Nokia recently won a 5G contract with U.S. Cellular, the fourth-largest wireless provider in the United States, another step in building out American 5G without Chinese telecom Huawei. Yet, for all the noise about 5G, cloud, and other “emerging” technologies, the internet still vitally depends on a far-less-flashy infrastructure — submarine cables that haul internet traffic along the ocean floor.
For centuries, submarine cables have carried information between continents, from electric telegraphs to voice calls to now, internet data. Today’s internet would quite literally not function without them: it is estimated that over 95 percent of intercontinental internet data flows over these cables. Even if these metal tubes do not receive much press coverage or policy attention, they underpin everything from civilian communications and business transactions to scientific research and government document-sharing on the global internet.
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