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New Internet cable between U.S. and Asia to be disaster-proof

The advent of the Internet has brought a completely new dimension to globalization, but the system isn’t perfect. Last December, an undersea earthquake off the coast of Taiwan disrupted Internet cables, causing communications to be down for several days. A new pact formed last week between 17 major telecommunications companies hopes to avoid a repeat of that situation with plans to complete a $500 million undersea fiber optic cable between Southeast Asia and the U.S., which they claim will be relatively safe from natural disasters.

The project is called the Asia-America Gateway and will span 12,428-miles, connecting the western U.S. with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. Telekom Malaysia is leading the band of 16 other companies and says the connection will “provide an alternative and a more secure link for traffic from the region to the U.S.A. ... This low-risk route was designed to avoid the volatile and hazardous Pacific Ring, thus mitigating the effects from natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.”

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC have been awarded the contract for the development of the link. The fiber optic cable is already under construction and is projected to begin operating in December 2008.

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Sweet
By Fubar0606 on 4/30/2007 7:53:21 PM , Rating: 2
Sounds awesome, cant wait till all the US is wired through Fiber optics, just think u could download stuff a gig or larger in seconds...




RE: Sweet
By dcalfine on 4/30/07, Rating: -1
RE: Sweet
By stromgald on 4/30/2007 7:59:48 PM , Rating: 5
Um . . . fiber optics carry light, not electricity. It might blind a few fish down there though if it snapped somehow.


RE: Sweet
By DragonMaster0 on 4/30/2007 9:29:56 PM , Rating: 2
The fibers traveling in the ocean have repeaters which run off electricity IIRC.


RE: Sweet
By Samus on 5/1/2007 1:56:03 AM , Rating: 3
the repeaters run off of solar power. the fiber light is uv and multispectrum. i heard the repeaters are pretty efficient: light is extremely amplified at both ends, so by the time it reaches the other end (and being sucked of lumens by the repeaters) it is still strong enough to decode. no electricity actually travels in the cable. it is, however, stored in capacitance at the repeaters, which there are sure to be a dozens of.

for all we know, this cable might be crazy thick and have enough fibers in it to hold light across previously-unheard of distances.


RE: Sweet
By AaronAxvig on 5/1/2007 2:34:34 PM , Rating: 2
RE: Sweet
By borowki on 5/1/2007 8:00:50 AM , Rating: 2
Yes. One of the problems that AT&T ran into while building the first transaltantic optic cable was that the electricity would generate a magnetic field that attracts sharks. They would chew up the cable, getting themselves electricuted in the process.


RE: Sweet
By jay401 on 5/1/2007 8:30:48 AM , Rating: 2
whoah totally not jawesome, dudes :(


RE: Sweet
By kmiller1700 on 5/1/2007 4:28:43 PM , Rating: 2
haha
jawesome


RE: Sweet
By dice1111 on 4/30/2007 8:02:54 PM , Rating: 2
You need to do some homework...

Then go research about fiber optics. *sigh* kids...


RE: Sweet
By DragonMaster0 on 4/30/2007 9:34:12 PM , Rating: 1
There are already about seven of these fiber cables running between US and other continents, and there were no problems.

Electricity in water just separates the H20 into H2 and O2. Nothing can really happen in the water, there's no fire to get the H2 to explode. Maybe some fishes could be affected, but that's it.


RE: Sweet
By Brainonska511 on 4/30/2007 10:28:06 PM , Rating: 1
No, electricity ionizes the water. H2 and O2 are gases and would not be what water separates when ionized. It would separate into H+ and OH-, which it already does on its own, just more so with electricity running through so that there could be more electron transference.


RE: Sweet
By Comdrpopnfresh on 5/1/2007 12:20:45 AM , Rating: 5
someone failed chemistry- its called electrolysis- when running electricity through H2O you get h2 and o2- try it with a nine-volt and some wires


RE: Sweet
By fishmonger12 on 4/30/2007 8:23:36 PM , Rating: 2
Say an electrical line did snap underwater. Would it electrocute all the fish in the pacific!!!?

Physics major please come in and explain I just got done with exams.


RE: Sweet
By Macungah on 4/30/2007 8:48:49 PM , Rating: 2
If a supposed electrical line does snap, it would electrocute around the vicinity, until the energy is "diluted" for lack of a better word. It's why people don't die all of a sudden from electric eels, etc.


RE: Sweet
By therealnickdanger on 5/1/2007 8:23:59 AM , Rating: 1
I think that the energy output by the broken line would have to exceed the conductive potential of the surrounding molecules in order to travel that far... or something to that effect. Does salt water even conduct as well as fresh water? So many water and mineral molecules make up the ocean that I don't think we could generate the needed power to "electrocute" the ocean. For some reason I'm thinking you wouldn't even get shocked if you were within a couple feet... I've never thought about it before. :P

I'm sure if we could, we would have made a weapon out of it by now.


RE: Sweet
By Seer on 5/1/2007 11:28:56 PM , Rating: 2
Pure water (deionized/distilled) is not a conductor. You need salts (such as table salt, NaCl) that break up into ions in order to conduct electricity.


RE: Sweet
By Rugar on 5/1/2007 9:55:40 AM , Rating: 3
Not a physics major, but I am a fisheries person who regularly uses an elctro-fisher in my research. It would not be possible to "electrocute" fish in a marine system unless you were talking about a *HUGE* current in the cable. This is because salt water is far, far more conductive than fresh water. In fresh water, you can use a relatively low current to stun fish because the water has a high resistance in comparison to the fish. (Fish have more salts inside than the water outside does) Because of this, applied current "seeks" the fish instead of passing harmlessly through the water. In salt water, the fish have a higher resistance than the surrounding water and the current "passes" them by...

That's extremely simplified but hopefully understandable.


Sheesh
By ebakke on 5/1/2007 5:35:35 AM , Rating: 5
With the exception of a few intelligent posters, this page is filled with absolute idiots who only wish they had something worthwhile to say.

Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.




RE: Sheesh
By TomZ on 5/1/07, Rating: -1
RE: Sheesh
By Homerboy on 5/1/2007 9:08:48 AM , Rating: 1
actually no. He's entirely right. The ignorance and general stupidity in these posts is simply amazing. I thought school was back in session from spring break...


RE: Sheesh
By lukasbradley on 5/1/2007 10:24:22 AM , Rating: 2
The quality of posts has degraded over the past few months on all topics.