLE, META, AMAZON AND MICROSOFT WHICH TOGETHER ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 75% OF THE WORLD'S DATA. AND THOSE COMPANIES ARE NOW RACING TO BUILD MORE TO CONNECT THEIR DATA CENTRES AROUND THE WORLD. BUT JUST ONE CABLE CAN COST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO MAKE. INSIDE EACH ONE ARE TINY GLASS FIBRES AS THIN AS A HUMAN HAIR. IF IT WAS TO BE TWISTED IT BREAKS VERY EASY. SO WHY DOES OUR DATA STILL NEED TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN? AND WHAT HAPPENS IF A CABLE BREAKS? AT SUBCOM'S NEW HAMPSHIRE FACTORY MACHINES RUN AROUND THE CLOCK UNWINDING THOUSANDS OF MILES OF GLASS. THESE FIBRES ARE THE CORE OF EVERY SUBSEA CABLE. EACH ONE IS ITS OWN DATA SUPER HIGHWAY CAPABLE OF CARRYING HUNDREDS OF TERABYTES OF INFORMATION EVERY SECOND ACROSS THE OCEAN. WHEN YOU SEND A VIDEO TO A FRIEND IT TRAVELS IN RADIO WAVES FROM YOUR PHONE TO A NEARBY CELL TOWER. THE WAVES WILL EVENTUALLY BE CONVERTED INTO PULSES OF LIGHT AND SENT THROUGH GLASS FIBRES UNDERGROUND AND SEA TRAVELING AT NEARLY THE SPEED OF LIGHT A MESSAGE OR A VIDEO FILE CAN REACH YOUR FRIEND'S PHONE THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY IN JUST A FRACTION OF A SECOND. A SINGLE PAIR OF THESE FIBRES CAN CARRY ENOUGH DATA TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR HALF OF THE HUMANS ON EARTH TO BE TALKING TO THE OTHER HALF SIMULTANEOUSLY BUT THEY'RE EXTREMELY FRAGILE. IF THEY BEND TOO MUCH, THEY CAN SNAP AND THE SLIGHTEST SCRATCH CAN MASSIVELY REDUCE THE ABILITY FOR LIGHT PULSES TO TRAVEL DOWN IT. QUALITY IS REALLY IMPORTANT IN THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS CAUSE ONCE THIS IS INSTALLED IN THE OCEAN, THE EXPECTATION IS THIS IS GONNA RUN FOR YEARS AND WE DON'T WANNA HAVE TO GO OUT THERE AND DO ANY KIND OF REPAIRS ON IT. SO WORKERS WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR TO KEEP HAIR OR DIRT FROM TOUCHING THE FIBRES. THIS MACHINE WRAPS HIGH TENSILE STEEL WIRE AROUND THE CABLE TO HELP PROTECT IT FROM DAMAGE. IT'S THE SAME TYPE OF MATERIAL USED TO SUSPEND STRUCTURES LIKE THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. AFTER THE STEEL, ANOTHER LAYER, COPPER. IT HAS TO BE PERFECTLY SEAM WELDED FOR THE ENTIRE LENGTH. THE CEILING KEEPS WATER OUT. IF THERE'S EVER A FLAW, EVEN A PINHOLE IN THE COPPER, WE HAVE TO DO A REPAIR ON THAT IMMEDIATELY THIS COPPER CASING WILL MOVE ELECTRICITY DOWN THE CABLE TO A DEVICE CALLED A REPEATER. SPACED ABOUT EVERY 55 MILES OF CABLE, THE DEVICE AMPLIFIES LIGHT PULSES AS THEY TRAVEL THOUSANDS OF MILES ACROSS THE SEA FLOOR ONCE THEY FINISH A CABLE, THEY TEST EVERY INCH OF IT INSIDE THIS ROOM WHERE THERE ARE OVER 100 PANS FULL OF FINISHED CABLE WEIGHING ABOUT 70 TONS EACH. TO MOVE EACH TANK, WORKERS HAVE TO CLIMB UP AND ATTACH IT TO A CRANE. THEY SUBMERGED THE CABLE IN WATER AND PASS ELECTRICITY THROUGH IT TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO FAULTS. THE CABLE IS DESIGNED TO LAST AT LEAST 25 YEARS. WE GOTTA MAKE SURE THAT ONCE WE INSTALL THIS, THAT IT'S GOING TO OPERATE FOR THE LIFETIME OF THE NETWORK. BECAUSE THE REALITY IS TO DO A REPAIR IN THE OCEAN, ALTHOUGH IT CAN BE DONE, IT'S VERY COMPLEX, IT'S VERY COSTLY AND IT CAUSES DOWNTIME FOR THE CUSTOMER. IN SHALLOW WATER, CABLES FACE THE BIGGEST RISKS, SHIP ANCHORS, BOTTOM TRAWLERS, ROCKS AND WAVES. SO SUBCOM ADDS ANOTHER LAYER OF STEEL AND A COATING OF NYLON THREAD AND TAR FOR EXTRA PROTECTION. THEN POLICE FEED THE COMPLETED CABLES THROUGH THE CEILING INTO THE STORAGE ROOM. THEY MAKE OVER 40,000 MILES OF CABLE A YEAR. THAT'S NEARLY ENOUGH TO WRAP TWICE AROUND THE WORLD. THIS IS WHAT THE INSIDE OF A FINISHED CABLE LOOKS LIKE. SUBCOM CUSTOM BUILDS EACH CABLE FOR THE ROUTE IT WILL TAKE. CABLES THAT RUN THROUGH ROCKY AREAS OR NEAR SHORE GET EXTRA ARMOUR. TODAY, THE INDUSTRY'S BIGGEST CUSTOMERS ARE TECH GIANTS, GOOGLE, META, AMAZON AND MICROSOFT, WHICH ARE PAYING TO CONNECT THEIR DATA CENTRES AROUND THE WORLD. BUT THIS FACTORY LINKED CONTINENTS LONG BEFORE THE INTERNET EXISTED. WHEN IT OPENED IN 1953, IT WAS OWNED BY SIMPLEX WIRE AND CABLE COMPANY, THEY HELPED BUILD THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC TELEPHONE CABLE, WHICH ENTERED SERVICE IN 1956. ENGINEERS MADE IT OUT OF COPPER WIRE, WHICH COULD TRANSFER PHONE CALLS USING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS. IT WAS REVOLUTIONARY BECAUSE BEFORE TAT 1, MOST INTERNATIONAL CALLS WERE LIGHT ON RADIO WAVES, WHICH WERE A LOT SLOWER AND SPOTIER. OVER THE NEXT THREE DECADES, DEMAND FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION SKYROCKETED. THE FACTORY STARTED MANUFACTURING NEW CABLE SYSTEMS EVERY FEW YEARS FOR COMPANIES LIKE AT&T, FRANCE TELECOM AND BRITISH TELECOM. PHONE COMPANIES OFTEN SHARE THE COST OF A CABLE AND DIVIDED ITS CAPACITY AMONG THEMSELVES. BUT BY THE 1980S, THE GROWING USE OF FAX MACHINES AND COMPUTERS PUSHED COPPER TO ITS LIMITS. SO THIS FACTORY HELPED BUILD TAT 8, THE WORLD'S FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FIBER OPTIC CABLE. INSTEAD OF SENDING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS THROUGH COPPER, IT SENDS PULSES OF LIGHT THROUGH HAIR THIN GLASS FIBRES CARRYING FAR MORE INFORMATION. ENGINEERS THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THE LAST TRANSATLANTIC CABLE THE WORLD WOULD EVER NEED. THEN IN 1989, THE WORLDWIDE WEB WAS INVENTED. TAT8 FILLED CAPACITY WITHIN 18 MONTHS. AS MORE PEOPLE GOT ONLINE, PHONE AND INTERNET COMPANIES RUSHED TO BUILD MORE FIBER OPTIC CABLES. BY 2001, THEY LAID ROUGHLY 100 MILLION MILES OF FIBRE AROUND THE WORLD WITHIN TWO YEARS BUT THAT WAS FAR MORE THAN PEOPLE WERE READY TO USE. EVERYBODY WAS RUNNING AROUND SAYING BUILD IT WILL COME. WELL, WE BUILT TOO MUCH FOR EVERYBODY TO BE ABLE TO COME.

Transcript

How $1+ Million Cables Carry The Internet Across Oceans. Nearly every photo, text or video call sent between continents travels through cables stretched across the ocean floor. And only one company in the U.S. can both make and install them. We do things that not many people even know exist. We got rare access to its factory and boarded one of its ships, loaded with enough cable to stretch across the Atlantic. They help connect Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft which together account for about 75% of the world's data. And those companies are now racing to build more to connect their data centres around the world. But just one cable can cost millions of dollars to make. Inside each one are tiny glass fibres as thin as a human hair. If it was to be twisted it breaks very easy. So why does our data still need to travel across the bottom of the ocean? And what happens if a cable breaks? At SubCom's New Hampshire factory machines run around the clock unwinding thousands of miles of glass. These fibres are the core of every subsea cable. Each one is its own data super highway capable of carrying hundreds of terabytes of information every second across the ocean. When you send a video to a friend it travels in radio waves from your phone to a nearby cell tower. The waves will eventually be converted into pulses of light and sent through glass fibres underground and sea. Traveling at nearly the speed of light a message or a video file can reach your friend's phone thousands of miles away in just a fraction of a second. A single pair of these fibres can carry enough data to make it possible for half of the humans on earth to be talking to the other half simultaneously. But they're extremely fragile. If they bend too much, they can snap. And the slightest scratch can massively reduce the ability for light pulses to travel down it. Quality is really important in the manufacturing process cause once this is installed in the ocean, the expectation is this is gonna run for years and we don't wanna have to go out there and do any kind of repairs on it. So workers wear protective gear to keep hair or dirt from touching the fibres. This machine wraps high tensile steel wire around the cable to help protect it from damage. It's the same type of material used to suspend structures like the Golden Gate Bridge. After the steel, another layer, copper. It has to be perfectly seam welded for the entire length. The ceiling keeps water out. If there's ever a flaw, even a pinhole in the copper, we have to do a repair on that immediately. This copper casing will move electricity down the cable to a device called a repeater. Spaced about every 55 miles of cable, the device amplifies light pulses as they travel thousands of miles across the sea floor. Once they finish a cable, they test every inch of it inside this room where there are over 100 pans full of finished cable weighing about 70 tons each. To move each tank, workers have to climb up and attach it to a crane. They submerged the cable in water and pass electricity through it to make sure there are no faults. The cable is designed to last at least 25 years. We gotta make sure that once we install this, that it's going to operate for the lifetime of the network. Because the reality is to do a repair in the ocean, although it can be done, it's very complex, it's very costly and it causes downtime for the customer. In shallow water, cables face the biggest risks, ship anchors, bottom trawlers, rocks and waves. So SubCom adds another layer of steel and a coating of nylon thread and tar for extra protection. Then police feed the completed cables through the ceiling into the storage room. They make over 40,000 miles of cable a year. That's nearly enough to wrap twice around the world. This is what the inside of a finished cable looks like. SubCom custom builds each cable for the route it will take. Cables that run through rocky areas or near shore get extra armour. Today, the industry's biggest customers are tech giants, Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, which are paying to connect their data centres around the world. But this factory linked continents long before the internet existed. When it opened in 1953, it was owned by Simplex Wire and Cable Company, they helped build the first transatlantic telephone cable, which entered service in 1956. Engineers made it out of copper wire, which could transfer phone calls using electrical signals. It was revolutionary because before TAT 1, most international calls were light on radio waves, which were a lot slower and spotier. Over the next three decades, demand for international communication skyrocketed. The factory started manufacturing new cable systems every few years for companies like AT&T, France Telecom and British Telecom. Phone companies often share the cost of a cable and divided its capacity among themselves. But by the 1980s, the growing use of fax machines and computers pushed copper to its limits. So this factory helped build TAT 8, the world's first transatlantic fiber optic cable. Instead of sending electrical signals through copper, it sends pulses of light through hair thin glass fibres carrying far more information. Engineers thought it would be the last transatlantic cable the world would ever need. Then in 1989, the worldwide web was invented. TAT8 filled capacity within 18 months. As more people got online, phone and internet companies rushed to build more fiber optic cables. By 2001, they laid roughly 100 million miles of fibre around the world within two years but that was far more than people were ready to use. Everybody was running around saying build it will come. Well, we built too much for everybody to be able to come.