[HN Gopher] Interactive Submarine Cable Map
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Interactive Submarine Cable Map
        
       Author : gnososphere
       Score  : 126 points
       Date   : 2022-10-06 16:35 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.submarinecablemap.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.submarinecablemap.com)
        
       | RyanShook wrote:
       | If you want to learn more about the first transatlantic cable
       | check out How the World Was One by Arthur C. Clarke. Reading it
       | now and really enjoying it: https://amzn.to/3EiACjU
        
         | jaffee wrote:
         | That's _Sir_ Arthur C. Clarke to you!
        
       | bombcar wrote:
       | I like that if you zoom in on the US, you don't see states but
       | you do see Indian Nations.
       | 
       | Also, this cable is neat:
       | https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/gulf-of-me...
        
       | dtgriscom wrote:
       | Are the North Pacific cables from the US to Japan really that
       | evenly spaced, or is it "chust for pretty"?
        
       | alhirzel wrote:
       | I wonder if there is a version of this that includes domestic
       | cables? Navigational charts generally show them (as well as
       | various "DO NOT ANCHOR" signage denoting them). It would be cool
       | to see what the more "minor" or "non-international" underwater
       | infrastructure looks like.
        
       | krastanov wrote:
       | Is there a version of this that includes the bandwidth provided
       | by each cable? What is the total cable bandwidth between the East
       | Coast North America and Europe?
        
         | topspin wrote:
         | First thing I looked for as well.
        
       | renewiltord wrote:
       | Actually really cool. I wish it had a quick X to Y search. Japan
       | to Hong Kong, for instance.
        
       | AdamH12113 wrote:
       | Interesting that there are a couple cables directly connecting
       | China and Taiwan. I wonder how those agreements were worked out?
        
       | tastyfreeze wrote:
       | Every time this pops up I wish that it was merged with the
       | overland cable maps for a global network view. Turns out
       | something like that exists.
       | 
       | https://www.infrapedia.com/
        
         | divbzero wrote:
         | Infrapedia looks incredible and far more detailed. When zoomed
         | in, Infrapedia accurately displays the ends of cables down to
         | the street and building.
        
       | Havoc wrote:
       | Anybody know why they don't terminate in big population centers
       | even if they're near a river, but rather some random place
       | outside of it?
       | 
       | e.g. London...zero direct landings.
        
         | advisedwang wrote:
         | * Cheaper to put telecoms&DC facilities out of expensive areas
         | 
         | * Little benefit from landing in the urban area
         | 
         | * Cities often have extra regulatory requirements
         | 
         | * Higher risk of cable breaks if you are in an area with lots
         | of development or in a river with dredging
        
         | zahrc wrote:
         | The CLION terminates in Rostock which is quite hit and near a
         | river, called Warnow.
         | 
         | https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/c-lion1
        
         | supergeek wrote:
         | In the US there are quite a few landings just outside of NYC
         | and LA. I'd guess London is too far inland, and it's cheaper to
         | run fiber over land.
         | 
         | There is probably also an incentive to keep the cables away
         | from major shipping lanes where they'd disrupt the ability for
         | ships dropping anchor. Notice around Seattle some cables snake
         | up and through the sound, but it's also extremely deep water.
         | That landing is also far north of the city proper, so any ships
         | waiting near port are a ways from the landing site.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | As others have mentioned, the more you get close to a
         | population center the more activity is happening, even
         | underwater in rivers.
         | 
         | Anchors are being drug, there are other already existing lines,
         | it's all quite complicated.
         | 
         | If you have a fatpipe already running OUT of the city center,
         | it can be much easier to join up to that elsewhere, and then
         | dip into the drink.
        
       | booboofixer wrote:
       | I imagine a map of some major long haul cables on land would be
       | interesting too.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan-China_Fiber_Optic_Pro...
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Somewhat related is the Starlink live coverage map.
       | 
       | https://starlink.sx/
        
       | loufe wrote:
       | I work up at the north of Hudson's Bay in Quebec, where we're all
       | eagerly awaiting the arrival of the fibre connection. For those
       | curious, all cables in grey seem to incomplete projects. For
       | instance, the Kattittuq Nunavut cable only just got funding.
        
       | statusfailed wrote:
       | If this interests you, you will probably enjoy my favourite Wired
       | article of all time: "Mother Earth Mother Board"[0] (By Neal
       | Stephenson! in 1996!)
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
        
         | aesch wrote:
         | It's cool seeing the map of the cable he writes about, FLAG:
         | https://www.submarinecablemap.com/submarine-cable/flag-europ...
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | This is literally the article that resulted in my mid-1990s
         | teenage self being motivated to work in ISP core network
         | engineering, which is what I've been doing now for twenty
         | years...
         | 
         | I wish Stephenson would write more things like this in addition
         | to his novels.
        
       | gnososphere wrote:
       | https://github.com/telegeography/www.submarinecablemap.com
       | 
       | Built with data from TeleGeography:
       | https://www2.telegeography.com/
        
       | nathas wrote:
       | Is there a large format print version of this available? I'd love
       | this as a big poster.
        
       | ocius wrote:
       | Really impressive! World-spanning infrastructure. Beautiful map,
       | also.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | I love how the cable-layers carefully made all those US-EU
         | cables perfectly parallel.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | The effort that it must have taken to lay the "Polar Express"
       | cable for such a thin population -- you think they'd just use
       | satellite access.
        
         | standardUser wrote:
         | That made me think that laying underwater cable must be very
         | economical. There's lots of loops that look completely
         | unnecessary, like the Gulf of Mexico. But maybe it was cheaper
         | than installing cables on land? And the terrain of Northern
         | Russia is probably a lot harder to deal with than Texas.
        
         | kzrdude wrote:
         | The length of it is exaggerated on the map due to map
         | projection (obligatory comment). In reality it's about as long
         | as the one connecting Oregon to Taiwan (which is long, but not
         | record-setting.)
         | 
         | Probably a pretty important project to do that one for Russia
         | anyway, it connects all parts of the country.
        
       | briffle wrote:
       | Sure does explain why the first Datacenter for Google and
       | Facebook were both in Oregon. that is a ton of pipes to Asia.
        
         | kijiki wrote:
         | Also tons of cheap hydro-power. There used to be lots of
         | Aluminum smelting up there, but that mostly moved out of
         | country in the late 70's/early 80's.
        
       | reaperducer wrote:
       | Submitted to HN 30 times since 2011. I wonder if that's a record.
        
         | axelav wrote:
         | It's a classic but I do enjoy having a look at it every few
         | years.
        
           | kozziollek wrote:
           | Especially when somebody launches new cable (Google,
           | Equiano).
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-10-06 23:00 UTC)